Teach Soap

Tried something new for me today. Poured hot lye solution over my oils to melt it was scary for a minute as it did not look like the oils would melt but it seems to have worked, not sure I am brave enough to try again lol but sure speeded up the process and gave me extra time to work on my colors.

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Four Seasons Fine Handcrafted Soaps
& Specialties, Inc.
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I have this on my list of things to try. Maybe tomorrow!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Glad that worked for you. Just don't use any accelerating fragrances or beeswax.

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

In one of the videos I checked out from the library they kind of did it this way. They mixed the lye solution as per usual with water in a big stainless steel pot, and then added their solid fats to the lye to melt, and then once that melted they added the liquid oil. It seemed to work out just fine for them, and it makes sense to use the hot lye for melting purposes rather than use the microwave.

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Four Seasons Fine Handcrafted Soaps
& Specialties, Inc.
Laugh, Love, Live!

I was taught to always add the lye water to the fats.... I did just try this for the second time. Used powdered goats milk, and this time I got some very tiny white spots on my bars of soap. They are on the ones that I gelled. Those that gelled do not zap, and of course the ungelled bars did... I still have to test those again. Yes the process is quicker, because you do not have to wait for the lye to cool down, or take the time to melt the oils.... but the jury is still out on if I like it.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I liked it ok. Still unsure if it will be a continued thing. I tried it for the pioneer day tomorrow, which is an outside activity(so no electricity and no stick blender ) Will have to try it again and use stick blender and see if I like it better.

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Debbie

I will probably give this a shot tomorrow (adding lye to solid oils, then adding liquid oils). Anything to speed up the process a little would be nice. But as usual, I have a bunch of questions first! Does anyone know...

- If the hot lye solution doesn't completely melt the oils for whatever reason, can you simply heat the batch up to finish it off? Would this accelerate trace?

- If I start with room temperature oils and do a 3lb batch, about what temperature will the mixture be once the oils are melted? (I've been soaping below ~115 to avoid gel and overheating.)

- Should I spoon-stir much while the lye melts the oils or will this speed up trace?

Thank you, everyone! Much appreciated

Only tried this once so far but on BB Facebook page many soapers told me this is the only way they soap. I would not try to heat the solution if the oils do not melt I use veg shorting and made an 8 pound swirl cp and it came out ok. I used a spoon first to mix slow so not to splash lye then used short burst of my stick blender. To be honest think if I did not use my stick blender would not have melted in time. I would do it again but like with all my soaping techniques it has its place and time.

_________________
Four Seasons Fine Handcrafted Soaps
& Specialties, Inc.
Laugh, Love, Live!

_________________
Four Seasons Fine Handcrafted Soaps
& Specialties, Inc.
Laugh, Love, Live!

Here is a link to what happened to me the first time: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7496&start=15
The second time I had premelted my butters and coconut oil (the latter just because I had to in order to pour from the container it was stored in). So with the second batch all the hard oils melted sooner since there were less of them, it reached trace in 1.5 min with a stick blender. I use a spoon to stir until the oils are melted. I added the goats milk powder just after the oils were emulsified.
The temp did get down to near 100 degrees with this batch, but gelled on top of heating pad - reached 124 degrees and other than those darn little white spots looks like great soap. Oddly the few nongelled soaps from the same batch did not have the little white spots. I need to get my photos up for both of these batches.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

In the video I watched she added the solid fats to the lye, then she used a spoon to stir and sort of "squished" the solid fats against the side the pan to try and speed up the melting process. Before she added the liquid oils she did mix it with the stick blender for a few seconds just to break up the solid fats even more. By the looks of it the solid fats would have melted on their own in the lye if she had waited a bit longer - by the time she used the stick blender it was mostly melted anyway.

Linda, I thought maybe it was the goats milk as well. I did not use palm oil in this recipe. The nongelled soaps were small guest soaps, that also may be a reason for not seeing the spots. I have a hard time getting small individual molds to gel... so I let it do its own thing. I usually add the goats milk powder to my cooled oils as well, but if I need to add the lye to melt the oils that is not possible. I am working on this process batch by batch.

Selena, I am still a little leary about adding the fats to the lye water... it goes agaist everything I was taught. There was a time when I added liquid goats milk to my cooled lye water and was "encouraged" never to add anything to the lye water. Maybe someone with more experience than I have would like to shed some light on this. I think it is better to be safe than sorry and I don't think there would be any difference if you poured the hot lye over the oils. Seems to me it had to do with either the possibility of splashing the lye solution or creating a lye volcano.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I would never add oils TO the lye water, whether or not the oils are melted. Too many things can go wrong this way. Always add your lye water TO the oils.

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