Floating Soap?

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ericllucas

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I know Ivory bar soap is made by mixing a lot of air into the soap - at trace time and beyond, I presume. Do you have any thoughts on how I might create a physically lighter bar by whipping air into the soap?

I thought of putting it in a stand mixer and just let it go (walk away, as the inventor of Ivory did). The problem is at some point the soap has to come out of the mixer and go into a mold. Well, I suppose I can cut the beaters out of the solidified soap mass the next day, but that seems so messy.

I bet there is a window of time where the mass is viscous enough to hold air but liquid enough to be poured into a mold. I bet that is a narrow window of time indeed.

What do you think?

Thanks as always!
 
Some recipes suggest using mostly hard oils and whipping them hard with a mixer and adding lye.

I've tried myself few times successfully, each time using a different method. Using my regular recipe, which is about half soft oils, half hard oils.

Whipping the oils does seem to work, but something weird: this method does not create a trace like we usually do.

Another one is switching the blender for the mixer at thin trace.

Last time, I simply blended my soap into gel, then whipped by adding a little water.

Finally, what I suggest you to try (as a training exercise :) ) is rebatching a (non-salt) soap bar with a little water: melt it, optionally blending to homogenize, then mix in air.

Yes, there is a window. If the window closes, you can open it by mixing in a little more hot water.

Just I am not sure it's a good idea mixing in water to already traced soap, but that's another story.

Note that all whipped soap recipes require more water than usually: at least 3x the amount of lye. But experimenting, I was able to add maybe 10x water, and create a sort of whipped soap foam fizzy. Very cute, but not practical to use.

Using a piping bag is a more effective way of filling the mold, but if you keep the soap to a runny consistency, pouring is possible. Better to use wire for cutting.
 
soapbuddy said:
Look up Nizzy's soap method on the net. He does whipped CP soap.

Ditto.

You can actually spoon this into individual molds and it comes out great. It can also be put in molds via the piping bag if you have leftovers after using it for icing cupcakes. It's easy to sculpt the tops, too.

In addition, since the soap is cold, you can use colored sugar for decoration. If used on CP or HP, it melts.

Nizzy's recipe is perfect, to me. I've learned a few tricks, though. PM me if you're interested.
 
This is a little off the subject of whipping soap, but my friend made a soap that floated. It was by accident but contained alfalfa powder, She was trying for a green scent and color.
 
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