Soapy Situations

This morning I woke up enthusiastic to jump out of bed and race of to the garage.. not even stopping for slippers I made my way to the mound of towels sitting on the clothes dryer, with toes feeling the wrath of the winter cold concrete I carefully removed the pile of towels, to be rewarded with the sight of my first ever home made cold processed soap! I was so quietly proud of myself. I decided this unveiling was worth a photo. I took off the baking paper that had been laid on top and then impatience got the better of me, I had to unravel one out of its container..

On the left is a beehive mold, on the right oatmeal in a silicon mold and the small on from the front was a bit of mix left over.

I have always been interested in making my own soap, but had never had the confidence and thinking it had to be complicated, I think if it hadn't been for discovering the wonderful blog written by Rhonda over at Down To Earth, I doubt I would have ever tried. She has a very comfortable way of writing and teaching and I do owe her a warm thank you for so openly sharing her skills and wisdom with us. I am blessed to have found her blog and the kindness in her words.

I was totally enthralled by by the whole process, carefully measuring the oils and fats making sure everything was perfect. Putting my pot of oil out on to the potting table where the main mixing was to happen - I added the lye to the oils, stirring for a little and then in with the stick blender to get it to reach trace , I was sooo nervous about this part of the process.. wondering if my stick blender would blow up mid mix, would I have time to add the oatmeal to the left over mix after pouring half out to have a nice plain, simple soap.
I had been mixing a minute when there was a huge crash and a scream, breaking glass... a mans voice yelling expletives then mixed in with " I am going to kill you, I am going to kill you b****" A woman crying, their dog barking and I looked into my soap - people are more important than things - soap forgotten, I made the 000 call, within minutes the police where at the scene. My heart was still beating that hard, I thought it would pop through my chest,my shaking hands grasped the spoon and stirred my pot of soap, tears falling into the mix as I recalled my life 25 years ago, the police taking my abusive, violent partner to jail for beating me silly before trying to strangle me. My neighbour had called the police way back then and he went to jail for a number of years charged with - assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm. I don't talk about nor think about that part of my life very much anymore, yet I was so shocked at how the memories flooded back, funnily I found comfort in the pot of soapy goo in front of me..

It was ready, it felt like it had almost made itself when I had to leave it.. I poured half into the buzzy bee mold I had bought.

And below all sliced up.. nothing in this but pure soap

The rest I added some fragrance to Milk, Honey and Oatmeal, I then added some oatmeal to the pot and stirred before pouring into a silicon mold my son got me from the reject shop for $5.00. Master R said this looked and smelt like something to eat...

My favorite soap shape was one I hastily tipped into a milk carton I had in case I had some spare.. it is pictured below.

So that is my first attempt at soap making, I am very happy with the results, it was amazingly easy and to be honest I think the interlude in the middle, while very heart wrenching sad and one I find hard to forgive, is actually going to draw me closer to soap making, and the comfort I found there.