No Lye
Christmas is coming. And that means it's time to make my annual chocolate-mint soap. On Thursday and Friday nights (after the children were in bed), I made soap. It's really a quick process and took about an hour from start to finish, including clean up. And it looks so yummy (like chocolate pudding) and smells so yummy (think Peppermint Patties and Junior Mints ) that the effort seems minimal. However, on Thursday night, I skipped a step in mixing the cocoa powder to some oil to blend it before adding it to the lye mixture and rest of the oils. I tried to blend out the lumps, but I noticed a few as I poured it into the mold. Drats ! I knew I'd need another batch anyway, so I made soap on Friday night as well. When that turned out nicely, I figured I would make some more on Saturday night (Joe was out of town for part of the week and all of the weekend, so I had plenty of time on my hands), but I needed more lye. I usually buy my lye at Lowe's. It's the only loc