Pictures
This is a picture of me checking the oil temp. The oil was just about 100 degrees farenheight before I added the hot lye-water, and started to stir with my stick blender. |
This is "trace". Notice how the soap is opaque, and looks like pancake batter. |
This is what the soap looks like after about 7-8 minutes in the microwave. It starts to foam up. I stirred it down, and continued to cook it.. |
This is what the soap looked like when the bubbles went away the first time. It continues to look like this for a while. |
This batch separated a little bit. Notice the layer of oil on top of the soap. I stirred it back together with the stick blender, and continued to cook. |
This is a picture of the "champagne bubbles" stage. If you look closely you will see cracks on the top of the soap. This is the soap trying to expand and climb out of the pot. I keep stirring until the bubbles stop coming |
This is what the soap looks like when it is done. Notice the firm consistency, and the smoothness of the soap.
This is what the finished soap looks like. This is cut, but not fully trimmed. I made most of these soaps on a Thursday, and sold quite a few of them on Saturday.. As you can see, I am not the most talented soap cutter.
| Copyright 2000 Karen Stark |