… I’m a SOAPMAKER! Yes, I can now say that I officially make soap.

A couple days ago, I made my first batch and it turned out AMAZING and smells delicious!  My first batch of soap is full of hops (ground and whole) and smells sweet like cocoa butter. I took pictures of the whole thing, so get ready. Introducing (drum roll please) … HOP SOAP!

I would like to send a HUGE thank you to The Nova Studio for providing the instructions, worksheet, and knowledge that I needed to pull it all off. If your interested in learning how to make soap, check out Lori’s site. She constantly has classes going to learn soapmaking and more. I took her Soap Making Boot Camp and LOVED IT!!! So, thanks Lori – this one’s for you

This is me in my kitchen, ready to begin. Steve took pictures for me.

I made soap the Cold Process way this time. I want to try the Hot Process way next (using a slow cooker).

Before I started anything, I made sure my mold was lined and ready to go. I used lined freezer paper. Cool stuff, but it was seriously hard to find. I think I visited about six different places before finally finding it at a little grocery store.

You can’t make Hop Soap without HOPS!! I made a trip to my local beer making supply shop and picked up a 4oz. package of  Cascade hops in pellet form. Then I ground them up into a powder.

I then got all my other additives measured out and ready to go. I have 1/3cup whole copped hops, 3tbs. ground/powdered hops and 3tbs. French Green clay colorant.

Next, I put on my safety glasses and gloves and gathered my distilled water and lye together.

First, I measured out my distilled water…

… then measured the amount of lye in a separate container and placed the distilled water in the sink by the open window (always being careful when working with lye!)

After the lye was measured, I carefully added it to the distilled water and stirred to make sure it all dissolved. The reaction between the two will cause the mixture to get super hot. I stuck the thermometer in the bowl to monitor it while I moved onto melting the oils together.

As the lye/water mixture sat in the sink (with the dog and cat safely locked in the bedroom, of course) I dug 16oz. of palm oil and then another 16oz. of coconut oil out of their boxes and weighed them out in my stainless steel pot on the scale.

I also added 4oz. cocoa butter oil to the mix and melted them all together at a low temperature on the stove.

Next, I measured out 26oz. liquid olive oil and 2oz. liquid jojoba oil and added them to the other oils after they melted. After I added the liquid oils, it reduced the temperature close to 110 degrees. My lye/water mixture was also about that temperature at this time so now we can make soap! I poured the lye/water mixture into my oils and began stirring to mix them together (the pictures are far and few between from here on out… Steve was helping me, so didn’t take many).

I used my stick blender to speed up the process. Soon, I saw the soap coming to a light trace (when it looks like a runny pudding). I added my clay colorant and powdered hops at this time and mixed them in well. As the trace thickened a bit, I added the whole chopped hops and mixed them in to finish it off.

I already had my towels spread out on the table with my mold lined and ready to go so poured it in and smoothed out the top (I don’t have pictures of this part, but trust me… it looked awesome!)

I covered the mold with plastic wrap and then wrapped the entire mold in towels to insulate it as it heats up over the next couple of days.

Two days later… it’s time to take the soap out of the mold and cut it!! Oh, I was so excited – giddy even. I separated the freezer paper from the mold and pulled the whole sheet of soap out in one piece. You can see the color and texture of the soap in this shot. It set up a few shades darker than when I poured it in.

I removed the paper fully and then put the sheet of soap back into the mold to cut it. (This mold is GREAT! Thank you to David at Mission Peak Soap for making the mold).

Once the soap was back in the mold, I used a trowl to cut the soap (Well, Steve did because he’s the one with the muscle).

Then I pulled them out of the mold and set them upright (turning them every couple days) to set up and continue saponifying fully over the next 6 weeks.

So that’s my first experience making soap. I absolutely love it! It’s interesting and totally useful. I’m all for making something from scratch vs. purchasing it. Throw in a little art, a little chemistry, and a lot of hands-on love and TADA… homemade soap!