Candles and Soap

As you might remember from an earlier post, I decided to tackle the art of soap making. I am very pleased at the way my bar soap is curing, but today I felt the need for instant gratification. So... glycerin soap to the rescue. Glycerin soap is very easy to work with and it requires no curing time. You just cut, melt, scent, color, pour, and wait. As soon as they harden in the molds, remove them and let them sit out until they are completely hard. Then they are ready to use. It's as simple as that.

I probably should have started with glycerin soap rather than lye soap, but it all worked out in the end. I now have so many ideas tumbling around in my head about different kinds of decorative soaps! I'm having such fun.

Here a some pictures of my glycerin soaps in the molds and drying on newspaper after I popped them out.




I also started making candles today. I used paraffin wax with stearic acid mixed in. I used Christmas and Autumn molds because that's what I had on hand. Tomorrow I am going to try making beeswax glow lamps. I'll let you know how that works out. Let's just say, it involves water balloons and very hot wax. Scary!

Here are the candles I made today. When I took the pictures, I hadn't trimmed the wicks yet, so bear with me.

Homemade Soap

I have wanted to learn how to make soap for quite some time now, but I was afraid. I was very intimidated by using lye. Justifiable so. My first batch was a goner before it even had a chance to be soap. When the instructions say to use a very large pot and to pour the lye very slowly into the liquid, it means it. I underestimated how big of a pot I would need and I poured the lye into the goats milk much too quickly. What a mess!!! The mixture looked like a chemistry experiment gone very, very bad. Fortunately, I was doing this outside on the porch and not in my kitchen. The goat milk/lye mixture bubbled over the top of the pan and went all over the porch. It even got into my vines and plants (they died instantly and didn't even suffer).

I was tempted to kiss away the idea of even making soap, but I had an audience. My children were watching and helping so I couldn't give up. So....we tried again. This time we used a BIG pot and poured the lye very SLOWLY into the liquid. The difference was amazing. I think I will even be willing to do this again. Not only have I learned how to make soap,, but I've learned that I need to follow instructions very carefully when I am a complete novice about a subject.