Teach Soap

I am new to soap making and have a questions that I have not found in all of the readings I have done.

How do you determine the temperature at which you combine the oils and the lye water. It sounds like there is a range at which the process functions, but what are the advantages/disadvantages to doing it at higher temps vs lower or even room temperature? (I'm not sure that I am patient enough to wait for the lye water to cool that much...)

Welcome!
Most soapers combine oils and lye water at around 110 degrees. Soaping too low can get you a false trace and you can end up with lye pockets. Soaping too high will accelerate trace and you can end up with a volcano.

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

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

I would recommend staying away from room temp/cool/cold soaping until you are very familiar with the process. As Soapbuddy said, it can give you a false trace and requires a good understanding of the different levels of emulsion.

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

So, as a corollary, what happens if you soap at a temp higher or lower than roughly 110? I am guessing things slow down as you cool the temp, but what would happen if you do add the lye at say 130? (Not that I am planning on doing this, but I am curious - I just like to have the whole picture)

Soaping too hot will give you a caustic volcano that is not fun to clean up...

viewtopic.php?p=65233#p65233

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

Yikes - that would not be fun at all!

(Note to self - be very careful about temperatures!)

The higher the temp for oils and lye, the faster the saponification and acceleration of trace. I use beeswax in pretty much every batch and I soap right around 110.

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

Soaping at 130-140 really speeds up the trace and you don't have as much time to work with it. I used to go that high (sooo impatient) never had any *problems* but it would thicken up so super fast. 100-110 is a nice temp to give time for mixing and pretty art stuff too.

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~*~ Jennifer ~*~

Even though it is in the 40s at night in Las Vegas, since I tend to be IMPATIENT, I use about 10 oz. of ice in my pitcher and add the remaining distilled water to the correct amount (I make big batches using about 122 ounces of oils). Then I add my lye and stir until all is clear. This makes the lye water about 130 degrees. I quickly melt my oils and get everything ready. I heat my oils to about 115 degrees. This way by the time I am in the garage (where I mix my lye water and make my soap) with my oils, everything is nearly the same temperature. It makes the entire process much faster for me. You'll need to experiment for yourself how much ice to use if you go that route.

You want to keep your oils and lye water within 10-15 degrees of each other so you don't seize up or have other issues. The hotter you do cold process soap, the faster it will gel BUT you could easily overheat.

If you decide to make a milk soap, make ice cubes out of the milk to add the lye to so that you don't curdle the milk. I have made a couple thousand+ bars of cold process soap although I have no experience with milk soap; however, I've read this frozen milk recommendation on almost every recipe.

Jill