msmidge | (no subject)

I and a friend made soap today. It started out quite rocky--we realized we didn't have enough lye, went to two stores in search before finally getting smart and using the telephone machine to narrow it down to an Ace Hardware w/fancy junk in stock (i.e. Burts Bees and designer aprons). We made one "traditional" castile batch, just olive oil, w/honey-almond scent thrown in. It took forever to get the lye solution and the oils to the same temperature, and my glass candy thermometer suddenly shattered for no apparent reason in the first batch of lye solution, so we had to throw it out and start over. Anyway, once we got through all that it went really fast because we sacrificed my stick blender to the soap cause.* So we decided to make a second batch w/mostly canola and the leftover olive oil, using our gained-through-experience learnin' about how to get those things at the same temperature (set up the ice bath first for the lye, then heat up the oils second and not so hot). It took a little longer to trace than the olive oil-only batch did, but it eventually did thicken up. So now we wait. In 3 weeks, we ought to have a lot of soap.

*My sister the scientician says that since lye is water-soluble, the stick blender should be fine for regular use as long as it gets washed well. My soap teacher said to designate stuff for soap use only. I hardly ever used the stick blender anyway so it's not a big deal, but I wonder.