A Day in the Life of a Soapmaker!

I have been busy making soap to finalize my inventory for Christmas.  Funny thing about soap is that if you are making cold process soap, you have to allow for 4-6 weeks of curing time. 
So, that can be challenging when you are making soap for a specific holiday and not exactly sure what everybody is going to want or like.

Well, the deadline has hit.  Pretty much any soap I make after today will not be ready for Christmas. So, hopefully I have a good enough inventory to meets the needs of my friends, family and customers.

You can make soap and have it ready within just a few days to 2 weeks - that is called hot process soap. 
However, I make cold process and it needs curing time. I will be putting some posts up over the next week or so that will explain more about curing times, lye solutions, colorants and scents. I hope that will give you a little more information about the hows and whys of soap.

But for today, here is a look at a typical soaping day! 

Blending the lye/water solution with the oils.  I use a stick blender to help bring it to trace faster.

 









I added a white pigment to brighten up this batch.  This is going to be Peppermint Frost!

Pouring off a little soap to add some bright red colorant to make pretty red peppermint-like swirls!

Mixing up the soap and red pigment.  Looking good!

Pouring in the plain white soap and alternating it with the red to make candy cane swirls.

Swirling that color in!

Ready to let it set up.

This has been a fun, Christmasy soap to make.  Smells wonderful and the colors are quite vibrant!  Hope you like it too!