cocoa butter soap :: batch #3

I just put soap batch #3 to bed and in 24 hours I am hoping to reveal some beautiful soap. About a week ago, I made chocolate soap using by product from the cacao bean produced from the process of making chocolate. This particular chocolate by product is straight from the Cotton Tree Chocolate company in Belize.

Today, I used my tweaked recipe and added a layer of cocoa butter soap on top, mixing it slightly. I very much would love to see some fun swirls and patterns when the soap is cured. And I'm first to admit that making soap is a lesson in patience for me. Once you put a batch to bed, you are supposed to wait at least 24 hours for it to go through the saponification process. This is very, very hard for me. I want to peek and poke and tweak and examine. But I know if I want the soap to look anything like it is supposed to look then I need to leave it be.

Here are my oils and chocolate by product about to be heated up and mixed. The by product smells a bit like chocolate brownie and the cocoa butter smells delish too. I must refrain myself from wanting to take a nibble.

All melted...looking like chocolate soup.

Then I mix up my lye water solution. This is the dangerous part.

When making soap using lye always, always, always wear eye protection and gloves as well as long sleeve shirts and pants. Make sure to be careful not to breathe in fumes as well.

The lye water solution gets very hot!!

Once I mixed my chocolate soap together with the lye solution, I poured it into the mold, covered and let sit while I whipped up the cocoa butter soap. Here are my oils and cocoa butter waiting to be melted and mixed.

After adding it's own lye water solution, I used a stick blender and the batter reminded me of pudding. Once I again, I had to remind myself this was soap and not a delicious dessert.

Then I put the cocoa butter soap into the mold on top of the chocolate soap. With a fork I gently mixed. I didn't want to mix the two soaps together completely, but I wanted them to hold hands a little bit. After all, they only just met.

I'm hoping this will make for a fun and beautiful pattern once I'm able to cut it. And get this!!! After 24 hours (or 2 to 3 days), I can cut the loaf, but it has to cure for a grand whopping total of six weeks. Total lesson in patience for me.

Wish me luck!

Side note: I am not a professional soap maker. I'm learning as I go. This is a brand new experience for me as I'm having fun learning. This chocolate soap is a trail run as I try to formulate a recipe or two that turns out gorgeous soap. The idea behind it is that once I get soap recipes that work using this chocolate by product, my friend and all around zen guru, will have a product for retail.

Remember if you want to send me any soap tips or simply just drop me a note, you can email me at littleirishblog@gmail.com.