So, I have started testing my various recipes!  My first one is my original recipe.  My plan is to use each one for 3 showers then move on to the next one.  I'll see if there is any major difference in feel, lather, conditioning between the recipes.  Let the games begin!

So, I've checked my rebatched confetti soap…  Not sure if I like the fragrance.  The peppermint that I got from it seems to be fading.  Which leaves… I don't know what.  After all it was a mix of a bunch of different fragranced soap trimmings.  I definitely get 'soap' smell, but I don't know if I really like it.  So not only is it not that great looking but doesn't smell that great either.  Well, I'll let it do it's curing and see if the fragrance changes any more.  I'd hate to have to rebatch a rebatch.  But during a rebatch I can add some more fragrance.  I think also the slow cooker maybe getting the soap too hot, even on low, and the soap is overheating which is giving it an overcooked soap smell.  I might have to dump this soap in the end.  Sigh… 

It's going to take me some time before I collect more soap shavings.  Maybe I'll just have to make a batch of unfragranced soap that I divide up into different colors and then make the confetti shreddings on purpose.  I'll have to remember next time that I do confetti soap to not put as much in as I did last time.  It was way too overloaded with trimmings. 

I experimented with packaging today on some of the older soaps from the beginning of the year.  I included the name of the soap which is usually the fragrance name and some sort of packaging.  The newer soaps still need to cure more before packaging.

* Cigar bands of corrugated paper and another thinner band around that with the fragrance and ingredients. As the soap continues to shrink the bands will loosen, so may need to readjust later
* Sheer ivory organza bag that included a paper with info
* Clear cellophane wrapped package style with info paper.  The cello won't let the soap breath and doesn't let the fragrance out too much so it may be more difficult to really smell the soap
* Shrink wrapped with both ends open, may need to re-heat gun if soap shrinks more
* “Blanket wrapped” soap with paper
* The round soaps I used coffee filters that I pulled up around the soap and secured the ends with a round info sticker

I tried to use the filters with the oval soaps, but I'm not sure if I like the look as much as with the circular soaps. 

The odd shaped soaps like the stars or the eye shaped soaps I put them into organza bags.  That seemed to work with those, but I've heard that as the soaps move around in the bag the soap particulates gum up the inside of the bag and make it mucky looking. 

I'll have to decide what packaging I like best.

I counted them up, I have 28 different soap recipes!  They range from just 4 days old to over 12weeks old.  I think I am ready to start using them in the shower.  I'll use the oldest first.  I want to wait until each of the soaps are at least 4 weeks old before I use them.  I plan on using each bar of soap for 3 showers to evaluate the qualities.  I'm going to have a whole line up of soaps in my shower.  I cannot have 28 different recipes in my repertoire.  I'll have to narrow down.  If I don't notice any discernible difference between recipes then I need to evaluate which ones are worth repeating.  I want to try all the soaps before I give any away just in case something is wrong with any of them.  I don't plan on making any more soap for right now, unless I have an overwhelming urge to make some, which likely will happen anyway.  However, I think I've pretty much made the different major categories of soaps that I wanted to make.

Castile
Milk
Honey
100% coconut oil
Salt Bar
Lard Bar
Whipped Soap
Coffee
Beer

Oh, the coffee soap with coffee grounds soap I made I put in WAY too much coffee grounds.  It's exfoliating to be sure, but painfully so.  I'm not sure what to do with them.  Should I leave them as is, or cut them up and rebatch them with new soap to mellow out the coffee ground ratio, or just toss them.  I'm leaning towards shredding them up and mixing them in with new soap.   But what new soap to mix them in with?  Hmmm…  I'm hoping my soap testing will narrow the choices down. 

So I cut up my milk bastile soaps.  The bars (not the tiny ones) in the photo are 3.5 inches x 2.5 in x 2 in.  I would usually cut them in half so that I'd have two 3.5×2.5×1 bars, but I wanted all the bars to have the same honeycomb on three sides.  So, I cut them into three 2.5×1.2×1.  Smaller bars, but I'd have more of them too if I wanted to give them away to more people. 

Anyway, the soap was still really too soft to cut.  I should have waited more, but that would require more patience. So they are bit sticky inside and had some sticking to the blade, like cutting through cheesecake.  I get more of the ammonia waft after I cut it, I'm sure that will mellow with time.  The non-gelled soaps had a little bit of liquid sweat on the bottom side.  Lick – slight zap, BUT I'm not rebatching this.  I'm going to chalk it up to non-gelling and I'm going to ignore it for right now and let it cure.  I'm hoping that it will absorb back into the soap and be just fine.  The gelled soaps show no sign of this lye sweating.  So they are now off to cure. 

I rebatched my confetti bastile.  It's still a confetti soap, but more of a tan beige background.  It's an interesting fragrance.  I definitely smell the peppermint.  Maybe this won't be so bad afterall.

OK, so I've unmold everything from yesterday.  The milk soaps came out really
nice.  There is a really big
difference of the colors between gelled and not gelled.  The non gelled soaps are a creamy color
while the gelled soaps where more brown. 
I'll post photos.  The
plastic bubble wrap left a texture that is really cool.  The gelled soap is much harder than the non gelled.  I probably should have left the non
gelled in their molds until tomorrow, but I couldn't wait.  I had to pop them out.  They are so soft the I dare not cut
into them tonight, I was afraid I'd squish them just moving them around.  The gelled one I probably could cut,
but I think I'll leave them until tomorrow.  The gelled milk soaps with honey is darkest.  The sugar in the honey makes the saponification run hotter which carmelizes more of the sugars so darker color. The non gelled
soaps all have the same creamy color.  I'm not
sure which color I like better. 
The cream is nice, but the tan color is also nice especially for the
honey one. Hmm… I'll need to think about that one.  But that is why I wanted to see the difference between gel and
non gel.  I usually gel all my
soaps, but I wanted to see the difference in milk and honey soaps. There is a faint ammonia smell which I'm told is normal with milk soaps and will fade with curing.  I don't think I really smell any of the honey, but there is a slight nuttiness as well.

So that's
the good news…

The bad news. 
My confetti soap.  I was so
excited to see this soap because it was in a 1/2 gallon milk carton so I
thought I'd cut them into triangles. 
Then because they are filled with trimmings from my other soaps I was
interested to see how they turned out all together.  Well, it looked interesting I think I put too many trimmings
in though.  I think it would look
better with more base batter an less confetti.  But anyway, when I cut into it there were pockets of lye
water oozing.  #$%@&*$!!  No one wants caustic soap!  I did the lick test to make sure it
wasn't just oil seeping out. 
Zap!  Tingly tongue.  So no, it's definitely
lye.  So then I cut it up and threw
it all into a crock pot to rebatch. 
Rebatching will soften the soap and heat it to go back into a gel phase
where the lye can find more oil and get used up.  When I scoop the gooey mass into a mold later it should no
longer be caustic.   So it's
cooking away now.  I have no idea
what is going to come out now.