My 1st CP recipe & some questions

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Flyrod77

Active Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2017
Messages
44
Reaction score
43
I've made three HP soap recipes and thought it time to try making CP soap.
This recipe is pretty close to my last hot process soap that I was pleased with. I've been doing vegan recipes with no palm oil, and wanted to try that in the cold process soap too.

I tried using 100% coconut milk instead of water in my last HP soap and was pleased with that (I froze the coconut milk before adding the lye).

Does this look reasonable?

1st Cold Process Soap.JPG
 
Morning Dave! (It's morning here :)).

Your recipe looks quite nice.

You could increase the lye concentration (somewhere around 30% is easy to work with) - high olive CP recipes don't need quite this much water (HP tends to use a little more water in the cook, for the same recipe). It will still work if you don't, but you'll get obvious shrinkage during the cure (which can look nice in cubes, not so great in bars).

Coconut water has it's own fats and sugars, so your soap will be more superfatted than your recipe shows (not a bad thing, but worth being aware of).

Good luck!
 
Last edited:
Morning Dave! (It's morning here :)).

Your recipe looks quite nice.

You could increase the lye concentration (somewhere around 30% is easy to work with) - high olive CP recipes don't need quite this much water (HP tends to use a little more water in the cook, for the same recipe). It will still work if you don't, but you'll get obvious shrinkage during the cure (which can look nice in cubes, not so great in bars).

Coconut water has it's own fats and sugars, so your soap will be more superfatted than your recipe shows (not a bad thing, but worth being aware of).

Good luck!


Thank you for the tip. I will do that.
 
Looks decent. The only thing I would mention is you are using a lot of soft oils, so this soap may take awhile to unmold and will be a softer bar of soap. I would recommend sodium lactate.
 
Looks decent. The only thing I would mention is you are using a lot of soft oils, so this soap may take awhile to unmold and will be a softer bar of soap. I would recommend sodium lactate.

That's a good tip, and I will definitely take your advice and do that.
 
That's a good tip, and I will definitely take your advice and do that.

Hi Dave I hate to disagree but I make this recipe (or pretty close although my SF is much lower) all the time and it isn't soft. I unmold and cut at 24 hrs. I do not use SL.

I also make it without Coconut oil and unmold and cut at 24 hrs no problem.

OO makes a really hard bar which will be like a rock at 1 year and with the other oils it cures quicker than that. I usually cure for 2-3 months.
 
About 1.5 years back, I made a 80% Olive Oil and 20% Coconut Oil bar... it took foreeever to harden up and forever remained sloppy and slimey in the shower. Even now, I still have a few bars left, and without fail, they slime up and go soft in the shower something fierce. The OO was Extra Virgin Olive Oil from WSP.

Anyway - goes to show that everyone's experiences are different. I always prefer a recipe that's high (40-60%) in hard oils like tallow or lard - so your type of recipe probably would not work for me.

I second the suggestion to bump up the Lye Concentration. Cold process does not require as much water as hot process does, so you could easily change that Lye Concentration to 30-35%.
 
Hi Dave I hate to disagree but I make this recipe (or pretty close although my SF is much lower) all the time and it isn't soft. I unmold and cut at 24 hrs. I do not use SL.

I also make it without Coconut oil and unmold and cut at 24 hrs no problem.

OO makes a really hard bar which will be like a rock at 1 year and with the other oils it cures quicker than that. I usually cure for 2-3 months.

I made this as a hot process soap and I really liked it. I just thought it would be good to try and see if I could do a cold process soap, and since I like this recipe so well I thought I'd just use it for HP and see what happens.

I am a bit new to all of this. But so far, all of my vegan soap is high in soft oils. They seem to be about the softness of a Dove bar of soap. They are great conditioning for my skin. And I get about a week out of each bar, which is about what I used to get with Dove soap. I realize everyone has different likes/dislikes, but for my personal use this soap is perfect. It is amazing the difference it has made for my dry skin.

Here is a question for anyone reading this thread. Should I expect the soap made with CP to be pretty close to what I got with HP? I thought that would be the case, but it would just need more curing time before I used it. But maybe I am mistaken.
 
The texture can be quite different, between HP and CP. The soap itself will have almost identical properties, based on the oils that you choose.

There is also a difference between CP when it is gelled or ungelled. Your ungelled CP will be softer initially, creamier and often more opaque.

Gelled you will get a texture between ungelled CP and HP - the soap will be firmer, but still smooth like ungelled CP and some oils will become slightly translucent. CPOP is a nice compromise (where you make CP soap, and put it into a warmed oven or onto a heat pad to force gel all the way to the edges, then allow it to cool slowly - this can help avoid ash as well).

The curing time depends more on the type of soap you are making, than the method you use to make it. For example a soap high in olive, or a salt bar, needs a long cure irrespective of method. Both HP and CP need a similar cure time, counted in weeks to months, depending on recipe.

Here is a question for anyone reading this thread. Should I expect the soap made with CP to be pretty close to what I got with HP? I thought that would be the case, but it would just need more curing time before I used it. But maybe I am mistaken.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top