Teach Soap

Hello all. Will be trying my hand at CP soap making. I have watched many videos and I have some quetions I hope you can help me with. I hav e purchased a couple of kits that I will start with to see how I like this. Here are some things I would like to know.

1.just what temp. Is room temp?
2.I have thought oils and lye water should be about the same temp before miixing.but I have seen where the lye water is at room temp but oils are cooled. Why and what temp is cooled oils?
3.I have seen some cover finished soap some not cover some wrap in towels and others but in fregerater por freezer. Please explan difference?

That is all for now lol. Thanks Bob

1. Room temperature just means the temperature of the room you're in. I typically keep my thermostat at around 72 degrees F.

2. I usually mix my oils and lye water when they are both around 125 degrees. The cooler your oils and lye water are, the faster they'll reach trace, and that's not always a good thing.

3. Covering the soap with a towel insulates it, and helps it go through gel phase. It's not absolutely necessary, it's just down to personal preference.

1) Room temperature is just that. The temperature of wherever you are soaping.
2) The oils & lye solution don't have to be at the same temp, but you want to make sure your oils are not hotter than your lye solution, otherwise you can get a volcano. Some people use cooled oils & cooled lye solution because it slows down trace time & they have longer time to make swirls and designs. Or some do it that way if they're using other ingredients that may accelerate trace or overheat the soap.
3) Putting the soap in the refrigerator helps slow down saponification, which is helpful if you don't want your soap to gel or if you are using ingredients that overheat, like milk, honey, beer, etc.
Covering the soap helps it gel. Gelled soaps go through saponification faster usually, so they can be taken out of the mold sooner than ungelled soaps.

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Genny

If you are just starting out, I would not do room temp oils and lye, as you can get a false trace. I normally soap right around 110 degrees (US). The temps don't have to be exact. In the beginning I would gel til you get used to the process. I prefer not to gel, so my soaps go in the fridge or the freezer; up to overnight.

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

Thanks for the replys. Learned something from all of them. Hopefully I will be doing my first batch next week. Will let you know how it turns out.

Bob