Teach Soap

This is my first post and I have a few questions...I have read much on the forum and learned lots but I have some questions and would appreciate light shed on them for me to continue. If the answer is already on the forum...please point me to the post.

I am using olive oil (pomace) as my oil of choice...I will set my questions down and hopefully they will make sense...I have some comments and hope someone can give me their thoughts...here goes.

What is the best temperature to add the Lye solution to the oil? I have heated the oil up to 130 degrees and added the Lye solution at that time. The result was a very hard bar, however during use I found the bar to be gel as it gets used up. Why does that happen? I should add that no additives were included (just Olive Oil and distilled water and Lye). The soap was awesome however.

I have cooled the lye solution down to room temperature 70 degrees and added it to the oil I found the bar to harden slowly after it was out of the mould...it also seemed more creamy (I used Goats milk with the lye). It also took about 25 mins to trace...with a stick blender . I also noticed that in the mold there was no noticable 'Gelling'...the temperature of the soap wet up a few degrees but not significantly. Is it necessary to have the soap Gel?

I have also tried a Tallow Olive oil mix. Tallow being about 33% of total oil volume. I did Hot process and cold process with identical ingredients. Hot process seems a tad harder cold process seems creamier. they are both quite slimy in the shower.

That all for now. I'm sure I will have more questions later.

Pure castile will be slimy. That's the nature of the beast. Castile needs a long cure time. I make mine ahead of up to one year. Castile aka pure olive oil soap works better if you discount your water or liquid. If the soap doesn't gel, it will take a longer time for the water to evaporate and get harder. If the soap gels, it should be pretty hard within about 3 days. My castile is so hard, it could be thrown at someone and cause some damage.

PS. I prefer not to use pomace as it's the last dregs from the olive oil barrel and sometimes chemicals are used to extract it.

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

Thank-you soapbuddy for your reply...the slimyness...its is good to know there is nothing that can be done on that if using it pure. What percentage of discount of liquid would you suggest?

I do a 40% lye solution, but only for castile with regular olive oil. Try it at a 37%.

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

Thats a big discount...

I make 100% olive oil soap quite a bit, and found for me that it works well to use equal parts lye and water (I use a 5% superfat). It makes a very strong lye solution, but I can unmold and cut the loaf within 24 hours. The bars do get a lot harder with time, but I don't make big enough batches in advance for them to last 6 months to a year in my household.

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Lassie