Last night, I finally made a batch of my shave soap/croap formula with 100% KOH. Previously, the highest amount of KOH I've ever used in my shave formula was 64% (paired with 36% NaOH).
That was a very interesting experience. On the one hand, it was nice using only one type of lye- it made things more convenient/easier. But on the other hand, it was a little nerve-wracking in that I was flying by the seat of my pants in the dark because I didn't know how long it would take, and I didn't exactly know what the consistency of my batter would/should be at pour.
The way I normally do things with the dual lyes is to let my hard fats react with the KOH for a bit, while I let my liquid oils react with the NaOH until it reaches a heavily-thick trace. Then I combine them together in a pot, stickblend them to mix well, and cook them (covered) in the oven at 180F/82C until zapless. This method usually takes no more than 1 hour to reach zaplessness, and my batter is quite smooth and pourable- much like medium trace consistency in CP.
My 100% KOH batch went very differently. When I checked on things 1 hour into the cook, my batter was smoothly fluid on top and all round the outside edges.....but with a big cohesive, smooth lump of firmer batter smack-dab in the center, lurking just underneath the surface- and the lump was quite sticky and taffy-like in consistency.
I broke it up as best I could and stirred as well as I was able, all the while amazed at how much that sticky lump of taffy resembled my soap paste when I make glycerin liquid soap. When I took my spoon out, it was coated heavily with the taffy stuff, and it did not want to let go of my spoon. I had to physically remove it and plop it back into the pot. Try to imagine yourself removing sticky, hardening caramel off a utensil. That's pretty much what it was like.
And that's when I grew a little bit perturbed. When making liquid soap, the sticky, taffy-like paste only gets firmer all the way through, and it doesn't thin out/get fluid until you dilute it later with a bunch of water. Thoughts began running through my head.....Was my shave soap now nothing more than liquid soap paste??? Will I never be able to pour it into a mold??? What about adding my FO? How on earth does one add FO to a sticky lump of paste??? Should I take it out of the oven while there was still some fluidity present and beat the beegeebees out of it with my stick-blender to be able to add the FO, and then glop it as best I could into my mold while it was still kinda somewhat workable??? Gah!!! What to do!!??
Then I realized I hadn't even checked for zap yet, so I pushed all the panicky thoughts aside momentarily to test for zap, and decided to let that be my indicator of what to do next.
It zapped, so I did what came naturally- I covered it and cooked 30 minutes longer. When I checked after those 30 minutes, the zap was less and the taffy lump was getting smaller. Once I saw that, all panic disappeared and I knew everything would be okay if I just let it cook longer. Whew!
To make a long story short, it took 2.5 hours to come to zaplessness and completely smooth fluidity. Sweet! I whisked in the FO and poured without incident into my BB silicone column mold, and left it overnight.
I just unmolded it about 1 hour ago, and out popped a very nice, smooth, cohesive log of croap, although much more fragile/dentable than my usual 2-lye croap at unmolding. At the moment, this one is more of a putty/cream cheese-like consistency instead of a firmer, modeling clay-like consistency. But it holds it shape nicely....if I don't handle it much. If it doesn't eventually get as firm as my regular croap, I may have to package in a container instead of wrapping paper. We'll see how much firmer it gets as it sits out and cures a bit. I used a 25% lye concentration (my normal concentration for the KOH portion of my dual-lye method, by the way).
It smells wonderful. I scented it with Montego Bay from Oregon Trails Soapmaking Supplies, which smells just like my blend of Bay Racemosa EO and crushed whole allspice berries.
IrishLass
That was a very interesting experience. On the one hand, it was nice using only one type of lye- it made things more convenient/easier. But on the other hand, it was a little nerve-wracking in that I was flying by the seat of my pants in the dark because I didn't know how long it would take, and I didn't exactly know what the consistency of my batter would/should be at pour.
The way I normally do things with the dual lyes is to let my hard fats react with the KOH for a bit, while I let my liquid oils react with the NaOH until it reaches a heavily-thick trace. Then I combine them together in a pot, stickblend them to mix well, and cook them (covered) in the oven at 180F/82C until zapless. This method usually takes no more than 1 hour to reach zaplessness, and my batter is quite smooth and pourable- much like medium trace consistency in CP.
My 100% KOH batch went very differently. When I checked on things 1 hour into the cook, my batter was smoothly fluid on top and all round the outside edges.....but with a big cohesive, smooth lump of firmer batter smack-dab in the center, lurking just underneath the surface- and the lump was quite sticky and taffy-like in consistency.
I broke it up as best I could and stirred as well as I was able, all the while amazed at how much that sticky lump of taffy resembled my soap paste when I make glycerin liquid soap. When I took my spoon out, it was coated heavily with the taffy stuff, and it did not want to let go of my spoon. I had to physically remove it and plop it back into the pot. Try to imagine yourself removing sticky, hardening caramel off a utensil. That's pretty much what it was like.
And that's when I grew a little bit perturbed. When making liquid soap, the sticky, taffy-like paste only gets firmer all the way through, and it doesn't thin out/get fluid until you dilute it later with a bunch of water. Thoughts began running through my head.....Was my shave soap now nothing more than liquid soap paste??? Will I never be able to pour it into a mold??? What about adding my FO? How on earth does one add FO to a sticky lump of paste??? Should I take it out of the oven while there was still some fluidity present and beat the beegeebees out of it with my stick-blender to be able to add the FO, and then glop it as best I could into my mold while it was still kinda somewhat workable??? Gah!!! What to do!!??
Then I realized I hadn't even checked for zap yet, so I pushed all the panicky thoughts aside momentarily to test for zap, and decided to let that be my indicator of what to do next.
It zapped, so I did what came naturally- I covered it and cooked 30 minutes longer. When I checked after those 30 minutes, the zap was less and the taffy lump was getting smaller. Once I saw that, all panic disappeared and I knew everything would be okay if I just let it cook longer. Whew!
To make a long story short, it took 2.5 hours to come to zaplessness and completely smooth fluidity. Sweet! I whisked in the FO and poured without incident into my BB silicone column mold, and left it overnight.
I just unmolded it about 1 hour ago, and out popped a very nice, smooth, cohesive log of croap, although much more fragile/dentable than my usual 2-lye croap at unmolding. At the moment, this one is more of a putty/cream cheese-like consistency instead of a firmer, modeling clay-like consistency. But it holds it shape nicely....if I don't handle it much. If it doesn't eventually get as firm as my regular croap, I may have to package in a container instead of wrapping paper. We'll see how much firmer it gets as it sits out and cures a bit. I used a 25% lye concentration (my normal concentration for the KOH portion of my dual-lye method, by the way).
It smells wonderful. I scented it with Montego Bay from Oregon Trails Soapmaking Supplies, which smells just like my blend of Bay Racemosa EO and crushed whole allspice berries.
IrishLass
