Soap Making

edit: my last Lemmy client was poorly working, welcome Eternity

It's been 15 months since I made my last (very large) batch of soap bars. Went back online today looking to purchase soaping oils. Dayum! Some of the oils I use have DOUBLED in price. I was bummed. I can understand an increase, but doubled... . No words here.

Lavender bar soap unmolded and a week deep into its cure. Had some issues unmolding where the soap stuck in the corners, which is visible in the bottom right bar. Color is better now than it was out the gate, but still not quite what I had hoped for. All issues with this batch probably stem from the high proportion of Shea butter: crack after pouring into mold, sticking in the mold, bars feel a bit too soft. Proportion of butter was twice as high as it should been, but lesson learned. Will report back when it's ready for use!

...and whipped up a few pounds of this lavender scented olive oil, coconut oil, and shea butter behemoth. Color is a not exactly what I was after and I think the proportion of the shea butter was too high (hence the crack), but I'm hoping it'll still be a nice batch. Will update when I unmold and again after the cure.

I've made a few batches of soap in my nascent career, including three batches of bar soap based on this recipe from Soap Queen as well as three batches of this "Castile" soap. I'd love to branch out, try different recipes or experiment with different blends or ratios, just feeling reluctant to fix what isn't broken.

I'll be making a new batch of bar soap soon and will be sure to post updates of my progress. Let me know if you've got any sweet recipe selections or blends to try!