As I had frozen cubes of goat's milk left over from the last batch of soap I made I thought I had better motivate myself and use it up. I chose an old recipe which I think was originally from Rhonda's book 'Down to Earth' and I replaced most of the water in the recipe with goat's milk. I ran it through the Soap Calc calculator which gave me a different amount to use for the lye and also added fragrance oil to the recipe.The plan was to add micas to produce very light colours but, as you can tell from the photos, we had some drama!
I had this idea of adding just a little bit of light blue mica to the bottom of the moulds used in the above photo and then later on when it had thickened a little then adding some light mauve on the top. Well, things don't always go according to plan with soap as it has a mind of its own sometimes. I used the room temperature method and added the caustic soda to the frozen cubes of goat's milk, mixed it till the lye was dissolved and then added the mixture to the oils which were at room temperature after melting the coconut oil.
So far so good...I bought it to a very light trace and then poured it into four jugs so that I could add the colours but as I was adding the micas it went to a thick trace very quickly and I didn't even have time to add the fragrance oil as I needed to scoop it into the moulds ASAP. In the end I was literally scooping the soap into the moulds with a spoon as it was so thick.
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| Too many air bubbles. Oops! |
As a result I wasn't able to add the micas gradually to get the light colours I wanted although they are not as dark as they appear in the photo. Also I ended up with lots of air bubbles due to the mixture being so thick that banging the moulds on the bench didn't seem to get rid of them. Aah, the joys of soapmaking. However, in the end it doesn't really matter as the soap will still do its job but just doesn't look as pretty as it could have and won't have any scent.
I tried to get a decent photo of the blood moon the other night and was sitting on the back steps trying not to freeze while I zoomed in on my camera. However, in the end when I didn't zoom in too much the photo ended up looking much better. It was fascinating as it was a cloudless sky here during the eclipse.
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| I am not too good at taking selfies. LOL! |
I had the stitches out on my nose this week and am now waiting for it to heal up which will take a little while as my nose feels quite numb in places but it is good to get the malignant lesion cut out. If I have to have any more cut off my face I will ask for a referral to the Dermatologist again to have MOHS surgery as it is all done and dusted in a day. Plus there is quite a substantial Medicare rebate.
I hope everyone is keeping well. Victoria is currently in another 7 day lockdown so we had family members scrambling to get back home in Victoria before it started. A cousin emailed the other day to say that another cousin in the US had died while recovering from COVID. I have never met her but I think she would have been elderly.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!
I’m so sorry to hear about your cousin, Chel. Though the number of deaths is low compared to last year’s, still people are dying of COVID here.
ReplyDeleteI hope your nose heals quickly.
Your soaps are beautiful as always. I didn’t make soaps for a long time now. I still have some made in 2019!
Nil, I give some of my soap away at our simple living group. Yes my nose is healing well thankfully.
DeleteSo pleased for you that your face is healing nicely Chel. I just hate even having small sun spots frozen off.I would be absolutely thrilled if I could make soap that looks like yours. You are certainly keeping the kitchen oil companies in business though aren't you:) I saw on Landline today that Canola crops are doing very well now in Western Australia, which means the prices will come down hopefully for canola oil. Keep warm, I know you have nice warm slippers from a previous post :) Pauline
ReplyDeletePauline, I have never used Canola oil. No it is not nice having sun spots frozen off. That hurts!
ReplyDeleteYour photo of the moon is great....glad to see your nose is healing, my skin appt is next week. We are so lucky in Australia with Covid compared to the rest of the world however today there is covid in an aged care home in Melbourne and that is not a good sign. Have a good week.
ReplyDeleteKathy, yes I think we have been protected pretty well in Queensland. I hope you go well when you have your skin appointment.
DeleteUgh you mentioned mice in the title .. sent shivers down my spine as I am finding rather more of them than I would like at the moment (though only 10 or so thus far). I am glad post is about soup rather than the mouse plague reaching you. The moon eclipse was not particularly good here.
ReplyDeleteMy hubby has had a lot of mice in his bird cages. I think they are bad around Goondiwindi and in NSW. Horrible pests! 😒
DeleteChel I havent made any soap since my big soap drive in Jan 2020. I think we have enough soap left to take us to November or December. I love the stronger colours in your soaps. I wonder what made the soap go to such a thick trace so quickly? You have made the goats milk soap before and used micas before. It is a science that constantly makes us question what is happening. I hope that nose heals quickly for you.
ReplyDeleteJane,sometimes the problem could even be the weather 😏 I was a bit miffed that I didn't have time to add the fragrance oil but the whole mixture would have seized if I did that. My nose is healing up but the skin is still fairly bumpy from the skin flap. Apparently I can have steroids put into it if it is still bumpy in 6 weeks. I don't think that will be happening 😳
DeleteHi Chel, it is good to be back on the blogging scene again. I had quite a hiatus. I always love your posts, and dream of making soap one day!
ReplyDeleteYou must give soapmaking a go one day. It is fun although it can be a little unpredictable at times 😁
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