Teach Soap

Well! I tried lots of new things this weekend!

Had lots of FO's from BB to test (& colourants) so did a whole heap of kg batches.
As soon as something could pop out of a mould a new one went in! Sooo much fun!

Tried my firstfaux funnel pour, haven't cut it yet.

My first column pour, this looks awesome! But still in mould, a little worried about this one (only 36 hrs at the moment)
Am concerned 1 of the colours may have been at too thin a trace (silly here forgot to stickbend that colour again! DUH!!!)

In saying that, the room my soap is in is freezing! I tried to gel some & they wouldn't even look at it!
Its about 10*C (50*F). Towels are not enough. So any suggestions on heatpads? What is needed? What works best? More soaping stuff, YAY!

Also did 2 small batches of RTCP. Ooooh that was exciting! 500g oils in each.
Couple of questions though, they seemed to trace really fast!
I deliberately used 2 recipes with coconut oil being the only solid so the hot lye would have plenty of time to melt.
But it seemed to take a lot of heat out, When the lye hit the coconut it dropped to 90-95 & that was it, adding oils at about 60 (room temp) & trace was there in literally 2 seconds!

Admittedly I was worried about false trace so did take it a bit further than normal.
So is this a suitable process to use with things like cocoa butter? Or will it not melt?
And others seemed to find they had heaps of time for swirling? I certainly didn't, or maybe it was that false trace fear
Used relaxing fo in 1 & berrywine in the other.

Any ideas for my multitude of questions would be super appreciated

Also did my first goatmilk soap, just added powder to oils, not the 'real' mccoy

Hard to wait to cut when they don't gel

Sounds like you had fun! Soap does not need to gel in order for it to become soap. So I would leave it be. Some fragrances can accelerate trace. Some oils and butters seem to saponify better at around 110-115 degrees (US) Cocoa butter, for example, has a higher melt point so 90 degrees might not be warm enough. My 100% coconut soap traces fast and gels fast. It need to be cut within an hour after it gels, otherwise it gets crumbly.

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

Rocky, I had results similar to yours. I did melt my butters ahead of time in one of my experiments. And trace came very quickly with each batch I tried, my swirls were not that good. So I have gone back to premelting my oils and mixing at 110 degrees. It may take me an extra 15 -20 minutes but I am more comfortable with the process.

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

Sounds like you had a busy weekend! But fun of course!!! Like I posted in another thread, I have been trying to get things ready for my daughter's graduation open house, so haven't been soaping in a while, although I am not doing really well at getting everything ready for her open house, because I have been to busy obsessing about soap-reading more books, watching youtube videos on different techniques, spending time on this forum and others, ordering some jar containers for other things I make and plan on making, comparission shopping, also playing with soapcalc., etc. Doing all this between working and homeschooling(we are almost done ). So once summer vacation sets in hopefully I will be able to soap more.

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Debbie

Thanks for everyones replies

I don't always gel soapbuddy but I'd like to be able to when I want to! So was just wondering if anyone uses a heatpad? What kind of temp is necessay? I particularly wanted to gel some colours to see if there was much of a difference.

Thanks for the heads up about the 100% coconut oil soap too. This is on my 'very soon' list 20%SF.

I know what you mean about being more comfortable with the process Susie! Just wanted to try it, & it was pretty exciting to get soap so quick Good suggestion re melting the butters first

Probably will try it a few more times but in the meantime I'm back to the old way

Debsisson, I know exactly what you mean! Soap & soap porn & soap study etc etc etc completely takes over your life! I really have no idea what I used to do with my time before!

Thanks again ladies