Teach Soap

I am new to soap making, and I have spent some serious time reading books and doing research on the Internet. But one of my favorite things to do is read blogs and forums. So I religiously read Anne-Marie's blog, the MMS blog, as well as other non-distributor blogs. I hope you can understand why, as a new soap maker, I became very confused after reading this post. It seems very convincing, yet contradictory to pretty much everything I have read. I am wondering if someone can point and push me to the science behind saponification and cure time. Read the whole discussion on the posted thread, she also talks about not going through gel phase. Again, very interesting, and contradictory to many of the discussions on this board.
I have another question about lotion making and how swiftcraftymonkey insists that you need to heat and hold the water and the oils, but that will be for another post on another day!
Thank you so much! Here is the link to the post.
[url][http://forum.thesage.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=341&Focus=3654#Comment_3654/url]

It must have been pulled. It now says "The requested discussion could not be found"
Soap does not need to gel in order for it to become good soap. When I first started my soaping career, I used to gel because that's what my mother did. I prefer to not gel as the soap comes out lighter and I can use less fragrance. Ungelled soap takes longer to saponify, but once my ungelled soap cures, you would not be able to tell a difference. I cure for at least 4 weeks and prefer 6 weeks. BTW...I have been making soap since 1969.

swiftcraftymonkey is right on. Always heat and hold your liquid before making any lotion or cream. It is an extra safety measure (along with a preservative of course) to make sure that most germs, mold and bacteria have been killed off. swiftcraftymonkey has a lot of knowledge and I trust her judgement.

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

I don't know if she is a soaper, but I disagree. My lye does not react with air, nor does it get ash. I'm sure I have been soaping longer than she has. I find soap right after cutting usable, but drying. After four weeks of cure it makes for a great bar of soap. Don't believe everything you see on the net.

PS. Make sure that you get permission to quote the original author on another soaping forum.

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

SB, I think she is confused because the author of that, the one that answered is the owner of the soap forum, the owner of the soaping company, and I read her stuff before and was confused too. From what I read one day, She was making, cutting and shipping soap all on the same day. I didn't see where she was popping it in an oven either, so I just thought I must have misread something or she didn't fully explain, as she wasn't even using her 2 week cure time that she discusses in this thread. I got to that thread from the link (the 1st one), but I was left shaking my head. Still, she has a large forum and, from the looks of it, a decent sized company, so a lot of people are listening to what she says and following her advice.

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

Tammy

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

Oh I so agree, same goes with lots of people and the things they make! I was just saying that the situation heightens the confusion.

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

Tammy