Gu Qinghuan used to make lard soap. To be honest, that pot of lard was worth a lot of money, which directly increased the cost.
If you really use lard to make soap and sell it, you will lose a lot of money.
Under current conditions and limited costs, Gu Qinghuan gave priority to choosing the cheapest rice bran oil.
Rice bran oil is a kind of oil made by pressing rice bran. It is rarely used for food and is mostly used to make industrial raw materials such as feed, soap, margarine, glycerin, stearic acid, oleic acid, paint resin, etc.
This oil is neither good nor bad to use, but it is cheap, and the soap made from it is very clean and feels very refreshing.
But they can’t buy this kind of oil here, so they have to go to the province to look.
In addition to fats and oils, there is alkali. The alkali used here is sodium hydroxide, commonly known as alkali.
Alkali can be bought everywhere, but you have to pay attention to the purity. It must be alkali with a purity of more than 92%, otherwise it will easily fail if there are too many impurities.
The two most important things in making soap are these two things, and the rest are some unnecessary things, such as pigments, essential oils, and various fragrances for aromatherapy.
Considering the cost issue, Gu Qinghuan simply ignored the option of essential oils.
It would be best if you can buy pigments, but forget it if you don't have any.
It was a rare trip for Xu Huainian's generation to go to the county seat and visit the provincial capital.
After asking around, I actually got him to buy cheap rice bran oil and pigment. He was smart and left the manufacturer's contact information. Next time he needed it, he could just call the office and have it sent by mail.
But he had to pay for the postage himself, which was much cheaper than making a round trip.
As for the alkali, he bought some but was reluctant to send them by mail, so he carried all the things back to Xujiatun by himself, which made him exhausted.
In the big backpack, there was a huge white oil barrel, which contained a full pound of oil.
"Feng Qin, guess how much this oil costs per pound?" Xu Huainian said excitedly.
"How much?" Chen Fengqin was busy running around while taking the backpack from him and handing him a towel to wipe his sweat.
"Not even 20 cents a pound! This oil weighs one pound in total, plus this big oil pot, and I only paid twenty yuan in total! Isn't that cheap?
It is a pity that this oil is not eaten but used in industry.
Qing Huan said, "I bought some alkali. It only cost 48 cents for ten kilograms. It's not expensive."
The pigment is a little expensive, a small bottle costs two yuan, but the manufacturer said that this is concentrated pigment, and you only need such a small drop to make a lot of things.
I bought two colors, red and pink, they look bright. "
Xu Huainian listed all the things he bought this time and told Chen Fengqin about them.
"So you spent a total of twenty-four dollars and fifty cents on this trip to get everything you need?"
Chen Fengqin thought that fifty yuan would not be enough! Unexpectedly, she spent half of the money and almost got everything ready.
"More than that, including the round trip fare, it cost more than twenty-nine dollars.
I ran all day and didn't even bother to buy anything to eat. Food in the city is too expensive. The biscuits I brought with me in the morning were long gone. Hurry up and get me something to eat. I was so hungry after carrying them all the way."
Xu Huainian didn't feel hungry until he got home.
Xu Huainian prepared all the materials, and Gu Qinghuan asked Xu the carpenter to make various molds, drying racks and other tools.
Everything is ready, except the east wind.
Gu Qinghuan took time out to return to Xujiatun to teach the couple how to make soap.
The first step is to prepare the materials and use a small scale to weigh a certain amount of materials, not too much or too little, but in the corresponding proportion to succeed.
The second step is to dissolve the alkali and make sure that the sodium hydroxide is completely dissolved in the water until no particles can be seen. This step is more dangerous and must be done with caution.
The third step is mixing. When the temperature of the alkaline solution and the temperature of the oil are maintained at 20℃-40℃, pour the oil into the alkaline solution.
The fourth step is to make the soap. This step is more of a test of your strength. Stir clockwise for about half an hour.
The soap will cook slowly at first and will become thicker as you stir it longer.
Now there is no electric mixer, so we have to use manual labor instead. There is no other way.
Stir until it becomes as thick as soybean paste. If you draw a figure eight and it doesn't disappear immediately, the consistency is basically met.
Next, you can add additives such as coloring and flavoring and mix well.
Step 5: Moulding. Gu Qinghuan had asked Xu Huainian to custom-make a batch of flower-shaped moulds before, and now they are just in use.
Gu Qinghuan dripped red pigment, stirred it evenly, and then poured it into a flower-shaped mold. When the soap was cut out, it was in the shape of a flower, which looked very beautiful.
After the soap is put into the mold and left for three days, it can be demolded. After demolding, let it air dry naturally. When the surface is smooth and not sticky, you can cut the soap.
