Hi, I am new to soapmaking. I have been following instructions from Norma Coney's "The Complete Soapmaker". My CP is made with olive oil and lye, and is consistent, but when I melt it down to hand mill, it seems to take forever! The book says it should only take about an hour, but a small batch (12oz soap/9oz H2O) is taking up to 2 1/2hrs to liquify. I have scorched several batches trying to speed up the process. Is there a way to add ingredients and lasting fragrances during the CP step?
New in PDX, need advise!
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judymoody
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Making soap only to melt it down and add color, scent, botanicals, etc. has always seemed way too complicated to me. My first choice would be CP with all additives included up front. To answer your question, there are many colorants and fragrances that hold up well after saponification and most pretty scented soap that you see on line at places like etsy are made with the CP method. Second choice would be HP with additives added after cook.
To answer your question, if you are grating your soap prior to melting, it shouldn't take that long to liquefy. Are you using a crockpot, a stovetop, or the oven?
Coney's book is kind of outdated. I would recommend Alicia Grosso's Everything Soap Book or Kathy Miller's site: www.millersoap.com
To answer your question, if you are grating your soap prior to melting, it shouldn't take that long to liquefy. Are you using a crockpot, a stovetop, or the oven?
Coney's book is kind of outdated. I would recommend Alicia Grosso's Everything Soap Book or Kathy Miller's site: www.millersoap.com
Hi my first batch was from Coney's book and although the concepts are great, her recipes are not well thought out and needs to be checked on a lye calculator.... Soapcalc.net is a really good one to start with.
When you are milling aka rebatching use a cheese grater and then mist it with some water to dampen the soap. Put it into the microwave at 70% power for short bursts. The first one should be 90 seconds and then drop it down to 45 seconds at a time. Once it is liquid you can add your fragrance and whatever you want to put in it, then give it a last burst of 15 - 20 second at which time you can pour it.
I much prefer to just make CP and add fragrances at trace before I pour. With proper CP you can do colour swirls, wonderful peaked tops and just so much more.
Congrats on your first batch by the way.
When you are milling aka rebatching use a cheese grater and then mist it with some water to dampen the soap. Put it into the microwave at 70% power for short bursts. The first one should be 90 seconds and then drop it down to 45 seconds at a time. Once it is liquid you can add your fragrance and whatever you want to put in it, then give it a last burst of 15 - 20 second at which time you can pour it.
I much prefer to just make CP and add fragrances at trace before I pour. With proper CP you can do colour swirls, wonderful peaked tops and just so much more.
Congrats on your first batch by the way.
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