gil
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Was this hot or cold process soap ?I made soap yesterday evening.
Not sure which process I used.....
Started off doing cold process, fine, going like thin custard.
But very very slow, even with an electric blender it was over an hour and not reached trace.
So I heated it up a bit, and put the oils and spices in, and it went brown, and a bit thicker.
Running out of time, I poured it into a plastic carton and went out.
When I came home, the soap had separated out into a top clear oily layer, something clear brown at the bottom, and a speckly middle layer with white bits in [coconut oil ?]. And it stank of caustic soda, not of oils.
So I stuck it back in the pan, and heated it more on a low heat, till it went much more solid. Added more essential oils and packed it into the plastic tub.
But what have I made ? Hot or cold process ?
When should I cut it ? It wasn't solid this morning. If it's had a gel phase, it was while I was out or asleep or something.
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sally_in_wales
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Hot process I think, but I'm a bit concerned that it didnt do what it should, run the recipe you used by me and I'll see if I can spot any possible problems
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gil
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I used the recipe given at the start of this thread [I think]
The one with coconut, sunflower and oilve oils, lye and water.
I may not have heated the oils quite hot enough at the start ? Having no thermometer and not wanting to over heat them. Would that affect it ?
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sally_in_wales
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did you weigh everything including the water and not alter anything by even a gram? Was the sodium hydroxide fresh?
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gil
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Caustic soda was fresh.
Weigh the water ? I thought the recipe said 250ml ?
I did weigh the oils though.
Aaah, could it have been too much water ?
I have a nasty feeling I was making half quantities, but used the full amount of water.
What effect would that have had ?
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gil
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And I don't have scales capable of weighing grams - just the kind with a pan on one side and weights on the other.
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sally_in_wales
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ml is fine in this case, you have to have the weights absolutely accurate, its possible your scales werent quite spot on if they are the balance sort 
if you had too much water, boiling that off during the cooking should help, but you should have seen some soap forming at some point.
If it still hasnt set, I'd get it back in a pan, and very gently cook it down until you get to something looking like the 'mashed potato' stage in the pics in the hot process article. The gel phase should happen whilst it cooks out, and at that stage the soap shouldnt 'bite' if you tongue test it
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gil
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| sally_in_wales wrote: | if you had too much water, boiling that off during the cooking should help, but you should have seen some soap forming at some point.
If it still hasnt set, I'd get it back in a pan, and very gently cook it down until you get to something looking like the 'mashed potato' stage in the pics in the hot process article. The gel phase should happen whilst it cooks out, and at that stage the soap shouldnt 'bite' if you tongue test it |
It evehtually went like very very very thick custard, after being very clear and runny in the pan the second time. Took some shoving into the plastic tub, and there are air pockets. Maybe it was like mashed potato. I really don't fancy putt ing my tongue on it.
I should rephrase : it wasn't rock solid like a bar of soap this morning, it was squidgy. Deffo not runny.
When can I cut it ?
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sally_in_wales
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leave it until its hard enoughto turn out of the box, then you can cut it. any excess water will keep evaporating off for days yet so it should harden up more 
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gil
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Thanks, Sally !
I really didn't mean to do hot process soap.
Cold process would be so much easier to pour into the mould.
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Jamanda
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| gil wrote: | | And I don't have scales capable of weighing grams - just the kind with a pan on one side and weights on the other. |
You can get metric weights for these - in fact - there may be a set at my Mum's which my Dad used in the lab at work for calibrating things - go right down to 1g. I will investigate.
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