Teach Soap

Kind of on subject. I made my second batch of CPOP a month ago. I sliced the bars and they are oily all over. Nice and hard and ok on ph but there is that oily film. Did I let it gel too much? I make Goat Milk soap, mosltly just CP. I love the idea of getting the soap to saponify in a hurry without losing swirls and stuff and have been scared that it would separate like it does in the crockpot but so far no problem there. Just the oily film. Suggestions?

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

Wow. After reading your story, I've decided that CP is the ONLY method for me. I cannot imagine dealing with the potential mess of HP. But now I'm curious as to "why" one would choose to do HP soap when it's so volatile? It's an honest question, not a judgement on anyone's technique ...just curious as to the benefits of HP compared to CP? I'm sooooooooooo new to soaping and the vast amount of information on the net is overwhelming.

Actually, that batch was CPOP - cold process, oven process. I put it in a very low oven to force gel, and it fought back. Hot process has its advantages, one being that you can wait until after the cook when everything is fully saponified (the lye is gone) to add your superfatting oils. If you want to be sure that oil X is the one left unsaponified, that's how you do it. You can also use less fragrance since it doesn't have to fight the lye monster so much. The only drawback for me personally is that the soap always looks rustic. Rustic has its place, but I'm drawn to the design possibilities of cold process. Give both a try and see what you think. Experimenting is half the fun!

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Jennifer
Doing my best to blow up my kitchen. In style!