I'm learning to make soap. Olive oil soap is supposed to be the best for felting, so I thought I'd try making it. Yes, it has been a learning experience! The first batch took soooo long. I started one evening and finished it the next day. Once I got a stick blender, things went a lot better. Making soap was faster and easier.
I made more soap yesterday. This time I used different oils. Olive oil soap is good for felting because it is slippery and low sudsing. That's great for felt, but I wanted a more luxurious soap this time to just use as a hand soap. I used olive oil, palm oil, and coconut oil. Here it is as I am mixing it with the stick blender. I am so careful with the lye. It is nasty stuff, but the resulting soap is wonderful.
I never time this, so I can't really tell you how long it takes -- maybe 30 min. until it begins to "trace". This means it starts to leave a pattern in the pan. Here's a photo where it's starting to trace.
This is a good sign. It's doing some sort of chemical change and becoming soap. It gets thicker and you add the scent. I like Lemon Grass -- the actual plant essence. It has a nice, fresh smell. Sorry for the blur. I can't go back and do it over. You should be able to see the yellow oil as it mixes in.
I am learning as I go along. This time I let it get a little too thick. Here's another photo:
I didn't know it was too thick until I looked underneath the mold and saw it didn't flow into all parts of the mold well. It's still good soap and will work!
It's in the mold. I level it like icing on a cake. It will stay in the mold for 48 hours, then I cut it into bars and put it on a rack to dry. It should dry for about 3 weeks, so make it a long time before you need to have it.