How Much Can You Learn in One Day?

The second day of the Soap Weekend intensive was… well, intense! There was so much information and hands-on projects that we are all exhausted. The students all seemed a little shell-shocked by the end of the jam-packed day.

First I discussed and demonstrated the basics of Cold Process Soapmaking. Yes, I know I should be wearing long sleeves – but it was so hot. We were so lucky to have my husband’s borrowed air conditioner form his office but the temperatures still got above 80 degrees in the Soap Instructional Lab; thus the short sleeves.

For the second part of my class each student was able to come up and weigh out one of the ingredients or try their hand at stick blending the soap. Notice the bag they are pouring out of. They are the Bramble Berry boilable fixed oil bags so that you can melt solid oils in the microwave or boil them. Plus, they are space saving from a shipping standpoint saving money and saving the planet through less packaging.

Every student ended up with 2 bars of soap that they fragranced and colored themselves. The bars use the nearly same recipe with the only difference being one had a superfat of 1% and the other 10.5%.

Next up, was Lori Nova sharing her incredible swirling and layering techniques.

Lori generously shared her award winning and precise way of swirling soap perfectly. Her method of soaping is detail oriented and she keeps copious notes for every batch, assuring that she can replicate every success, every time.

Here is one of the completed soap batches getting ready to be covered and insulated. Can you believe she actually made this gorgeous soap while 15 people watched? Lori is the consumate professional who kept cool and delivered a perfect batch of soap, even with questions being fired at her from left and right.

Finally, Jill ended the day with a hands-on lotion making class. She has a wonderfully organized way of teaching lotion making in stations all around the class room. We had a bit of a kerfuffle when beeswax was put out instead of emulsifying wax. No one could figure out just why our perfect, fail-safe lotion recipe wasn’t turning out until we realized that the emulsifying wax container was filled with bleached beeswax. Whoops. We quickly reset and everyone made perfect lotions with just a little delay. The mishap proved two things: beeswax isn’t the best emulsifier and that everyone makes mistakes. So, if you want to lessen your chance of mistakes, do the Lori Nova method of taking copious notes and follow a preparation check-list, each and every time.

Fany and Audrey working together to weigh out their oils for lotion.