LEND ME YOUR BRAIN

Well blog, it looks like today may be the big day! After nearly a month of hunting and gathering I finally have all my soap making ingredients and supplies.

The only thing I'm still lacking is a recipe. I encountered a number of recipes on my hunt for knowledge but every one of them incorporated additional, optional ingredients I don't have. They were also calculated for batches that make at least twenty 4 oz. bars. I'm pretty sure my 4 lb. mold will only hold enough mixture to create sixteen 4 oz. bars. Math has never been my strong suit and my palms are starting to sweat just thinking about it. I really don't want to mess this up and waist ingredients. My bank account may never forgive me for that!

It's time to ask for the assistance of my husband and renaissance man, Ian (he does calculus for fun, I'm not joking.)

Here's what I know about my recipe so far:

I have a 4 lb. mold and the ingredients I have to include for saponification are:

> Distilled Water

> Sodium Hydroxide

(these two will be mixed to create the lye solution)

> Olive Oil

> Palm Oil

> Coconut Oil

In addition, I would also like to include a bit of these

> Jojoba Oil

> Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil

> BrambleBerry.com's Oyster Mist Colorant

I also have some conversion charts (that look like a foreign language) which are supposed to help me figure out my recipe. It's safe to assume Ian will look at them and have everything translated and calculated within the hour. Bless him!

To help make up for my math deficiency, please allow me to explain that big word, saponification, I used above. This is the fancy term used to describe the chemical process of making soap. It refers to the way in which the base (in this case sodium hydroxide) reacts with the acid (in this case the vegetable oils) to produce the end result: soap and glycerin. And, for bonus points, it's important to understand that if you calculate your amounts correctly then there will be no harmful, excess lye in your final product. It should be completely converted to soap during the saponification process.

How 'bout them apples?!?! [chuckle] Keep your fingers crossed...Ian's starting to work on the recipe now!