Life in Tee Harbor, Alaska

Making Soap

I haven't made alot of soap since the Christmas season...  I am back at it now and getting my stock up for the Spring craft shows.  It is hard when you are first starting out to know how much soap to make since you don't know how much you will be selling.  I spent time planning out what my ideal soap line would be and how many of each I want to have onhand.  I am aiming for at least 50 bars of 15 different kinds.  I have just 3 kinds left from the fall and not many bars total - which is good.  But I now am getting reorders and am not able to fill them!  So my aim is to be all stocked up and everything ready for sale by the end of February.  This includes the month they need to cure.  Wow, that gives me less 2 weeks to get it made. 

Two weeks ago I tried making a bigger batch - 5 times my normal one.  I had trouble getting it poured into the molds quick enough since I couldn't lift the pan well.  So I've changed my game plan.  I scaled the recipes in different sizes so I can choose how big of a batch I want to make.  I tried the one that fills 2 loafs and it worked good.  That will give me 32 bars for each batch and I can do 3 batches at a time to fill up all my molds.  This makes it more efficient in that I only have to setup and cleanup once.

Last night I made two goat's milk soaps: Oatmeal, Milk & Honey and Little House Lemon.  The lemon is a new recipe, so I anxious to see how it turns out!  The batch from a couple weeks ago was Lavender Dreams and I ended up with 3 loafs of that.  So I'm off to a good start.  Right now I am making a Pioneer Peppermint with Willamette Valley Peppermint essential oil which is new for me.  If I have enough time, I will be making a batch of dog soap too.  Need to figure out how to line or grease my PVC for those as they will be round soaps...  I'm thinking of using freezer paper like in my loaf molds.  I'll let you know what ends up working for that!

Untitled Comment

1:20 PM, Monday, January 21, 2008 .. Posted by Mistypearl

Your soaps sound so lovely! I adore handmade bars, and have made some of my own, but nothing that sounds as delish as yours!
My best wishes for a good season, and good success with your preparations
God bless!
Mistypearl