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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

It's always a good idea to have plan B

Monday night I don't know what got into me, I attempted to make 100% coconut milk cold process soap without using any water.  In the past I had bad record of success in making cold process milk soap using 100% milk and no water.  I would say 50% of the times I tried I failed.  I've learned to leave 100% milk soap alone and just soap with half water half milk.  100% milk soap and me, we simply don't get alone... sigh.  Like I said, I have no idea what got into me last night!  LOL
I guess I didn't put the wine out for the soap gremlins, they decided to come visit me that night just to mess around.  This is the time where I would say having a plan B would be helpful!  And guess what?  I didn't have any!  It was 11:30 pm and my pot of soap was obviously not working.  Oh forgot to mention this is also my first time attempting one big batch to split into 2.  Yes, I don't do big batch, I love how I can pay all my attention into detailing small batches.

Anyway, since it was so late at night and I had to go to work the next morning, the only thing I can think of is to hot process it instead.  I can't bring myself to waste all that oil and butter and lye.  But hot process takes a long time to do.  I need to clean up my mess and go to bed.  All of a sudden a light bulb popped in my head.  Didn't Pam (one of my soap buddy) just showed me how to HP using conviction oven?  So I poured my "failed" batch into 2 loaf molds and send them right into my oven on 175 F and set auto cook time for 2 hours.  Then I proceeded to clean my mess up in the kitchen thinking these are all going to be the so called "naked" soap, no scent and no color, not my style but at least there will be soap.  Only 40 minutes passed the start time I took a final look before going to bed, and I found the loafs all puffed up bubbling.  Oh boy, they are already done, faster than I expected.  Since I'm not in bed yet why not just mix in the Honey Almond EO blend and oatmeal colloidal + dark cocoa powder like I originally planned?
 This morning I had to try it under running water and sure it's soap!
 PS. they aren't my hands!  I got free hand model so I can take photos!

6 comments:

  1. Looks like your disaster turned into a wonderful win! It's definitely a lot different from your usual bright colored soaps but in a good way. It has a wonderful rustic vibe about it ^_^ And the bubbles look wonderful!

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  2. LOL did your soap buddy tell you to put the batch into one stainless steel soap pot and check the progress every 20 minutes? Lucky you no volcano! You make me laugh!! Nice save and love the bubbles!

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  3. @Pam, I guess you forgot to tell me your story! LOL

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  4. Fighting out of the red corner we have the soap that does not want to be. Out of the Blue corner we have shieh design studio. Round 1 goes to the soap that will not be after giving shieh a kick in the pants. Shieh will not be put off however and puts the soap that does not want to be in the hot seat finally winning in round 2 with a knock out! And the Champ is Shieh design! YAY.

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  5. Alanna, I need to hire you to do my soap boxing commentator! LOL

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