Teach Soap

I'm trying out that 100% CO recipe (20% SF) this afternoon (on soapbuddy's recommendation)!

But yes, there is something about cocoa butter in soap that is amazing ... I think I just need to up my SF level. Not sure if I should keep some shea in there or not.

Where do you buy the food grade CO? That smell would be amazing! (I'm in Canada so you can't buy CO off the shelf anywhere that I've seen. I have to order my CO from a soap supplier.)

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

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

Well THAT was interesting ...

I just made the 100% CO ("fisherman's") soap with 20% SF, anise EO and a teeny bit of clove EO. Was hummin' along having a grand old time and then...

SEIZ-o-RAMA!

But I got it all shoved into the mold regardless. Geez and it looked so beautiful in the pot too. All smooth and creamy. Serves me right though for mucking around with a swirl. Now said "swirl" will be more like a ... beige "smoosh" on the top. HA!

Never had that happen before. Wow!

It's now gelling in the mold (no lid/no insulation/raised on blocks). Hotter than hell but not overflowing.

I need a stiff drink.

Karri

_________________
I soap therefore I am.

Clove can make your soap seize. I would like to bet that's what happened. Bummer.

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

Must be a combo of the clove and CO because I used it at even slightly less concentration than my orange spice batch which didn't seize at all. I had lots of time to play with it actually. But that one had multiple diff ingredients.

I think I should have not stick blended for quite as long as I tend to over blend my batter b/c I'm paranoid about false trace. BAD BAD BAD habit. It was at light trace and I kept going ... had I stopped blending sooner I probably would have retained a nice smooth, beautiful soap.

I knew that eventually that habit would get me!

Hopefully when I cut it, including cutting off the ugly top, it will be sorta kinda okay looking. Grrr!

Karri

_________________
I soap therefore I am.

Oh no, Karri!! I'm sorry to hear that. It could have been worse, though; at least it's a sort of lovely brown

@Irena: I use CPHP method and pre-melt the cocoa butter in a glass set in some hot water on the stove. I find when I'm HP'ing 100% coconut, as soon as it rises and settles back down and gets the skin on top, it's ready to stir, add my SF/scent and put into the mold. It saponifies SO fast for some reason; in less than 10 minutes. I might not be cooking it long enough tho, as I'm still a newb, but it seems to work. I want to try a longer cook one day in the near future and see how it differs. How long do you usually cook yours, if you use HP method? Just curious. There don't seem to be a lot of of 100% CO soapers out there, and you have a lot of experience! I'd love to pick your brain sometime.

I just bathed with one of the CB bars I made yesterday and my entire shower smelled like a chocolate factory. I can't wait to see what they're like after a few weeks of curing.

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

That makes sense, Irena. Sigh... this is a bad coconut day for people, I guess. I just completely volcanoed my batch out of my crockpot cause I took my eye off it for one minute. I guess the oil was still really hot from infusing some lavender earlier. So I got most of the clean soap back into the pot and THEN... I think I wasted about an ounce of lavender essential oil... i spooned it in before I put the SF oils (which cools it down usually) and POOF, a TON of it went up in vapor. I'm such an idiot! We'll see how much scent is left when it cools. Siiiiiiighhhh.

About the 0 superfat thing; do you think I should add a few extra grams of base oil to make sure all the lye is consumed in each batch??

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

Good point, Irena I guess you have to make mistakes to learn! The batch actually turned out decently, just a wee bit smaller than it should be, since a lot of it ended up on the floor, lol. Just finished cutting it.

And Karri, did you mean food grade coconut oil or cocoa butter? I bought them both off Amazon, but I just re-ordered some cocoa butter from Bramble Berry. It hasn't arrived yet, but on the website it says it has a very chocolate aroma, so I'm assuming it's raw food grade.

The extra virgin coconut oil has a lovely smell too, but it doesn't really show up in the finished soap, even if I superfat at 20% after the soap cooks. But when you smell inside the bottle it smells heeaaaavenly. I really wish the smell came through, or that there was a coconut EO. I'm kinda coconut obsessed.

Oh, and I don't use EV coconut oil as my base oil, btw! That would be ridonkulously expensive! I got the 50lb pail from soaper's choice. It's a godsend.

@soapsougoii Oops, I must have misread your post. Sorry! I've bought the cocoa butter from Brambleberry to and it smells absolutely divine. I also have been buying my coconut oil there but I don't really notice a smell from it, even before I soap with it. But isn't extra virgin CO supposed to smell really good / be extra luxurious in body butter? Thought I read that somewhere...

Karri

_________________
I soap therefore I am.

Extra virgin coconut will not add scent to CP soap, but will add a mild scent in lotions or butters.

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