Teach Soap

I'm making honeycomb soap and I don't want it to darken so I made room in the freezer and popped it in.

1) I didn't have any citric acid but I used 10% cocoa butter in the recipe. (Deodorized) Will I have a hard enough bar?

2) When I do get citric acid, how much should I use ppo?

3) When do I add it?

4) And, how long should I leave the batch in the freezer? I need to grocery shop this week-end so the freezer is going to fill back up.

TIA

justkate

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ah. you can use citric acid or sodium citrate to affect soap scum formation, depending on the type of water you have in your area, but citric acid doesn't make a harder bar in my experience. perhaps someone else has had different experiences with it.

stearic acid is sometimes used in soaping - it's one of the fatty acids present in base oils, and it adds hardness. you find a lot of it in palm oil, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, cocoa butter, and others. so using those oils will give you a harder bar. sometimes when soaping with a lot of softer oils, you can add the stearic to counteract the softness. traces super-fast, though.

i guess the answer to your original question is - what else did you use? the bar might be plenty hard without adding either of those things.

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http://www.magichandsworkshop.com
http://www.magichands.etsy.com
http://www.magichandsworkshop.blogspot.com

I've used extra stearic acid (not citric acid) and it didn't seem to make much difference, just a faster trace. I use sodium lactate in every batch for a harder bar.

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

Soapbuddy, I just found the recent thread you started with instructions about not gelling. I knew there was one not too long ago.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1992&p=18503&hilit=gelling&sid=2a3608bb588519a90a13eac1ca6844d5#p18503

It answers my question about how long to leave the batch in the freezer, as well as when to cut it. So thank you

justkate

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

How much honey did you use as a percentage? Just made this last week with honey and cocoa and the darned thing won't harden!

Thanks! Your color will darken, guaranteed. Like maybe 2 shades after it gets to room temp again. I used honey in my honeycomb and it was soooo soft (I also used cocoa butter) that a week later, it is still like taffy. So I feel your pain.