Yesterday I worked on soap batch #2. We learned a bit from batch #1 so #2 turned out nicer. It had no pockets of liquid as the other did and was very uniform throughout. I had a wee bit of trouble grating batch #1 but #2 grated beautifully as you can see.

Batch #2 looks like it’s down to pH 11 at the moment. I checked it just out of curiosity since it does still have some weeks to cure. I put my grated soap in a bag, marked the weight on it (in grams) and then put that bag into a larger one with as much air squeezed out as possible. These I place into a pot of barely simmering water. Batch one#1  was nicely melted after an hour but batch #2 took about 20 minutes longer which makes sense since it wasn’t quite as soft when I grated it.

I meant to add oils to both halves of the batch after the melting but I goofed and added the combo of peppermint oil and Vitamin E to one half before melting so I inadvertently added another variable to the process. It didn’t seem to cause any problems. The other half was left with no additions. Once melted I snipped the corner of my bag and piped the soap into the molds. The tops are very lumpy even after much tapping. Attempting to smooth the tops only made things worse so I left them be in the end.