Teach Soap

I know this question may seem silly, but, how soon is too soon to try out a piece of cp soap? My Vanilla Amber soap won't be finished curing until Feb. 13th, and that makes the end of the 5th week. I am totally itching to try it out though!! Today is the fifth, is it really too soon?

Sonya

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

It'll be a little harsh if you try it now. Try to keep your pants on for another week. I've used soap 24 hours after they came out of the mold. Not very nice. The longer it cures, the milder it becomes. You should be able to get a pretty good feel on them around 10 days to 2 weeks. Of course if you wait longer, it'll be a nicer bar. Give it another week.....if you can wait that long.

Trust me; it gets easier to wait. The first couple of batches I made were hard because I was checking them 4 and 5 times a day just waiting like an expectant father. Now, I forget they're in the curing room unless I go in there for something. Give it another week....then go for it.

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Four Seasons Fine Handcrafted Soaps
& Specialties, Inc.
Laugh, Love, Live!

You know....I completely did not interpret the dates correctly. Selena is right. Go for it now.

I just woke up stupid on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Maybe I should go back to bed.

Go take a shower now Sonya and report back to us

5 weeks is good enough. Go ahead and try it now.

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

Yay!! I'm going for it!! I will report back after the shower!! Yippee!!

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

Ok, the soap was absolutely, positively yummy!! It was creamy and very fragrant, the only thing I didn't like was the fact that I felt like my skin was squeaky as I was drying off. It went away, but does anyone know what that's from? Next I will try it in my hair!!

Sonya

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

It's because store soap is more of a detergent and leave a film on your skin after showering. Good soap doesn't leave a film....it's also a better cleaner. Try a little higher superfat % and perhaps adding some shea butter to your recipe. Shea butter has many components that don't siponify leaving behind more of the good stuff for your skin.

Congratulations on your batch. Take notes on your batch about what you liked and what you didn't. It'll help you in the future develop a bar more suitable to you. Way to go.

Thank you SoapBuddyand SuperSoaper, question, doesn't superfat generally mean that you use the lowest possible amount of lye that is suggested on a Lye calc.? Did I say that right?

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

I have been using the soap calc on The Sage. Now that I know what your talking about, I always use the lowest suggested lye amount called for in my recipe.

It means you have more active fat molecules than lye molecules (which is good). Superfatting is good to do but it also has it's drawbacks. However, the benefits of superfatting far outweigh the drawbacks.

When you have a 1:1 fat/lye ratio you have 0% superfat. If you have 5% more fats than lye, they you're at a 5% superfat. Easy to understand.

Superfatting means there are more fats/oil molecules left in your soap to nourish your skin, but after a certain point, it starts to reduce the amount of lather your soap produces. A 5% to 10% superfat is what most lye calculators default to. My standard is 8%.....sometimes higher.

Does this answer your question?

EDIT: Sorry soapbuddy. Didn't see you already answered this.