Teach Soap

Many recipes on the soap queen blog say to let the lye cool to 120 or below. Is there a temp that's too low to soap? Obviously, if the oils solidify, but I'm in Phoenix....room temp here is 79 degrees. Does the ideal temp vary with the different oils? How warm does soap need to be to gel?

I soap right around 110 degrees (US). If I go higher, I start to have problems ie: acceleration of trace.

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

LOL!! I was actually planning to try soaping at room today, but I was impatient and once my oils and lye solution were both at 100 degrees I proceeded

The reason I wanted to go cooler was that I was using beer in my lye liquid and adding milk powders so I did not want it to overheat. I guess it depends on your oils and additives on what is an ideal temp. For example, if I am making salt bars...I can get away with combining at 120 but overall my general temp is 110, unless I know it is a recipe that easily overheats such as beer, milks, honey...then I like to go lower and refrigerate.

Gelling is something I used to worry about when I first started with plastic molds but once I invested in insulated wooden molds....I don't worry about it so much. It is good to cover the top with a lid/saran wrap/cardboard and you can even throw a towel on top depending how cool your room environment is... and I place mine in my oven just to get it out of the way (and A/C drafts). You can check on the soap periodically, you will see it gelling

I've been doing lots of room temp CP lately (adding hot lye solution to cold oils) and most of the time it will gel. I've found that my palm recipe will gel easier than my lard recipe when soaped at room temp. The recipes are identical except for the palm/lard. I think this is because it takes the lard longer to melt so the soap batter is cooler when I pour it into the mold.

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