Spirits in Milling Soap

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Tamia-F

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New to the forum, but excited. I now have a good base Castile Soap that I am using for milling. Here is my problem. I have a recipe that calls for Everclear or Vodka, or other clear grain alcohol. I have tried it twice now and I am having a problem getting the grated soap to melt in the alcohol and become runny per the recipe. I have followed the instructions precisely.

Has anyone else seen this problem?
 
Milling ... true milling ... is done with cool metal or stone rollers on dry soap. So ... anything to do with alcohol and making runny soap isn't milling.

Are you instead trying to rebatch soap or make transparent soap? Rebatching is sometimes called "milling" by soap makers who don't know the difference between the two.

If you're following a published method, please give a link to the information. If you're following your own method, it's best to explain more specifically what you're doing. You will get better advice if people really know rather than have to guess.
 
Wow, not excited now. I just wanted to know if anyone that uses spirits is having trouble melting the grated soap into the liquid. FYI, I don’t find my recipes on-line, I read them in books. This particular book is Country Living’s Handmade soap. ISBN 0-688-15562-6. Hand-milled recipe called Lavender Ice.
I wasn’t asking for a lecture on my terminology.
Admin – please remove me from this forum. Thank you for the brief visit.
 
You can't find the right information if you don't have the right terminology. If you search for information on "milling," you're not going to find what you're looking for.

As for books vs. Internet: you didn't say where you got your info and most people turn to the internet. There are also a lot of books that have wrong information in them, just as there is wrong info online.

DeAnna was, in fact, asking for you to clarify your method, not accusing you of having shady information.
 
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Wow, not excited now. I just wanted to know if anyone that uses spirits is having trouble melting the grated soap into the liquid. FYI, I don’t find my recipes on-line, I read them in books. This particular book is Country Living’s Handmade soap. ISBN 0-688-15562-6. Hand-milled recipe called Lavender Ice.
I wasn’t asking for a lecture on my terminology.
Admin – please remove me from this forum. Thank you for the brief visit.
If you manage to read this, maybe you should stick around and learn proper soapmaking. Info in books can be very outdated to downright wrong. Soapmaking information, procedures etc, has changed considerably since I started making soap about 8 yrs ago. Whomever wrote Country Living's recipe apparently did not know the proper terminology. French Milled soap that is so hard and long lasting is made by the procedure that DeeAnna explained. I was always taught if I wanted to do something to do it right :). BTW DeeAnna has a wealth of very scientific information that she is kind enough to share with all of us.
 
I can think of several types of soap that can be made with alcohol. Transparent soap. Rebatched soap. Liquid or gel soap. None are milled soaps.

So I'm asking again ... what are you specifically trying to make? I don't have your book and I can't figure it out from what little you've said so far, so you will have to explain the process in more detail if you want help.
 
New to the forum, but excited. I now have a good base Castile Soap that I am using for milling. Here is my problem. I have a recipe that calls for Everclear or Vodka, or other clear grain alcohol. I have tried it twice now and I am having a problem getting the grated soap to melt in the alcohol and become runny per the recipe. I have followed the instructions precisely.

Has anyone else seen this problem?

Hope you don't leave too fast ... I want to know what Lavender Ice on chapter 4 is actually about! It's such a cool name!!

Anyways, here's my great big plonking guess ...

Your castile base might not be pure soap.

When you milled it (ground it/grated it/whatevered it), maybe it had some impurities that you don't know about, that caused it not to dissolve so well.

A simple test, to see if it really is soap made just from olive oil, pure water and some soaping hydroxide ...

Let the soap sit in a dish with a little warm water in it (as if you are using a soap dish without any way to drain the water) for way too long (or just for one sleep, if you are the impatient type).

A true, unmodified, olive oil soap will form an almost transparent gel, that clings to your fingers when you try and pick the soap up. Those sticky strands are easy to see when you let enough of the original soap dissolve.

People sometimes have rude ways of describing this effect, and make attempts to stop it from happening ... which might have lead you to having a "good base Castile soap" that can no longer make ... strands :think:.

I would put more money on additives in the (good base) olive oil soap being the problem, rather than the ethanol purity (which needs considering nonetheless).

So there is my plonking great guess ... it's not the alcohol at all :mrgreen:
 
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