Well, what do you know?  It was Ganesha’s birthday yesterday!  You may remember Ganesha as portrayed by Homer Simpson at Apu’s wedding a few years back.  Naturally, Homer got him all wrong, trying to portray him as a wrathful god.  Ganesha is one of the most beloved deities in Hinduism, and as a peaceful, content lord of success and remover of obstacles, it’s easy to see why.  Who doesn’t want to succeed and have difficulties removed from their path?!

Ganesha is one of my favorites, as well.  He just seems cuddly and, I don’t know, comforting.  So I thought I’d join in the celebration of his existence by showing you how I make my Ganesha soap.  I explained the cold process method of soapmaking a few posts back, and in it I alluded to another process, called hot process.  Where cold process soap must cure for 2 to 4 weeks before it is ready for use, hot process soap is cooked, so saponification is accelerated to completion during the 2 to 3 hour soap making session.  Once it has cooked, it is ready to use immediately (though it is wise to let it cool at least).  Having both hot and cold process soaps makes it much easier to keep my shop open, for as a one-woman operation, it’s difficult to keep everything stocked when there is a 3 or 4 week lag time.  With hot process soaps, if something sells out unexpectedly, I can have it back in the shop within a week.  So let’s see how it’s done!

To begin, I gather all of my equipment and ingredients. (You can read about the ingredients I use here.)

For hot process soap, there is a little more leeway for timing, as you don’t have to bring your oils and your lye solution to the same temperature.  I generally measure all of my solid fats (in this soap, coconut oil and organic palm oil) and liquid oils (olive oil for the Ganesha bar) into my crock pot, put the lid on, and set it on high.  It will take about 15 minutes for everything to melt.  Meanwhile, I measure my distilled water, gear up in my Haz Mat wear, and measure out sodium hydroxide granules to pour into the water to make my lye solution.  Once the fats have all melted, I turn the crock pot to low, then pour the lye directly into the melted oils.  I blend with my stick blender until it is the thick consistency of pudding.  This is called full trace.

Next I cover the pot and set a timer for 10 minutes.  Soap has blown the lid of my crock pot before when I wasn’t keeping a close eye on it.  I do not like when that happens.

After about 10 minutes, the soap has begun to cook.  Below you can see the hard soap (the smooth soap at the bottom) with the cooking soap bubbling up around it. The pool of liquid in the center is the glycerin, which is a (very beneficial) byproduct of the soapmaking process.

After about 5 more minutes, the soap is completely cooked and can be removed from heat. The lye has all reacted with the oils, and the soap is completely safe to use now – no lye remains. At this point, if you rub a little soap between your fingers, it should should feel smooth, not grainy. Note the large pool of glycerin on the bottom right.

Now the glycerin and soap just need to be mixed together, so I stir them briskly to get the thick solution as homogenous as I can.  Stirring also helps cool the soap, which is necessary when you are adding any essential oils (or fragrances).  If the soap is too hot, the expensive oils will literally evaporate away on contact with the soap, and the scent will not hold.

After stirring down the soap and cooling it (I stir, then let it rest for 5 minutes, then stir again – I do this for about 30 minutes), I add essential oils and any other additives.

Next I glop the cooked and scented soap into the mold.  It is very thick at this point.

Once the mold is full, I bang it on the counter or floor to help fill in the corners and even out the soap in the mold.

Finally, I press the thick soap to smooth out the top and finish evening it out in the mold so that bars can be cut to approximately the same sizes.

I let it cool overnight, then unmold and slice the next day.  I usually do give it a short cure time – a few days – just to let it harden up before shipping it off to customers. And there you go – easy peasy, just like Ganesha!

If you are interested in making your own hot process soap, Delores Boone’s Handcrafted Soap is a fantastic guide for hot process soapmaking.