Making Soap part 5

The soap once it's hard can be removed from the original mold and will now need to cure for a day or so before it can be rebatched.




Making Soap part 1
Making Soap part 2
Making Soap part 3
Making Soap part 4
Making Soap part 5
Making Soap part 6
Making Soap part 7
Making Soap part 8
Making Soap part 9
Making Soap part 10
Making Soap part 11

Making Soap part 4

The soap, once it reaches the consistency of pudding, can then be poured into the molds. It doesn't matter at this point what molds are used because this soap is not the final product. This soap, once it's hard, can then be rebatched (grated, melted, and molded again).


Making Soap part 1
Making Soap part 2
Making Soap part 3
Making Soap part 4
Making Soap part 5
Making Soap part 6
Making Soap part 7
Making Soap part 8
Making Soap part 9
Making Soap part 10
Making Soap part 11

Making Soap part 3

Once the oils and lye mixture are at the right temperature, pour the lye mixture into the oils and stir until there are trailings. Basically, the soap takes on the consistency of pudding.



Making Soap part 1
Making Soap part 2
Making Soap part 3
Making Soap part 4
Making Soap part 5
Making Soap part 6
Making Soap part 7
Making Soap part 8
Making Soap part 9
Making Soap part 10
Making Soap part 11

Making Soap part 2

The lye and water mixture needs to cool to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. While this is happening, I melt the oils. The oils, once melted, will also need to cool to 100 degrees. It's important that both the oil and lye mixture reach the 100 degrees mark at the same time. It may be necessary to use a cool water bath for one or the other to attain the desired temperature at the desired time.
Making Soap part 1
Making Soap part 2
Making Soap part 3
Making Soap part 4
Making Soap part 5
Making Soap part 6
Making Soap part 7
Making Soap part 8
Making Soap part 9
Making Soap part 10
Making Soap part 11

Making Soap part 1

The biggest trick with making soap is handling the lye safely.

I begin by marking a pitcher to ensure it never gets used for anything but lye.

The pitcher contains a lye and water mixture.

Making Soap part 1
Making Soap part 2
Making Soap part 3
Making Soap part 4
Making Soap part 5
Making Soap part 6
Making Soap part 7
Making Soap part 8
Making Soap part 9
Making Soap part 10
Making Soap part 11

Making Lotion

Memorial Day weekend and it's raining here in Portland. I spent most of Saturday making lotion and soap.

To make the Coffee Facial and Body Lotion I start by melting the oils (olive, avocado, castor, and shea butter) and the emulsifying wax. I then heat the coffee/aloe vera gel/glycerine mixture.

Finally they are mixed together using a hand blender until the mixture cools. The germaben and essential oils are added last. It's really pretty simple.

First Online Sale

The first online sale was processed through today without a hitch! So far, so good. It's a little disappointing that I won't have a dollar to frame since it all happened electronically. I guess I could frame the google checkout invoice...probably not as impressive though. Oh well, a good start none the less!

Pictures

I took the day off. It's my son's 16th birthday!!! Hard to believe.

I've been adding pictures to the online store and taking inventory of stock. Need to make some peppermint bath scrub as well.

Happy 16th Alec!

Store Opening

Just finished getting the Lora's Beauty online store up and running at www.lorasbeauty.com. Now I need to get busy making some more, larger bars of soap. I've had difficulty finding the perfect soap molds, however I had a brainstorm the other night. I pulled out my latex bread pans and washed them up really good. I think they will be perfect to make a 'loaf' of soap in. Can't wait to try it!