November 17, 1998

Another fine day of not doing much. :) I needed to wash some, ah, unmentionables :) so I made laundry soap for the first time.

I took a bar of my Lavender Glop soap and a bar of my plain lard soap that I don't particularly care for, and grated them up. Then I filled up a spaghetti-sauce jar with the shavings. I put a saucepan of water and a tea kettle both on the stove to bring them to a boil. When they were boiling, I put the jar in the saucepan (the El Cheapo Double Boiler) and filled the jar up with boiling water. The soap started to dissolve, but it still took about an hour of boiling the saucepan of water and mixing it with a wooden spoon to get it all dissolved and integrated.

I finally got it all done at about 9:30 in the evening, and put it in a cold-water bath to cool it down. The goop that they use to glue the labels on the jars was this weird kind of greasy stuff, it melted partway and got all over the jar, so I had to wash the jar off. I got the soap cooled enough where I could handle the jar easily, and I added a couple droppers full of Sweet Orange EO to make it smell nice.

Then I used some! :) It didn't seem to mix in with the water in the sink too well, probably too thick, but it sudsed and cleaned just fine.

Steve didn't think it looked too good, but then again I think he's still a little scared of my soap. I think I'm going to try to sneak wash a few loads of laundry with this laundry soap and see if he notices. I put the jar downstairs by our shared washer and dryer; I hope the downstairs neighbor (new, just moved in on the 8th) doesn't think it's some sort of weird experiment and throw it out. :)