Latest NewsMaking Soap Posted on November 2, 2012October 25, 2016 by beachwalk 02 Nov It’s a perfect day to make some Soap! Ingredients gathered ready to be added at the trace. Baby muscovy ducklings. Lovely Lavender Spikes Calendula infused almond oil is used in Patchouli & Oaty Lavender soaps also used in balms & moisturiser. Beautiful sweet smelling rose. Weighing the olive oil. Soaps are stored in boxes ready for sale. Making The Lye. Outside so the fumes from the dissolving caustic can escape. There always seems to be enough breeze to draught the caustic fumes out of harms way, Minced Seaweed Our galic harvest. Thorny devil with the sweetest of perfumes. Sodium Hydroxide ‘Caustic Soda’ dissolved in water is known as the lye. This is cooled & stirred into the melted fats until the solution thickens & comes to what is refered to as the trace when other ingredients are added before pouring into moulds. Adding the lye solution (caustic soda dissolved in filtered water) to the fats to make soap with minced seaweed, Tasmanian leatherwood honey, almond oil & lavender essential oil in this batch. Cutting Flinders Island Black soap. Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey At the trace adding beautiful Tasmanian leatherwood honey it has a unique aroma really lovely. A jug full of essential oil. It takes quite alot of essential oil to perfume a batch of soap. beachwalk 1000th Batch