The Saga of the Second Soap

On Saturday I attempted my second soap recipe. Full of confidence from my first batch, I set everything up and got started. The new recipe called for triple strength coffee instead of water and condensed goat's milk added once the oil and lye reached trace. I weighed all the ingredients, set the oils on the stove (no heat yet), and poured the lye into the coffee. As the lye and coffee started to react and heat up the glass container and thermometer were steamed up and then... CRACK! The glass pitcher I was using for the lye solution split and the lye solution leaked all over the countertop.

Fortunately part of my preparation was a sink full of vinegar water to neutralize the lye and a jug of full strength vinegar standing by. I poured vinegar over the spill and placed the broken pitcher in the sink. Then, sopped it all up with towels and tossed them in the washer with more vinegar.

I have now replaced the broken pitcher with an 8-cup pyrex measurer. I later found out that a plastic pitcher with the number 5 and the letters "PP" next to the recycle symbol on the bottom will be able to take the heat of the lye reaction.

All in all, everything turned out OK, because I was wearing the proper protective clothing and had prepared to handle a chemical spill before it happened. If you have never made soap from scratch (using lye) before, please take the time to educate yourself on the proper safety precautions.

Take 2: This time I chilled the coffee (room temperature here is nearly 80°) and poured the lye into the coffee slowly never letting the solution get over 150°. In the meantime, the oils were on the stove at low heat just to melt the solids. When both the lye solution and the oils were at about 110° I mixed them together with a stick blender. When they reached trace, I poured half of the soap into the mold and sprinkled some coffee grounds over the top. I mixed 3 tablespoons of coffee grounds into the remaining soap and poured it into the mold then topped it all with whole coffee beans. I am pleased with the outcome, but I need to rework the recipe so it will be a vegetarian friendly soap in the future.