Experiments

So, two disclaimers...

I am NOT a professional... only a hobbyist. I have made under 15 small batches and am experimenting with colors including micas, and today, rose clay; as well as scents, including both EOs and FOs.

I am NOT a photographer! These pics were taken with my phone so they are not the best.

I have attached a few pics of my most recent soaps. They are all made with lard, CO, OO, shea and castor with some kaolin clay.

I made the one with rose clay today. I have read about not using rose petals but I had some, and they are so pretty, I couldn't resist.

The one called fruit punch scared the heck out of me. I wanted those beautiful, vibrant colors from the wet soap to pop in the resulting hard soap so I tried to CPOP it. I had the batter in a 3 lb silicone mold. Everything was going ok for the first 30 mins at 170 degree oven, then omg it started to rise in the middle like a loaf of bread. I freaked out and put it in the freezer and prayed it wouldn't volcano. It didn't... but, then after a minute or two, I thought I'd try to smooth down the massive crack down the middle with a spatula! The end result looked like the trail that I walk on in Garden of the Gods here in Colorado. Red, and gravely! I was so sad because my pretty swirls were annihilated. I let it cool over night and scraped off the top with a vegetable peeler. The bars are much smaller, but at least there's no hiking trail on the tops anymore...

The pink and purple soap was made by my 14 year old son. They are so gorgeous!

Anyway I have enjoyed being part of this forum and love to look at soap pics so I thought I'd post a few of my own.

Lovely soap!

I agree- lovely!

Re: CPOP: Several of us on the forum have found that you can actually get better results with a much lower temp than 170F, and you don't even need to have the oven on but more than a few minutes. You may need to play with a few of your batches to find the sweet-spot temp that works with your formulas and soaping method, but you only need as much heat that will give things an encouraging prod so that your soaps gels instead of cooks/volcanoes.

For what it's worth, the following is all it takes for mine to go through full gel:

-I use a 33% lye solution
-I soap warm (110F-120F)
-When my soap has been poured into the mold, I cover my mold with its accompanying cover as well as 3 cotton diapers on top of that, and then I pre-warm my oven to only 110F by turning it on for 2 minutes (it only takes that long to reach 110F), then I immediately turn the oven off and pop my soap inside, shut the oven door and leave it alone for the next 18 to 24 hours, at which it's ready to unmold and cut. That's all it takes for my soap to go through a drama-free, complete gel.

The only time I heat my soap to 170F is when I'm doing HP.


IrishLass

So pretty! Your textured tops are beautiful!

Pretty soaps! And how fun that your son shares your interest. He did a great job on those.

Very pretty soaps!

FYI: To fix a crack in the top of soap, spray with alcohol, and use gloved fingers to gently prod and pinch the sides back together before it cools completely. I fix mine when it is just cool enough to touch. The cooler it is, the more noticeable the repair will be.

Thanks for the CPOP help :0)

IrishLass said:

I agree- lovely!

Re: CPOP: Several of us on the forum have found that you can actually get better results with a much lower temp than 170F, and you don't even need to have the oven on but more than a few minutes. You may need to play with a few of your batches to find the sweet-spot temp that works with your formulas and soaping method, but you only need as much heat that will give things an encouraging prod so that your soaps gels instead of cooks/volcanoes.

For what it's worth, the following is all it takes for mine to go through full gel:

-I use a 33% lye solution
-I soap warm (110F-120F)
-When my soap has been poured into the mold, I cover my mold with its accompanying cover as well as 3 cotton diapers on top of that, and then I pre-warm my oven to only 110F by turning it on for 2 minutes (it only takes that long to reach 110F), then I immediately turn the oven off and pop my soap inside, shut the oven door and leave it alone for the next 18 to 24 hours, at which it's ready to unmold and cut. That's all it takes for my soap to go through a drama-free, complete gel.

The only time I heat my soap to 170F is when I'm doing HP.


IrishLass

Click to expand...

Clearly it got too hot. Next time I'll try your method. I would assume I should NOT do this though if I'm using titanium dioxide though, right?

Really pretty soaps. I have no advice for CPOP as I prefer using a heating pad and some towels in a container.

Pretty soaps. I too don't CPOP as it almost always gives me trouble. I use wood molds with silicone liners with a lid then cover with a couple towels. I get full gel except on rare occasions.

Also, if you heat your oven then just turn it off there is less risk of it overheating. It also depends on the lye concentration as the more liquid you use the more tendency of gelling on its own. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error.

The purpose of CPOP is to insure gel all the way to the edges. We want to give the soap just enough help to get it there, without overheating. Everyone's molds, recipes and ovens differ, so you may need some trial and error to find the perfect combination for you. I use mostly wooden loaf molds with silicone liners. My oven only goes down to 170, so I turn it on to preheat it, when I start soaping and I put my mold and liner in there then to preheat also. Just before I'm ready to pour, I take the warm mold out of the oven, pour, return it to the oven and turn the oven off. I leave my soap in the oven until the following morning, when I unmold and cut. My soap gels all the way every time, and I have never had "silicone rash." Ever. If I'm using a recipe that I think may have a chance of overheating, like something with honey for instance, I'll check on it from time to time, but I soap at room temp, so rarely have an overheating problem using this method. HTH
P.S. Your soaps are lovely!

ibct1969 said:

Clearly it got too hot. Next time I'll try your method. I would assume I should NOT do this though if I'm using titanium dioxide though, right?

Click to expand...

It depends on how much water you use in your batch. Generally speaking, the closer you are to using a 'full-water' amount in your batch, the greater the chance it is likely to develop 'glycerin rivers' when it goes through gel; and the further away you are from using a 'full-water' amount in your batch, the less likely the chance your gelled soap will develop glycerin rivers- even at a higher CPOP heat. You can read more about the cause and prevention of glycerin rivers here .

For what its worth, I CPOP all my batches in the manner I explained in my previous post (i.e. using a water discount of a 33% lye concentration, 110F oven temp, etc..) and I use TD in roughly about 90%- 95% of them, and very rarely does my soap ever come down with 'glycerin rivers'- maybe 1% worth will get rivers, if even that.

Whenever I get them, about 99.99% of the time I can always trace them back to having used an ornery FO that caused my soap to accelerate and go through a hotter/faster-than-normal gel. I'm convinced that the heat alone is not the sole culprit, though, because I've had plenty of batches with TD that did not accelerate but went through a hot gel and did not come down with glycerin rivers.

And I'm also convinced that TD is not always the culprit either, because I've had a batch or two without TD come down with glycerin rivers as well.

My theory of what is going on is that whenever an FO causes my soap to grossly accelerate, I immediately slow down/scale way back on my normal mixing technique to prevent the acceleration from turning my batter into 'soap-on-a-stick', which in turn causes the batter to not be as evenly mixed as it would be normally, i.e., parts of my batter end up more 'watery' than others- and it is those more watery parts that end up as 'glycerin rivers' in my gelled soap.


IrishLass