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Great Balls of....Soap

I had a request for another special order--another all goat milk soap, this time scented with Orange Grove.  I thought I'd make little orange balls to add to the batch.  I've only made soap balls once before, ages ago, out of still-warm hot process soap but I wanted to try cold process this time.  Soap balls aren't the newest thing to hit the soaping world, but my camera was handy, so here you go. 

I used single bar soap molds to make two orange soaps, one to gel and the other to leave ungelled.  I wanted to see exactly what each was like but suspected the ungelled would work better.  After a few hours, I was able to begin working with the ungelled soap.  It had the consistency of wet clay.

I had to let the chunks dry slightly so I could roll them into a smooth ball. 

When I started working with the gelled (but still warm and soft) bar, I was really unimpressed.  The first few were OK, but as it cooled, the consistency became like dried out Play-Doh brand playdough and wouldn't stick into shape.  I ended up melting the soap in the microwave so it was workable but I was losing interest quickly by this stage and only made a few.  (I still didn't like working with it much.) 

It's hard to believe it's the same batch of soap with the color variation, isn't it?
                                   

Adding the balls....
The next day.  I expected a lot more orange balls, but since I gave up on almost half of them, it wasn't as orange-y as I had originally planned.  But it's nice and smells good.  
I made a bigger batch with this order so there are a few bars up for grabs this time--when they're done curing, that is. :-)

Comments

  1. TopcatJanuary 19, 2012 at 4:19 PM

    What a pretty result! So I am thinking that ungelled is the way to go with soap balls? How well did the HP do when you tried that? My Orange Grove is on its way to me so I will get to smell it sooooooon! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amy@10th Ave.January 19, 2012 at 5:44 PM

    Ungelled is definitely the easiest to work with. HP works, but you have only a small window between "too hot to handle" and "cold and lumpy." I think the ungelled soap makes smoother balls, too. Orange Grove is good--it's not strongly orange and has green and maybe floral notes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. NataliaFebruary 25, 2012 at 2:54 PM

    Nice soap :).
    natalia

    ReplyDelete

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