I think with a crockpot you can get by with a bit of wonky... just maybe a wipe around the rim with a wet towel to ensure a good seal...
The heat is more gentle & even in a crockpot - sides instead of just bottom, I think - and thick ceramic walls. Beats the heck outta stainless steel on a cold day, for sure!
But kinda hard to pack in a suitcase, ya know?
Last time I was in Chuy, on the Uruguay side I found one of the big oval ones in a "duty-free shop." Price? $80.00 US Dollars! Egad! Plus, since we've got 220v here, I'd have to keep another step-down transformer handy. Too much bother when I CAN do it the other way.
Here's a couple pix of some HP rebatches... not to boast, but just to throw some ideas at you. If they come out huge and you can teach me how to resize them (I use PB but can't find where to click, but I'm kinda blind):
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They all started out looking like this:
but then "fell in" to a pool of oil & separated... RB was the only answer & took about 30 minutes, no dramas, it was still all totally liquid.
All of those are rebatches. The plain pink one has the clean scent of cocoa powder & pink kaolin clay & I love it. The pink with the curls on top (I got crazy the last minute & should've organized better ahead of time) has curls I made from another soap that I just cut wonky & didn't want to wrap.
This is the color of my trinity recipe with lard, my basic recipe for everything... with the coconut milk. Hubs fave, unscented, but fantastic for shampoo or all-over soap:
The RBs I put into individual molds sometimes. The last one I put into a slab "dishpan/craft tray" mold 9x13" because I found a bunch at the 1 Real store for about $1.50USD. It's 2.5" deep & after I cut off the curved sides, I have a slab that yields 18 bars of 96 grams each. So, I'm always doing a RB for something, mixing soaps & playing.
People are so intimidated by HP, but I learned that long ago & am only just now learning CP.
Doesn't mean you can't experiment, eh? BTW, the oatmeal one w/the violet EO sold out real quick.
People here like "rustic, natural" soaps.
Since I keep the "scraps" of soap I scrape out of my pots after they have had the night to saponify & are no longer caustic (behind the fireplace the heat turns it all to soap overnight), I have several tupperware bowls with different color/scent scraps in them from the cleanup bits and the trimmings. I'm always doing a small HP batch in a 2-quart saucepan (6 soaps 3oz each, in moulds like the all-pink one)...
Another good point - you can use VERY small amounts of fragrance & botanicals & make them extra "special" but they're all limited editions, so I'm not obligated to keep on with them. For fruited/floral or aloe/botanical soaps, I wild-craft or grow my own herbs, so folks have to buy them "in season," like we get our foods... And any extra oils you add for SFs are the ones that never hit the lye - so all that goodness stays on the skin.
Down here, my RB soaps sell as well or better than my CP ones, I think because I'm still learning...
Hope this helps & gives you some more ideas!
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