From time to time I surprise myself with not being quite as prepared as I thought I may have been. I always giggle just a little when that happens, as it's rather nice to remind myself (sometimes) that I really am human and yes, I do make mistakes. As long as the mistakes don't hurt me, or hurt someone else, I'm good. The drama in my kitchen occurred when I decided to make another batch of homemade soap, and this time, for some strange reason, I decided to make lemongrass and add chia seeds on top, to sort of make it look like lemon poppy seed cake! Yum! Doesn't that sound like a great idea? Sure it does!
I got all the ingredients out that I would need. I washed off all the molds, the utensils, the bowls, and the stuff I would need to make the soap. I pulled out the scent, the chia seeds, the colorants, and the digital scale. All went well until I haphazardly decided I only needed one protective glove when I stirred the lye in with the water. I mean, come on, I've done this at least a dozen times now, right? I can do this in my sleep! (Probably shouldn't be messing around with lye when I'm sleeping. Just going to go ahead and say that right now.)
I did have my protective googles on, and I did have a glove on the hand that I used to stir the lye with rather than on the hand I used to pick up the little glass container that had the lye in it. I poured the lye slowly - - because you're supposed to do that. I poured it right into that water that I had previously measured out at about 12 ounces. Nothing really prepares a person for an eruption that the person wasn't prepared for! Let me tell you. I learned a bit of chemical science yesterday! You don't want to pour crystalized lye into hot water! No, you just don't want to do that. If you do that, you want there to be ventilation and if you can't have ventilation, you at least want to have BOTH of your hands covered and protected. I did not have both of my hands covered and protected and I couldn't reach up to turn on the ventilator without dropping the glass container that held the lye that hadn't been poured yet!
SUCH A MESS! You probably remember seeing those 8th Grade Science Fair volcanoes that like to spew red "lava" everywhere...well, this wasn't red, but it was erupting! I didn't have a blow out, but I had a constant run of lye-water volcanic action all over my stove! The lye ate through the cooked/baked on grease in my little silver drip pans too. If there's an upside to the story that would be it! I then managed to make it to the paper towels without killing myself or breathing in too many fumes. I began cleaning the mess, simultaneously calling for my daughter to open the back door and windows, while I reached up to turn on the vent. Laura nearly fell over laughing at me as it must have looked like I had sprouted a couple more arms. I can only imagine the way I was flailing around like an unorganized octopus with paper towels and trying to put my protective glove on the other hand.
After managing to make a sufficient water/lye mixture to accommodate the soap batch, I then began pouring out and measuring out the necessary oils. I use 7 oils in my soaps. Count with me: (1) coconut oil (11 oz), 2. Palm oil (9 oz), 3. Castor oil (4 oz), 4. Olive oil (4 oz), 5. Avocado oil (4 oz) 6. Sweet Almond oil (2 oz) and 7. Mango butter, which isn't an oil but it counts as one. I use 2 oz of it. With the Mango butter you have to melt it too, it's solid like the coconut and the palm. I use the microwave, so I just popped in the Mango butter in its little brown container that it comes in because it had right at 2 or 3 oz left in the tub. I closed the microwave door and set the timer. I hit start and turned around....never turn around. BAM! BOOM! Crazy sparks and flames reaching out inside my microwave! WHAT?
I hit the door release and grabbed the tub! I looked it over and NO there wasn't any metal on the damn thing, what the hell happened? Oh, then I looked at the top, where the little protective paper had once been...it was lined in foil. Yeah....foil. Itty bitty tiny pieces of foil lined the top of the tub. Who knew? Well, anyone who was smart enough to look would have seen it. Then there's me. You'd have thought I had been skewed with a kabob rod. I screamed! When I did that my daughter came flying out of her room to once again save my life and protect me from myself. "WHAT THE HELL, Mom?" she cried! I just smiled and said "Oh look, there's tiny bits of foil right here." She gave me the FACE.
From that point forward I had an audience of one. My daughter refused to go back to her games and talk to her friends if her mother was apt to try and either burn the house down or worse. I didn't mind the company, and it was fun to watch her scrunch her nose at the lemongrass oil that I had chosen for the scent of the batch. Laura's nose is really sensitive to smell, and if I can pour out a bit extra and watch her eyes water I don't mind doing that every now and again...is that really cruel? I only do it if she has recently pissed me off. It's my evil-mom way of evening the scores between us. She gets me with leaving a ball in the hallway so I have to step on it, trying not to fall and break a hip. We should stop. We really should stop being so immature. I know. OK, we'll going to stop. Since I wrote it out and read it - - it doesn't seem very nice. LOL
The soap turned out GREAT. It loaded well, it traced well, it took the colorant, it divided well, it molded well. I love it. I added the chia seeds on top to make it pretty and unique. I watched as it set and then I just went to bed to let it harden overnight. Taking it out of the mold proved to be a bit tricky. I decided to leave it in a bit longer. When I did take it out it cut wonderfully, and I placed all 9 brick pieces and the 4 bars from the independent mold, into the curing drawer and I took photos. I love it. I am in love with the lemongrass chia soap! I think I'll make it a staple of my Etsy. I truly love the smell and I think others will agree with me. What I will NOT do in the future is shy away from due diligence. I know, and I knew, that I was supposed to do things correctly. I don't know if it was just laziness or what, but I did learn a valuable lesson. There are better ways to clean your drip pans!
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