I have dreamed of getting into cold process soap for a very long time and I just couldn't wait any longer.
For those who aren't soapy-obsessed, cold process is the old-fashioned method of making soap from scratch with oils and lye... and don't worry, the lye is completely neutralized in a chemical reaction with oils and water. All bar soap that you have ever used is made with lye. It's a beautiful transformation!
The lye-water solution. I didn't have a lye volcano :)
Mixing the oils and lye. It's working!!! I used olive, coconut, palm, castor and canola oils for my first batch. The soap batter traced and didn't seize up. I was pretty excited to see this for the first time.
Pouring my first CP soap into the mold! I used Lemongrass essential oil and calendula petals for scent and texture.
Is this the Manhattan Project? No, we're making soap!
I made a second soap batch the same day, Green tea soap with brewed Japanese Sencha tea and powdered green tea.
Two days later, the soaps are ready to unmold and cut. The first two loaves turned out kind of shorty, so I'll increase my batch size next time.
So proud of my CP soaps!!
I immediately wanted to make more soap, of course. For this one I tried blueberry tea, blueberry shea butter and blueberry seeds.
My first attempt at swirling. Many things went wrong with this and it turned out really hideous :(
Pretty blueberry soaps sliced and curing.
