Teach Soap

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Debbie

Deb - it is not difficult to do this. Its the only way soap. It can make you trace faster so perhaps try it at home first and see what you get or don't do a water discount if the demonstration is the first time you try. If you use beeswax in your soap it won't work ( I think soapbuddy mentioned this). I tried - ended up with unmelted chunks of BW in the soap. I do add hot lye I have not tried the cool lye method though I am sure it would be fine. It does take a few minutes for the hard oils to melt - Since you won't have access to a stick blender I recommend not using and hydrogenated oil or butter blends containing hydrogenated oils, they take the longest to melt and sometimes i have to zap them with a stick blender to emulsify.

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

Genny wrote:
I do room temp. I usually do hot lye poured over room temp oils. Otherwise my shea butter doesn't mix in if the lye is too cool. If I'm not adding shea butter, then I'll have both oils & lye cool.
I like to swirl, so doing everything cooler slows down trace.

Would you leave out Cocoa Butter or Coconut Oil's if you do the hot lye (RTCP proper name) method?

I do understand about the beeswax (such a high melting point), but would jojoba oil be a good substitute? You wouldn't need very much.

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

I did a batch of room temp oils and hot lye on Friday. Felt funny doing it that way but hey... its fun to experiment. I did have cocoa butter and shea butter in the recipe. Used a 29% lye solution. The lye started out at 170 degrees. As soon as I poured over the unmelted oils and stired with a spoon... the temp dropped to 95 deg. I continued to stir and stir and stir. It took about 10-15min until most of the oils were melted. The temp stayed at about 90 deg. In the end I needed to stick blend some of the oils in... then added the FO (wasabi), divided the batch and colored. I did an ITP swirl.... let it sit for a few minutes until it reached thick trace... poured. Then placed in a warm oven to gel. I was able to cut 27 hours later. I got very fine swirls... a smooth texture to my soap, no partial gel, some ash, no overheating, no brittle edges. It is now on the curing rack. I have some photos and once I get a chance to down load will post.
End results: Do I like this process? I am not sure. I was a little leary of false trace. I thought I would get more of a blended swirl by waiting until thick trace. Maybe melting the butters ahead of time would be better? It sure cuts down on the amount of time I use the microwave. ie: saves electricity! I am going to try another batch.
I look forward to seeing what result others achieve!

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Susie that is grand to hear. Ok I'll bite and give it a try in the next week! Sounds like you did a beautiful soap!

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

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Debbie

I made RTCP soap today. Hot sodium hydroxide into room temp oils. Was pretty easy. I did however hand whisk it (wanted to try it out because I am doing a small demo for a group of homeschoolers[I homeschool my kids too]-for a "pioneer day" so everything is being done outside)


Anyway...made small 1lb batch in individual flower molds. Will post pics tomorrow.

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Debbie

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

Debbie, what hard oils did you use? and how long did it take your lye to melt them?

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

For those who are pouring hot lye water over the room temp oils......
Do you mix the water and lye and let it cool some? Or do you pour it right away over the oils?
I'm curious to try this, as it would cut down my time considerably!

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

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Debbie

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

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Debbie

For me it took awhile for the lye to melt the oils. I waited until my lye went clear..which means it went from 190's to 170's for temp.
I also added salt to my lye water which may be why my soap hardened with in one day? I did use 2# of oils. So has everyone been getting to a med thick trace by the end of the process? That could have happened to me because of the 10-15 min it took to melt the oils.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!