Teach Soap

Hello all,

I am new to soap making and did 11 batches of CP soaps so far. They all have come out pretty good but my friends tell me that my soaps are not long lasting longer as they expected. I use the below basic recipe for my soaps except few changes with EO's and any other fruit additives.

Palm - 15%, olive - 30%, castor - 5%, Shea/cocoa/kokum butter - 10%, coconut oil - 25% and Ricebran/Sunflower - 15%. and I use 30% water.

I browsed through various soap related sites and found this CPOP method. After regular CP method, till soap batter is poured into the moulds, oven is preheated at 170F and cooked in the oven for 1 hour?? Does this work really? I am eager to try this out in order to make a little longer lasting bars for my friends. My questions are..

1. will the quality of my soaps and the good EO's get affected by cooking soap in the oven?
2. can I use my oven for food after using for soaping?
3. just preheating the oven at 170F, putting the soap mould in, and turning off the oven will help hardening the soap or should I really cook the soap at 170F for an hour?

Please suggest me to achieve a harder bar.

Handmade soaps will not last as long as commercial soaps. Handmade soap has natural glycerin, so it's best to let the soap dry out between uses.
I superfat at 7-8% as anything below that my skin finds drying. I also don't go above 20% for coconut oil.
CPOP only forces gel. It will not make your soaps harder.
I cure all my soaps for 4-6 weeks. Besides the water evaporating making the soap harder, at a full cure, the pH of handmade soaps is just slightly lower.
This makes for a longer lasting milder soap.

1. will the quality of my soaps and the good EO's get affected by cooking soap in the oven?
They might. That depends on which essential oil you used.

2. can I use my oven for food after using for soaping?
Yes.

3. just preheating the oven at 170F, putting the soap mould in, and turning off the oven will help hardening the soap or should I really cook the soap at 170F for an hour?
Cooking the soap in the oven just forces gel. It does not help with the hardening of soap. You can leave the soap in there just long enough til it's in full gel. Then take it out, let it cool and cut.

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

Try increasing your palm and decreasing your rice bran/ sunflower. If you don't want up increase palm, you can use beef tallow instead. Just take that percentage from the rice bran/ sunflower amount.

Do you live in a very humid area? I do, and sometimes it takes over two months for my soap to fully cure and harden. You can monitor its progress by weighing a bar every week. When it stops losing weight, it's ready for a new home. Just make sure you weigh the exact same bar each time.

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Jennifer
Doing my best to blow up my kitchen. In style!

Hi there,
Yes. I do live in a humid place, south of india. I should try increasing my palm oil % next time. Could a 40 - 50% palm oil soap recipe help? I also cure my soaps for 6 weeks before use. Thank you for your replies.

Try a longer cure. Also, is the bar sitting in water between uses? That uses up the bar much faster!

I have been telling my testers that my bar should last them approximately one month of one person is using it to shower with, and that they need to keep it in a dry place, away from the shower area when not in use. So basically, there is a tiny bit of handmade soap education going on there when I give them out, and that seems to help.

I'm also learning stuff, a lot, but this is what I have learned in this area so far and hope it helps.

However, my son seems to use his whole bar in a week, so you are just going to have some people....

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

CPOP only speeds up saponfication, and that will happen whether or not you gel your soap.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13162

After your soap is saponified you can use it the next day if you want, but the shorter the cure, the shorter the soap life. Cure time is the only answer. Don't forget that 4-6 weeks is just the rule of thumb. The longer the soap cures, the harder it gets. I have a few pieces I've let cure for a year now and they are rock hard. The longer you can let them cure, the better. Ideally it should be in a dark, room temperature spot. I use plastic totes from the dollar store and just leave the lid on slightly askew to promote air circulation - that's key - and keep dust off them and losing the scent too quickly. Light leeches color so that's why you want to keep then in the dark. Put a piece of colored soap in a sunny spot sometime for a few weeks and you'll see what I mean.

Curing the soap for 4-6 weeks helps for the water to evaporate, but it also changes the pH slightly lower. The longer you can wait, the milder the soap will be.

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