The Great Soap Adventure

So, a few months ago, a friend and I took a soap making class from the local community college.

(In the interest of full disclosure, interesting scents and personal hygene are two of my obsessions, so no one was surprised by this.)

In any case, last week I made my first batch of soap, what I dubbed, Apricot Rose Soap.

The recipe is as follows:
9 oz Apricot Kernel Oil
10 oz Coconut Oil (refined)
9 oz Olive Oil
4 oz Evening Primrose OIl
1 oz Rose Hip Oil
4.6 oz Lye
11 oz Water

It makes a fabulously creamy soap with good lather. I was very pleased, and had it cut up into small chunks in preparation for a second milling where I intended to add scent (rose, what else?) and honey.

Most people recommend a crock pot for the melting, but I decided I couldn't wait, and that I could use a double boiler instead.

So, I got the boiler ready, added the soap and honey, and went to take a shower. This is the crucial mistake, when I got out of the shower, the house was filled with the noxious fumes of burned honey and soap. The water had boiled out of the pot and the whole batch of soap was a charred, gloppy mess. It smelled of a mix of burned chemicals and charred sugar.

So, lessons learned: get a crock pot. Watch your soap when you cook it.