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Jun. 21st, 2005 02:52 pmI need to do some marathon soap making to use up the lye (and oils) around this place. Of course the problem is where to store that much soap....
Anyway, while I was pondering that problem, and soapmaking in general, I recalled an accidental discovery I made with my last batch of soap. I had left the pot over night before filling it with water so I left it to soak... for a couple days... before I got around to cleaning it. While leaving the pot for several hours before filling it with water and washing it is standard for me (it lets the oils and lye finish the reaction in the pot making it a "problem" of washing dried soap out of a pot rather than dealing with oil and lye) I was really lazy with this one. When I went to dump it I had a fairly large amount of soap gel floating on the water. Now gel soap without a lot of hassle and weird additives is somewhat of a home soapmaker's holy grail and I had discovered it on accident, but I didn't pursue it since I'm short on space and was still working on using up my prior two experiments with liquid soap.
But I was thinking about it and decided to do an experiment. I took some of the soap shavings I have lying around from trimming bars and dumped them in a gallon of hot tap water and left them for two weeks. Other than the shavings being a few years old and a different recipe entirely it would approximate the conditions... okay, so it doesn't but it is a logical extension to the idea so I went with it. The result was soap gel... just under the water.
The original batch was an all vegetable oil recipe (colored with oxides and mica, scented with a synthetic fragrance) and fresh. The gel was thick and floating on the water.
The experiment was an all animal fat recipe (uncolored, scented with essential oils) and at least a year old. The gel was also thick*, but sunk to the bottom of the container.
I'm wondering which variables decide if it floats or sinks. I'm suspecting it's vegetable versus animal source.
I have a small amount of Grandma Betty's soap gel to enjoy in my shower either way. And a lot of lye and oils still needing to be used up.
*Sort of slimy actually, firm yet squishy, handling it is a bit like handling poached eggs, or tadpoles. I tried hard not to think of things like cow snot while handling it. It's weird how the texture of something out of context can be totally disgusting, coming out of a bottle in the shower is fine, cupped in your hand in a vat of room temperature water is vaguely revolting.
Anyway, while I was pondering that problem, and soapmaking in general, I recalled an accidental discovery I made with my last batch of soap. I had left the pot over night before filling it with water so I left it to soak... for a couple days... before I got around to cleaning it. While leaving the pot for several hours before filling it with water and washing it is standard for me (it lets the oils and lye finish the reaction in the pot making it a "problem" of washing dried soap out of a pot rather than dealing with oil and lye) I was really lazy with this one. When I went to dump it I had a fairly large amount of soap gel floating on the water. Now gel soap without a lot of hassle and weird additives is somewhat of a home soapmaker's holy grail and I had discovered it on accident, but I didn't pursue it since I'm short on space and was still working on using up my prior two experiments with liquid soap.
But I was thinking about it and decided to do an experiment. I took some of the soap shavings I have lying around from trimming bars and dumped them in a gallon of hot tap water and left them for two weeks. Other than the shavings being a few years old and a different recipe entirely it would approximate the conditions... okay, so it doesn't but it is a logical extension to the idea so I went with it. The result was soap gel... just under the water.
The original batch was an all vegetable oil recipe (colored with oxides and mica, scented with a synthetic fragrance) and fresh. The gel was thick and floating on the water.
The experiment was an all animal fat recipe (uncolored, scented with essential oils) and at least a year old. The gel was also thick*, but sunk to the bottom of the container.
I'm wondering which variables decide if it floats or sinks. I'm suspecting it's vegetable versus animal source.
I have a small amount of Grandma Betty's soap gel to enjoy in my shower either way. And a lot of lye and oils still needing to be used up.
*Sort of slimy actually, firm yet squishy, handling it is a bit like handling poached eggs, or tadpoles. I tried hard not to think of things like cow snot while handling it. It's weird how the texture of something out of context can be totally disgusting, coming out of a bottle in the shower is fine, cupped in your hand in a vat of room temperature water is vaguely revolting.
