Making soap

A few days ago, we turned our shop into our workshop.. we were making soap...

You can see, everything is ready now, the frames are lined with paper, and the soap turning pot is ready...

We heat the biological olive- and avocado oil to 27C, the mixture of hydrolate or flowerwater with the caustic soda is cooled to 27C as well, and then both are mixed...

Here, the soap mixture is turning. The oil and the hydrolate have a temperature of 27 degrees C, and now the mixture has to homogenize.... It needs continuous attention.... We make each batch of soap separately, one mixture will fill one frame...

The mixture is turning.... we are waiting for it to 'trace', then we add the essential oils... to trace it can take anything from 20 to 40 minutes for each batch, since we make soap with the 'cold production procedure', which will preserve the vitamins of the organic oils as well as the qualities of the hydrolate and the essential oils..

When it has homogenized, the raw soap is poured into the paper-lined frame..

The pot is emptied completely, scraped of any soap..

And then, the raw soap is spread evenly in the frame..

And then, the frame is covered, as you can see below. Each frame holds about 8 kilos of soap..which will cut into 50 bars.

Now covered with the wooden lids, the frames are then covered with a woolen blanket... By now, it was night, and late..

The day after, we did cut the soap into bars... We finished cutting just around 6 o'clock on christmas eve...

..and now the bars are stashed for drying.. will have to cure for about 2-3 weeks, before they are ready for use...

And we were ready to have a shower, and leave for a Christmas concert down in Plakias...