After cutting, you need to put it in a ventilated place and wait for a while. After it is completely soapy, you can use it.
It takes at least one month to use it.
After Gu Qinghuan demonstrated it to them once, he guided them to do it again.
This is not difficult. In fact, it is mostly physical work. The most important thing is the first step, the proportion of materials. If there is a slight mistake, it will easily fail.
You have to pay attention to safety when dissolving alkali, and the rest is just pure physical work.
The couple carefully took note of Gu Qinghuan's instructions and followed them strictly. They succeeded on the first try, but they would have to wait until it was thoroughly soaped before they knew the specific situation.
Gu Qinghuan supervised them doing it a few more times and found that there were no problems. From then on, practice makes perfect and he no longer needed to watch them do it.
The couple spent two days, along with their son, making soap from all the oil.
During this period, there were not enough molds, so a batch of molds were made temporarily. Because this is a collective factory, there is no cost for this part, and Carpenter Xu did not charge any money.
Five days later, the first batch of soap products came out.
Gu Qinghuan personally brought Xu Huainian and his wife and Xu Wenping to cut the demoulding soap into blocks of similar thickness and knocked the words "Yujie" on them with a mold.
The soap making is basically completed, and the rest is just a matter of time, waiting for them to be completely soapy successfully.
The first batch of soaps were all made in the shape of red flowers, and dried osmanthus flowers collected by Chen Fengqin from the village were added to them. They had a light fragrance that smelled very good.
There are small yellow stamens inside the red soap. This color combination is absolutely amazing, with a kind of classical beauty, and it doesn’t look cheap.
Who knew that it actually costs only three cents each.
Chen Fengqin did some calculations and found that the materials and various expenses added up to about 30 yuan, and the final product cost about 1,000 yuan, not including some scraps.
By this calculation, the cost of a bar of soap is only three cents, and materials like essence can be used for a long time after being bought once, and the cost of making soap next time may even be more than two cents per bar.
It's a great deal to do it yourself.
However, Gu Qinghuan raised a new problem, which was the problem they had forgotten before: packaging!
Clothes make the man, Buddhas rely on gold ornaments. Without good-looking packaging, it won’t work. Xu Huainian has no idea about this.
Gu Qinghuan decided to take some time off to go to the provincial capital, find a packaging factory, and order a batch of paper boxes to test the waters.
She did not choose high-quality packaging for the first batch of soaps. After all, it was just a test, so as long as the quality was acceptable, it would be fine.
There was a magnolia flower printed on the paper box with two big characters on it: Yu Jie.
There is a line of slightly smaller words in the lower right corner: Give your family the best love.
The whole packaging is simple and elegant.
The cost is one cent each, so one thousand would cost ten dollars.
Plus reimbursement of travel expenses.
The initial start-up capital of the small workshop has basically been consumed by 88%.
Whether you can make money in the future depends on this.
Chen Fengqin and Xu Huainian have been under tremendous pressure since they started this factory.
It has been ridiculed by many people in the village.
Some people said that they took the opportunity to save money, spent a lot of the team's collective money, and did not do any practical work.
People asked them where the soap was. Why did they keep saying they were producing it but never saw the soap?
Xu Mingshan, this old fox, was behind the scenes instigating members to cause trouble.
In short, no one is optimistic about their small workshop.
They themselves know the value of these soaps. Once the soaps are successfully sold, it will be a huge amount of money in their accounts. Let's see who dares to say anything then.
The couple is under pressure to do it!
녦Secretly and 놋someone is doing something.
Xu Laoer heard from someone that these soaps were useful, so he sneaked into the processing workshop in the middle of the night to steal some.
Fortunately, Xu Huainian made preparations and let his eldest son Xu Wenping sleep in the processing workshop every day, for fear that the soaps would be damaged.
Xu Wenping caught Xu Laoer in the act. Xu Wenping was tall and strong, so Xu Laoer was no match for him and was subdued in two or three moves.
This incident made Xu Huainian very angry. If Xu Laoer really succeeded, all their efforts would be in vain.
He was determined not to tolerate traitors, and directly sent Xu Laoer to the commune for punishment on the charge of stealing village collective property.
This time Xu Laoer had hit a brick wall. He was directly dragged away and severely criticized for several days. He was then assigned to spit out feces, doing the dirtiest and most tiring work.
This move of killing a chicken to scare the monkey has made the thieves in the village no longer dare to act recklessly.
Xu Huainian became even more vigilant. He slept in the processing workshop himself and had someone watch over it every day, for fear that a piece of soap would be missing.
It looked like it was about to be sold, but the question was how to set the price.
Gu Qinghuan knows that most soaps on the market cost around 30 cents a piece.
They have just started their soap business, so they might as well sell it at a lower price and open up the market first.