Soap makers face a problem called Dreaded Orange Spots, often referred to as DOS.
These spots have been widely discussed for decades. As the soap ages, sometimes it develops
areas of rusty colored spots. Most people consider them to be a sign of rancidity of the oils.
The spots start off as small round dots and will spread throughout the entire bar over time.
The main part of your oils and butters should be coconut
oil. This will make sure your soap stays bubbly; even with a high salt
content. To compensate the drying effect of coconut oil, you'll have to discount your
lye by about 15 to 20%.
I found some really economically priced silicone ice cube
moulds in the shapes of small butterflies, only $2.00 per mould with 13
small butterflies to each mould. My fertile mind began to kick in and I
thought these would like nice in a bar of soap so I purchased a few of them
to make up this tutorial.
Today I made some Oatmeal, Milk and Honey soap. My basic recipe is 45%
soft oils, 40% hard oils, and 15% butters, with a 4% superfat because the
goat's milk also adds fats. The amount of milk is about twice the amount of
lye. This method is not for beginners, but you can use an online soap
calculator such as SoapCalc to figure out a recipe with the ingredients that
you have or like. I added some pulverized rolled oats (do not use quick
oats!), some local honey, and some Oatmeal, Milk and Honey fragrance oil.
A digital scale. This is a absolutely the most important piece of equipment. You can buy them at Target or Wal Mart....but I bought mine on ebay from Old Will Knot....a good one is an
escali brand and weighs up to at least 6 pounds or so. If you think you will
want to sell soap or make bigger batches, get one that will weigh more. You
will need the "tare function" and it must be able to measure in 1/10
oz.or.10 ounce increments.
Recent comments