Measuring essential oils

First I make up my fragrance blend.

Soapy vinegar

Then I get my neutralizing bath ready. This is also when I go ahead and put on rubber gloves.

Measuring the water

Then I measure out the water in an easy pour container.

Measuring lye

Then I measure lye into a glass container.

Mixing lye

Then I add the lye to the water. Not the other way around. Notice that I do this outside! It's a bit fumey.

Measuring fats

Then I measure all the fats into my stainless pot.

Ready for melting solids

Here's a shot of all the fats in the pot.

Prepared mold

While the fats melt, I lightly spray my "mold" with olive oil.

Melting progress 1

Starting to get some meltage...

Melting progress 2

Almost there! This mango butter was firmer than I thought.

Adding lye mixture

After the melt's done, I slowly add the lye mixture, which has been cooling outside this whole time. Notice that the lye makes the mixture cloudy.

Starting the blend

Here we are with stick blender. I hold the blender at an angle so it doesn't suction to the bottom of the pot.

Blend in progress

Looks a little more uniform now...

Trace

So this is what I think trace looks like for this batch. The blender leaves lines in the surface, and the surface holds up drips.

Adding fragrance

Next I add my essential oil blend, and stick blend this in. This mix had a touch of patchouli, which made it almost iodine in color.

Adding the colorant

Now I sprinkle some yellow oxide on the top. Normally this should go in a carrier oil, but what the heck, let's see what happens.

Finished soap into the mold

Well, that worked out! Looks like a big crock of uni, huh? This is an orange-scented soap, so I don't mind.

Plastic wrap

I read somewhere that pressing plastic wrap to the surface of the soap keeps the still-active lye from reacting with the air while it saponifies.

Insulated soap

Here's a peek under the towel, soap all snug and toasty.

Gel Stage

Here's a picture (from a different batch!) that I wanted to get in here about what the gel stage looks like. The soap is super hot at this stage, turning to a gel before cooling from the outside edges in.

Neutralizing the utensils

As I've been going along, I drop the utensils into the soapy vinegar bath when I'm done with them. I keep my gloves on while I clean these up.

Out of the mold

I was too slow to get a shot of this gel stage, but here it is popped out of the mold. Still wearing gloves!

All cut up

I usually get out a ruler and score it to get some semblance of equal sizes, believe it or not!

Curing

So now I wait...