貓咪妳愛我嗎?..自然風

Soapmaking Mistake #1 -Making a Huge Batch of a New Recipe

If there's a chance that something might go wrong with a recipe you've never used before, doesn't it make sense to only make a little? If you had your choice of throwing away two pounds of soap or twenty, you's opt for two pounds, right? Two pounds is a safe test batch size to make sure that you've gotten your recipe right. If it works on a small scale, the likelihood of your larger batch coming out perfect is much, much higher.

Soapmaking Mistake #2 -Changing Multiple Variables

If you want to try powdered goat's milk to see how much more moisturizing it will be in your soap, use it in a recipe that is already tried and true, preferably with no additional additives. Never try to change more than one ingredient in a soap recipe until you know what each ingredient will add (or take away) from your soap. If you ignore this step and something happens that you like/dislike, you'll have difficulty pinpointing where the success or failure came from.

Soapmaking Mistake #3 -Adding Too Many Extras

You can always add more fragrance, coloring or additives to a product, but removing an overdose is almost impossible. I've had batches of shower gel completely ruined because too much fragrance thins out the product beyond repair (and in case you're wondering, yes, I did try adding more of my base, only to have a large amount of super-thin shower gel on my hands!)

Soapmaking Mistake #4 -Not Being Patient

Some formulations will change over time after given some time to sit. What smells faint on day one could intensify significantly by day five. A natural preservative could turn a few months before expected if not combined at the right temp. Regularly make overruns of your batches, label them by date and batch number, and check back on them to make sure that they are still stable. Note how long the scent of your soap lasts, and how much it shrinks from the wrapper for example.

Soapmaking Mistake #5 -Relying On Memory

WRITE IT DOWN! Yes, I know it's  simple, but this tip is for those of you (yeah, you!) who think that they will remember everything. Believe me, you won't. Especially if you are making LOTS of different kinds of soaps. Besides, will it really kill you to keep a book of exactly what you did? Don't skip this step, or you'll end up with that one killer recipe that you simply cannot duplicate because it got sucked out of your brain while you were up late one night.

Soapmaking Mistake #6 -Not Testing Fragrances

This is one of the biggest causes of soapmaking failure, and unless you know what to do ahead of time it will surely cause you lots of grief. I've seen soapmakers make this mistake over and over again, constantly making changes to their recipe without coming anywhere close to the solution. Whatever you do, don't waste valuable amounts of time and money by not properly testing your fragrances before creating a batch of soap!