Teach Soap

I made my first batch of soap last Saturday, using this recipe:

Handmade Honey Soap

Honey soap is a beautiful soap with a wonderful sweet smell. It comes out a great deepbrown color, and feels fabulous on your skin. Here's a tip for you, whenever you are
measuring honey or molasses or any other viscous liquid along those lines, if you spraythe measuring cup or spoon with a PAM type spray, the honey will pour
out more completely, and cleanup will be much easier.

12 oz veg shortening
4 oz coconut oil
1 oz beeswax
1 cup distilled water
2 oz lye
1/8 cup (1 fluid ounce) honey

Mix lye and water, allow to cool. Melt vegetable shortening. Over a double boiler, melt wax and coconut oil together together, and keep warm. When shortening is 120* and lye
is 100*, pour lye mixture into shortening and stir until tracing occurs. Pour wax and oil mixture into soap mixture stirring constantly ( the mixture will get VERY thick with the
addition of the beeswax mix) When the beeswax mixture is completely blended, stir in the honey and pour into molds. Unmold after 24-48 hours. Allow to age for 3 weeks

The soap has been curing for almost a week now and I - being impatient - took a piece of it (it is very soft) and used it to wash my hands. It worked beautifully, but I'm wondering if I did something wrong? Is it possible that the soap does not need 3 weeks to age? It was not harsh and did not have a "zing" taste when I tested it with my tongue. Just wondering if anyone can give me some pointers. I want to make another batch, but don't know if I have messed up this batch or not.

Thank you.

I don't know where you got that recipe, but you can safely melt all your oils, butters and beeswax together. If it was me, I would lower the beeswax to 0.5 ozs. for that size soap batch and recalculate. It is better if your lye and oils are at about the same temp. I would try having them both at around 110 degrees. 1 oz. of honey could make your soap a little sticky. I would go with 1 TBS per lb. of soap instead. Too much honey (or any type of sugar) can make your soap overheat.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Congrats on making your first batch!

Saponification and major changes in the ph should happen within the first 24-48 hours. The purpose of curing is mostly to allow excess water to evaporate, and that should help your soap get harder. The ph will also continue to become more mild during the cure time. I'm impatient too and I almost always test a sliver of my soap the same day I cut it. Sounds like you did everything just right!