Dawni
Well-Known Member
So.... I said somewhere that I'll be writing this post pretending I'm a very experienced HP soaper lol. Let's see how it goes..
But pleeeease, correct me if I'm wrong anywhere, refute me if your experience was different, and add your tips if you're so inclined. We need as much info on HP as we can get, coz there isn't much out there.
First off, a soap I made for the monthly challenge.
This is a 60% lard recipe, with full water, part added hot after the cook, and a teaspoon of yogurt added to each separate container of colored soap. I should say that I had these containers sitting in a hot water bath the whole time I was pouring.
Interesting, this indigo. In the below pic, the soap on the left was cut about an hour before the pic was taken, and the one on the right about 2mins. Middle one was cut 5mins before the one on the right. Notice the color changes?
Next up, is my rice soap. Third time to restock this as it's a favorite if the family. This soap is vegan, with cocoa butter and shea making up 38% of the oils. Full water again with part reserved for after, no yogurt this time, and no water bath since I didn't plan on complicated swirls.
I poured the lighter part only on one side in layers alternating with the rest of the soap and spoon swirled, hoping for thin wispy curls. I need more practice but not bad I think.
Now we come to the lessons I've learned.
1. I've experimented with less water, to decrease chances of warping during cure. I've gone as low as 2.6:1 water and noticed it works with high lard recipes best, not vegan soaps that are high on butters. For those, 3:1 or 25%. Another reason is I can add yogurt to help with the lack of water in the lard recipes. If not for the challenge I'd have used 2.8:1 water like I did the last time I soaped the same recipe.
2. My slow cooker is now almost always on high. Takes less than 20mins from start to almost done, then it's off for it to cook fully. After, I add part of my reserved water (about 20% of the calculated amount), which I heat to hot, not warm, before adding. Sometimes I don't need to add yogurt, sometimes not even the water if I'm not doing complicated swirls.
3. When I'm soaping on high, with 3:1 water, I stir every 5-7mins. Less chances of uneven cooking (thanks for this tip @msunnerstood!) and burning. When I soap on low, I stir only near the end but depending on your recipe, reserved hot water or yogurt to add after the cook helps only somewhat. This no mixing method I do for lard soaps and single colored or chunky marbled soap, not for high butter soaps or multiple colors or thinner swirls.
4. Adding your (heated up) superfat after the cook helps. If you have an oven, having your containers, spatulas and molds heated up also helps, but since I have no oven I use the microwave to warm my mold, and I soap with my plastic containers sitting in a hot water bath. My challenge soap was done that way. I imagine plastic wrap will help more but we don't use that in this house so water bath and rushing it was.
5. I cannot stress the importance of yogurt in HP soap if you want it pourable. I don't always use it because I like the look of soap without it sometimes, but the batter is somewhere in between gloppy and pourable. Increasing water is enough for fluidity, yes, but I have a soap from September that's gotten badly warped up and my notes say the water was 3.2:1 and no yogurt. I haven't found a vegan alternative yet but @szaza suggests soy milk yogurt (she's also who started me on reserving part my water, so thank you!).
6. Last pointer is time management. You can't afford to lose the heat in HP if you want fluid batter. Unless you have plastic wrap (I think) you really need to get everything ready beforehand, to avoid exposing your soap to cooler air outside the pot as much as you're able. In the challenge soap, my colorants were added to the hot reserved water, and in the case of my rice soap the colorant was added to the hot superfat first, and the titanium dioxide to hot reserved water. Any other dry additives I usually add to a tablespoon of hot water, then to the soap, before turning off the slow cooker, since I mix a lot anyway. Actually, I add liquid additives this way too, like honey, diluted in hot reserved water (thanks to @IrishLass for this tip).
That's it I think? Haha sorry for the long and presumptuous post, but I wanted to consolidate what I've experienced and stuff I learned from the forum in one post I can link to for others. Thanks for your patience
But pleeeease, correct me if I'm wrong anywhere, refute me if your experience was different, and add your tips if you're so inclined. We need as much info on HP as we can get, coz there isn't much out there.
First off, a soap I made for the monthly challenge.
This is a 60% lard recipe, with full water, part added hot after the cook, and a teaspoon of yogurt added to each separate container of colored soap. I should say that I had these containers sitting in a hot water bath the whole time I was pouring.
Interesting, this indigo. In the below pic, the soap on the left was cut about an hour before the pic was taken, and the one on the right about 2mins. Middle one was cut 5mins before the one on the right. Notice the color changes?
Next up, is my rice soap. Third time to restock this as it's a favorite if the family. This soap is vegan, with cocoa butter and shea making up 38% of the oils. Full water again with part reserved for after, no yogurt this time, and no water bath since I didn't plan on complicated swirls.
I poured the lighter part only on one side in layers alternating with the rest of the soap and spoon swirled, hoping for thin wispy curls. I need more practice but not bad I think.
Now we come to the lessons I've learned.
1. I've experimented with less water, to decrease chances of warping during cure. I've gone as low as 2.6:1 water and noticed it works with high lard recipes best, not vegan soaps that are high on butters. For those, 3:1 or 25%. Another reason is I can add yogurt to help with the lack of water in the lard recipes. If not for the challenge I'd have used 2.8:1 water like I did the last time I soaped the same recipe.
2. My slow cooker is now almost always on high. Takes less than 20mins from start to almost done, then it's off for it to cook fully. After, I add part of my reserved water (about 20% of the calculated amount), which I heat to hot, not warm, before adding. Sometimes I don't need to add yogurt, sometimes not even the water if I'm not doing complicated swirls.
3. When I'm soaping on high, with 3:1 water, I stir every 5-7mins. Less chances of uneven cooking (thanks for this tip @msunnerstood!) and burning. When I soap on low, I stir only near the end but depending on your recipe, reserved hot water or yogurt to add after the cook helps only somewhat. This no mixing method I do for lard soaps and single colored or chunky marbled soap, not for high butter soaps or multiple colors or thinner swirls.
4. Adding your (heated up) superfat after the cook helps. If you have an oven, having your containers, spatulas and molds heated up also helps, but since I have no oven I use the microwave to warm my mold, and I soap with my plastic containers sitting in a hot water bath. My challenge soap was done that way. I imagine plastic wrap will help more but we don't use that in this house so water bath and rushing it was.
5. I cannot stress the importance of yogurt in HP soap if you want it pourable. I don't always use it because I like the look of soap without it sometimes, but the batter is somewhere in between gloppy and pourable. Increasing water is enough for fluidity, yes, but I have a soap from September that's gotten badly warped up and my notes say the water was 3.2:1 and no yogurt. I haven't found a vegan alternative yet but @szaza suggests soy milk yogurt (she's also who started me on reserving part my water, so thank you!).
6. Last pointer is time management. You can't afford to lose the heat in HP if you want fluid batter. Unless you have plastic wrap (I think) you really need to get everything ready beforehand, to avoid exposing your soap to cooler air outside the pot as much as you're able. In the challenge soap, my colorants were added to the hot reserved water, and in the case of my rice soap the colorant was added to the hot superfat first, and the titanium dioxide to hot reserved water. Any other dry additives I usually add to a tablespoon of hot water, then to the soap, before turning off the slow cooker, since I mix a lot anyway. Actually, I add liquid additives this way too, like honey, diluted in hot reserved water (thanks to @IrishLass for this tip).
That's it I think? Haha sorry for the long and presumptuous post, but I wanted to consolidate what I've experienced and stuff I learned from the forum in one post I can link to for others. Thanks for your patience
I’ve done a couple batches of CP soap but I’m hoping to make my first back of HP soap tomorrow.
