Soaping March, 2010

The soap closet...it used to take up the whole bedroom!

The kitchen with everything pulled out to get started...

The oils melting on the stovetop...

The lye (that's sodium hydroxide on the soap labels) dissolving in distilled water.

The move to the warehouse has changed things up around here...in a good way!  Mostly, anyway.  Occassionally I forget to bring things home that I need--the third essential oil in a blend that is only a tiny part of the blend.  Or the bags to put the incense in to send it in the mail.  Or any number of things I don't have on my mind when I make the short trip to the warehouse!

The other day I took some pictures of what the day after soaping looks like--those are the ones starting at the top of the page.  The day I make soap is just too chaotic to try to get pictures myself.  One day when Rod is home we will tackle that.  The soap is in the mold and waiting to be cut.  The cutters are tucked away in a closet...and everything springs out for a short while so I can get to work.  And then best of all it all gets hidden back in that closet when I am done.

This week I did three soaping sessions in one day.  That's basically a 12 hour day for me standing in the kitchen "cooking" the soap.  OR in soap equivalent--that's around 360 bars of soap.  I don't do those 12 hour days often unless I am filling wholesale orders or have big shows coming up.  This time its the latter--the Delray Affair is coming up in a few weeks. 

Here's what I made on that day:
Lavender Oatmeal - 60 bars
Spa Salt Soap - 64 bars
Lemongrass Scrubby - 28 bars
Lemongrass Smooth - 28 bars
Jasmine - 28 bars
Gardenia - 28 bars
Lily of the Valley - 28 bars (this one is NEW!)
Lilac - 28 bars
Flapping in the Breeze - 28 bars (a reformulation of an original scent blend)
Clarity - 28 bars
Split Personality - 8 bars

This last picture I will explain a little more thoroughly.  At the shows I give away little samples called "Everything but the Kitchen Sink".  All the "endpieces" from the various soaps that came out of the molds that day are sitting on the tray with the cutter.  After I am done with the cutting, I chunk all these endpieces up and they get thrown in the big storage container to the back of the picture.  All the shreds from trimming the edges of each bar of soap go in there too--see the shreds???  Once a month, I take this big box and put it in two 12 quart stock pots, add a little distilled water and "bake" it in an 250 degree oven for several hours.  When it has gotten soft enough to get it back in a mold, I plop it in and then let it set overnight before cutting it into bars.  So, that's the story of the "Everything" soap samples!