Teach Soap

I am trying new recipes and just a bit confused about temperatures. I use the soap calculators, but I see some people online are making beautiful designs that can be only be achieved at low temps-like 85-90 degrees. If I let the oils and lye get this low, how do I know that saponification has occurred? Also, as with goats milk, I read some people don't like it to gel, yet isn't this when saponification is taking place? Isn't the heat required to bond the lye and oils? I'm confused.

There are also some essential oils that have low flashpoints (citrus scents in particular) and if you gel the soap, the scent dissipates.

I am waiting very impatiently for a batch I made yesterday to harden sufficiently to take out of the mold. I didn't gel it because I used orange EO and it takes 2-3 times longer for it to firm up sufficiently to unmold.

I also did a small batch of soap yesterday that was 100% coconut oil. It gelled and I was able to unmold and cut it with just a few hours of pouring.

Reba, it can be very difficult to tell if you have really reached trace or not when you soap cool, which is why we don't recommend doing that until you have some experience under your belt. The more cool, the easier it is to have a false trace. I suggest soaping at about 120 or so. You will find where you like to soap and that certain recipes you do one way and others another and eventually you won't even think about temps.
ahutchins explained the rest, so I will just say good luck and don't stress over it. The big deal is that you get everything mixed and that you achieve that trace. For everything else, you will pretty much find people that do things each and every way possible. For instance, I do (usually) gel my goat milk soap while many others don't. It all comes down to personal preference. Experiment, try different methods and see what you like best. Keep asking questions and reading too. It is a journey and you are just beginning, so enjoy the ride!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Slowing trace with soapmaking oils that are slow to trace is a better bet. If you soap too cool, you can reach false trace, as some of the oils/butters will start to solidify. False trace can give you lye pockets or make the soap lye heavy. I prefer not to gel. Soap does not need to gel in order for it to become soap. The saponification just slows down.

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

If you don't gel your soap you should not expect to unmold it for a bit longer and it might zap for the first few days. Don't zap test it for several days. I like to soap between 110 - 115. Keep your lye water and your oils close to the same temp (within 10 degrees of each other).

Jill

I just ordered Scientific Soapmaking : The Chemistry of the Cold Process by Kevin M. Dunn (2010, Paperback) today. I'm hoping it will teach me more about the science behind it all. I haven't had organic chemistry classes in over 20 years, so I don't know if this is an approachable book yet or not.

I had done a google search for 'kevin dunn filetype:pdf' after hearing about his book a month or two ago to see what he had out on the web - and there were two good PDF files of slides from him teaching in 2010 in the google results. One of them was called CavemanChemistry and the other ScientificSoapmaking. He must have taught a couple classes in soap making chemistry. There was some really interesting information in them, so I'm hoping the book will be good.