Teach Soap

I came up with this recipe that looks good on soap calc. I am out of castor oil so was trying to see what I could come up with without it. What do you think?

Sweet almond oil 2.4 oz
Coconut oil 14.4 "
Olive oil 28.8 "
Pig Tallow 2.4 "
Water 18.2 "
Lye 6.7 "

I also found a recipe similar to this without the Tallow which added 4 tsp table salt dissolved in 4 oz of the water and then added at light trace. How do you think the olive oil will react with that little bit of salt? Will the salt harden the soap quickly? I only made a salt bar once before and that was 100% salt with only coconut oil.

I am hoping to be able to get a good swirl tonight so I don't want it to accelerate trace or seize up on me!
Thanks for your input!
-Sherri

I add 2 Tbs. of dead sea salt to every batch of my soap and never have a problem. I actually add it to my lye water just before I add the lye to my oils. It doesn't harden the soap quicker, it still has to go through a good cure.

Since you don't have castor, I would add some dissolved sugar for some bubbles instead of salt and give it a nice long cure.

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

Thank you!! I was wondering what to replace the castor with for bubbles! I didn't know sugar was good for bubbles! I've learned that sugar can cause overheang. Should I put this batch in the freezer? I've never done that before but have always insulated. Do you add sugar to the lye water or dissolved in water and add at trace? This is a good way to be forced to learn something new...or I could just go to the store and buy some castor oil!

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Sherri

If you're going to add sugar for bubbles, dissolve it really well in the water before you add your lye. If you add the sugar straight to your already mixed lye water, it creates a ball of sticky messiness.

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Genny

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

Ok! Well, I did make the soap but went at it before getting all responses!! I did dissolve 2 Tbls sugar in 4 oz of my distilled water. I had the lye water and oils at about 95-100 degrees. I added the fragrance oil and sugar water at trace because I wasn't sure if I should add the sugar water to my lye water. I did stick blend it all very well after adding, I reached a good thin trace, divided it into three colors which I had dissolved in sw. almond oil. Everything stayed nice and liquid without accelerating on me! I was so excited about that!! I stick blended them each into their colors to be sure it was all incorporated good and traced. I poured it in layers into PVC pipes and swirled one of them with a skewer after having it all poured. The only thing I was a bit disappointed in was the purple color. It was ultramarine violet and kind of morphed into a brownish looking color after mixing it with my soap base. I had to use extra virgin olive oil so the base was a bit green to begin with. My other colors were yellow oxide and green oxide and they looked nice.
I covered the pvc pipes with plastic wrap and put them in the freezer as I was afraid of the sugar water overheating. How long do I leave it in the freezer? I've never put anything in the freezer right after pouring into the molds! Should I have not covered it? I suppose I'll need to wait a couple days before cutting because of the high olive oil content. This is the hardest part isn't it? Waiting to cut? I can barely stand to wait 24 hours but am trying to train myself to go 48 hours but it is killing me!! And so far it has only been 3 hours!!!

patience, patience, patience.....
-:) Sherri

Here are pics of my olive oil with sugar not salt! It came right out of the pvc pipes so easily after I had them in the freezer a couple hours. You can kind of see a bit of iciness on the sides. Here they are before cutting:

http://s1165.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... 8.jpg.html


I loved these! Here's a picture of some cut:

http://s1165.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... 2.jpg.html


But what happened here?! Everything looked fine before cutting - but cutting revealed a crack!! Was this from overheating although they went straight to the freezer? :

http://s1165.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... 1.jpg.html


The crack did not go all the way through - some of them look fine! Are the cracked ones still safe to use?

http://s1165.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... 5.jpg.html


Blessings~
Sherri

The cracking is from overheating. I would have left the soap in the freezer overnight. Yes, it should still be fine to use.

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

I did leave it in overnight!! : / I put the soap batter in the molds about 2pm Saturday, but I covered it with a thin bit of plastic wrap and put it in the freezer until 9am the next morning! I left it out on the counter in the mold until I put it back in the freezer at 4pm Monday and pushed out of the mold at 6pm. There was no crack on the outside but only on one end inside. I was surprised to see that but hope that we can just use those cracked pieces ourselves and still give the others as gifts.

Since I used a lot of olive oil with 2Tbl sugar should this cure for at least 8 weeks? Or longer? I usually cure 4-6 weeks.
Thanks, Soapbuddy, for your input!
-Sherri

Hmmm....ok next time halve your sugar to 1 TBS. Leave it be for at least 4 weeks and try it. It should be fine to use after 6 weeks. Since this is not 100% olive oil, you don't need to cure it as long as pure castile.

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