Teach Soap

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

I've done a number of castile batches now, both with goat's milk and without it and I find that the GM batches gel more readily than the ones with just water. Plus, I do a steep water discount (25%) when I make castile. It does take a while to trace, but I've never had to wait longer than 48 hrs to unmold and cut it.

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

It's still soft--like I could poke my finger into it with no resistance. Like hand cream. Too late to save it? I could try to CPOP it now, or dump and stick blend some more. Because it's castille, I was really careful to reach trace, but...

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

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

Since I haven't done a hot process, I guess I could.
(Thanks!)

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

If it's still in the mold & the mold is oven safe, I would gel it in the oven.

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

Too late! I dumped it in a double boiler and it gelled nicely. It looks a bit lumpy, but it went back into the mold, and we'll see what happens now. My worry, of course, is that my olive oil isn't olive oil. I wish there were an easy way to test for sure. I may go back to buying pomace in the can, though, since I had better luck with that.

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

My castille is made with extra virgin, it is as solid as a block after only a couple weeks. I expect it to be cement at the 6 month mark LOL

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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

We have an olive grove and every other year a couple of us pick the olives, take them to the factory within 16 hours and we watch the cold press process. We dont use any chemicals and have a certificate to say our land is organic, so I kmow that this is the real stuff. Iv'e noticed that when i used the old oil (16yrs) that it came to trace immediately and someone told me that its too old, so i used 2yr old olive oil and it takes about 20mins to come to trace with a whisk. The older olive oil gets lighter in colour the older it becomes but some oil is quite green, this is due to how ripe the olives were when picked, but I will ask my partner if there is a test you can do to see if you guys have the real stuff. When I make my soap, i use the lye calculater in grams, only using 100% extra virgin olive oil and it tells me how much water and lye to use, i dont discount any water, the soap stays in the mold for 3 days and is still very soft when i cut it, im not sure if it goes through the gell stage but what i have noticed is that when i do the tongue test, its a bit tingly ( i dont use any fragrance and only colour it naturally) am i doing something wrong?

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

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