On the Curing Rack: Cherry Blossom Soap
Just in case you haven’t been following the saga of the PVC Pipe Soap Experiment, you may find Part 1 and Part 2 quite interesting.
It was no easy task getting the soap out of the pipe, let me tell you. First, I put the pipe in the freezer for a couple hours on Friday night, then took it out and tried to push the soap out. No luck, so I put the soap back in the freezer and went to bed.
Yesterday, I read all the lovely comments with added suggestions on how to get the soap out, and decided to try a couple of ways to warm up the pipe. Meanwhile, I could see that the soap was trying to pull away from the sides of the pipe, except at the bottom where the glycerin soap plug was. So I took a knife and worked it between that soap and the pipe.
First pipe warming exercise was to use my heat gun. I figured that might be the least messy way to go. So after warming up the pipe for about 5 minutes, I took one of my hand weights and set it on end, placed some plastic wrap over it, and started pushing against the soap. Absolutely no movement whatsoever.
Second pipe warming exercise was to boil a pot of water and pour it over the pipe, which was propped in the sink. Same leverage against my hand weight – and nothing.
Put the soap back in the freezer, posted this photo on Facebook, and got more suggestions on how to get the soap out:
The key was letting it sweat. I pulled it out of the freezer again, only this time I let it sit there until the pipe was really wet. And, I let Hubby lean on it (which may have been the real key all along!). It finally slid out, but it was still frozen and getting late, so I let it thaw overnight and then sliced it up this morning:
There are eight soaps, each weighs more than five ounces. About half of them have some sort of gap where the pink soap didn’t quite fill in around the “petals”, the worst is this one, so not too bad:
They sure smell fabulous!! My plan is to make them the Soap of the Week in about a month. And maybe I will try doing another batch before then, now that I know how it works (and will likely NEVER forget to line the pipe again!). Any suggestions for scents or colors?
Page with Comments
Comments are closed.
Yay! You got it out and it looks like it was worth all the effort!
You’re charging a million dollars per slice, right?
I LOVE Japanese Cherry Blossom, Cherry Blossom, SWEET PEA, Hyacinth, Hydrangea…Lilac is lovely too…I am thinking flower with the design in the middle right now. lol
I bet you won’t forget to line that pipe again…LOL…You are a trooper and I can’t wait to get one of those soaps! yumm!!!
Valerie
That’s an awesome soap Amy! Great work! I think you should do a sunflower soap of some kind! Brown center, yellow petals, and green or blue as the outer soap! Sunflowers are going to be going crazy here soon!
Wow, you managed to get them out! Thank God for that! It’s lovely, beautiful pink colour and I bet it smells amazing. The best thing about stuff going wrong is learning from it… I bet it’ll be WAY easier next time!
So glad you won the fight on this one! They look great!
Yes, these will be a million dollars each, and next I will do a sunflower soap that will be much less expensive. LOL! Love Valerie’s suggestions also – they might be more suited for Spring. Always planning ahead though!
They turned out wonderfully-even the botched one! I also found a resource for PVC piper liners!
http://www.lovinsoap.com/2011/08/3-liners-for-pvc-or-mail-tubes/
@Patrice – Thank you!! I saw that post – after I had already bought my teflon ones. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
These are so cool! I’m glad you finally got them out … so worth it!
I love the colours you have already, but maybe if you make them again you could do one batch this colour, and another batch white with pink ‘petals’?
This has been a great series. Very exciting to follow 🙂 I’m so glad you got it out in the end. I’ve used a silicone bking sheet liner when I use a pipe, but it leaves a bit of a seam. I really like this technique. Lovely to be able to do flowers like that.
Way to go!!! Not too many people are going to have these special soaps for sale. The idea of putting a yellow one in the middle with other colors for petals would be another adventure. How cool…
What a terrific outcome Amy!! All the hard work and patience paid off beautifully. Lovely!! 🙂
Hi Amy,
And we thought preparing an exclusively branded autumn soap for a very successful client was a bit of a challenge, with mixing oils, trying essential oils we had never worked with, and dealing with some fairly steep expenses. Well, I would say you really had a MacGyver action going on. Great job and your husband certainly proved his expertise here.
So, what will be the price for the Cherry Blossom Soap again:)
These turned out so pretty and your hard work paid off. With the one with the hole you could try using a pipette and using clear or with glycerin soap to fill it up.
Looking forward to seeing the other batches you come up with.
Michelle
Boy, oh boy, oh boy, you’re a clever little sausage! one in a million soap! might have to frame one of them:)
Thank you for all your kind comments! I am definitely looking forward to starting the next batch – soon.
@Michael – I think I like your project better. You definitely stand to make more of a profit! LOL! You think a million is too much?
@Michelle – I hadn’t thought of filling the hole! But that would probably work!
@Jan – I’ve never been called a “clever little sausage” before! I’m pretty sure that’s a compliment in Aussie-speak, right?
Those came out super cute!
All the hard work was soooo worth it! The soaps came out super duper cute =)
Next time line the pipe with Parchment or wax paper. It will come right out…
@Mike – Thanks, I did that with the Tranquil Pear soap just last week and it did wonders!!