I’m Clean!

…AND I’m writing a post that has nothing to do with dragons!  Aren’t you proud of me?  *grin*

 

Husband and I decided to learn how to make our own soap.  It seemed like an integral part of our Zombiepocalypse plan, plus Husband got a really cool how-to book for Christmas we were just itching to try out.

Step One: Put on the apron, pour a scotch, and read the instructions.

 

We’re not talking about craft-store soap-making, either (ie: it was a bit more complicated than buying a brick of soap, melting it in the microwave, and then pouring it into tiny molds).  We made what’s called Cold Process Soap, which you too can make with a few simple household ingredients!

Coconut Oil, Safflower Oil, Canola Oil, & Olive Oil

We also needed some Lye (which we found quite easily in the plumbing section of our local hardware store), some turmeric, these little guys:

and some basic kitchen & safety gear.

glass containers, a kitchen scale, immersion blender, measuring cups & spatulas, OH MY!

 

Basic Safety Gear: goggles, face mask, gloves, long sleeves, &, of course, scotch.

 

Because there’s a tiny person in my belly I got to do all of the not-fun stuff and none of the fun stuff (ie: I had to wear all my safety gear, but wasn’t allowed near the lye during the chemical reactions.  Boo).  I actually got relegated to the kitchen & had to utilize the zoom feature on my camera to its fullest extent.

Measure ALL THE THINGS!

Essentially, Husband got to measure & mix the different oils & lye while I stood in the kitchen looking up possibly lethal chemical reactions on my iPad (Husband even made us open every window in the house just to be sure I wouldn’t actually inhale anything noxious… isn’t he sweet?).

A slight panic ensued when we forgot to check that the immersion blender was made of stainless steel instead of aluminum. Thankfully, the blender was steel & we didn't accidentally release any toxic chemicals.

 

The lye-and-oil reaction takes a full 24 hours to complete, so the most annoying part of the process was that I couldn’t touch any of the tools we used (or clean anything up, eesh!) until the next day.

Almost ready for the molds!

 

In the mold! (We added some turmeric to give the soap a more yellow color).

 

The next step involved letting the soap cure for a few days, then popping it out of the mold & stacking it to “age” for about a month.  When you’re waiting for your first ever batch of handmade, homemade, zombie-friendly Lemongrass & Turmeric soap, a month feels like FOREVER.

The good news: We put these bad boys on top of a bookshelf right by the front door, so we were greeted with the delicious scent of Lemongrass every time we came home!

 

After the eternal month of waitingness ended, I took out my trusty vegetable peeler & prettified these little bars of soap.  I had a cup of shavings left over that I was *supposed* to put in a crock pot, melt down, and remold.  I instead tried to microwave them a-la the easy craft store soap-making technique.  I ended up with a cup full of fail.  Lesson learned!  If it was okay to microwave, the instructions would have told me to microwave!

Oops.

 

The end result:  A pretty little batch of these guys, which we shared with family and friends:

Perfect!

 

(We saved 3 bars for ourselves, and MAN are they awesome – lovely lather, deliciously hydrating, and they smell AH-MAZING!  I can’t wait to make the next batch!)

 

Here’s the book we used:

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=opi5rx2XRc0C

And here’s some cool info about Cold Process Soap:

http://www.soap-making-resource.com/cold-process-soap-making.html

 

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