"Cool" honey soap - no partial gel

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Hi Danny-

1) Yes, that's the same amount of honey I like to use. The way I do it is to dilute the honey with just a little bit of water to make it less thick/viscous, then I add it to my cooled-off lye solution.

2) Yes...... Also- for what it's worth, my soaping temp is between 110 - 120 degrees F. I soap that warm because of the type of high-melt fats/butters I use in my formula, and also because I soap with a 33% lye concentration and I want my soap to achieve full gel. It won't achieve full gel with my formula if I let the temp of the batter to go below 110F, even in spite of having the honey in the mix, because adding honey to the lye water like I do eliminates its natural propensity to cause the soap batter to really heat up like it normally does if added to the batter instead of to the lye solution first.

3) Once I add the batter to the mold, I cover my mold (a wooden slab mold) with its cover then lay a few cloth diapers over the cover and put it into a preheated 110 degree oven. Once in the oven, I then turn the oven off immediately and let the soap sit there overnight unmolested.

Since you are working with an individual cavity mold, I would take Penelope's advice to place on a board, cover with plastic and cover over the plastic with towels.

IrishLass :)
How much oats should I add per pound for a honey oat recipe.
 
I have always soaped cool and refrigerated because I hail from a background of mainly making goat milk soap. I have always used 100% full fat goat milk frozen into ice cubes and quite enjoy the process, I don't find it a bother and love the soap. I use only natural colours like madder root and paprika powder and find the results suit me. To me, all natural soap shouldn't be too brightly coloured. (The only natural colourant I can't get to grips with is alkanet root, unless I want battleship grey soap - which on the whole I don't. Maybe CPOP or HP would help there or else I've just got a duff batch of root). Also (touch wood) I have never experienced soap volcanoes, alien brain, glycerine rivers or soda ash. I might be just lucky, or is it because I always soap cool? What do other cool soapers think?

Interesting about gelled soap being harder and lasting longer though. That hadn't occurred to me. But difficult to test. I might give it a go to see if I can tell the difference, so thanks for that insight.

The only GM I’ve ever used is the condensed / canned kind from next to the regular condensed milk. I freeze it ito cubes and add it in a 50 frozen GM/50 water (by weight) to my lye. Is that “cheating?” I’ve used it a few times. One of them resulted in the only partial gel I’ve ever gotten. I had no idea what it even was.
 
The only GM I’ve ever used is the condensed / canned kind from next to the regular condensed milk. I freeze it ito cubes and add it in a 50 frozen GM/50 water (by weight) to my lye. Is that “cheating?” I’ve used it a few times. One of them resulted in the only partial gel I’ve ever gotten. I had no idea what it even was.
If you want to avoid partial gel (which sometimes happens if you are trying to keep the soap cool) use Irish Lass' instructions above and do the split method. So easy and repeatable.

I see that this thread was started a while ago and my later posts contradict my earlier posts.
That is because I have been perfecting my methods and processes since then.
My later posts are indicative of my current process which is repeatable and easy for my new timber/thick silicone molds.
Sorry if reading through the entire thread has been confusing for some.
 
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How much oats should I add per pound for a honey oat recipe.
I use 1/2 tbsp. PPO, but I also grind mine in a dedicated coffee grinder. (not the same as colloidal oatmeal) I like the skin feel of ground better than using whole.
 
I see that this thread was started a while ago and my later posts contradict my earlier posts.
That is because I have been perfecting my methods and processes since then.
My later posts are indicative of my current process which is repeatable and easy for my new timber/thick silicone molds.
Sorry if reading through the entire thread has been confusing for some.

^^^^A very good example of the negative consequences that can transpire when necroposting, i.e., posting questions to a long dead thread instead of starting a new thread to post a new question, with a link back to the old.


IrishLass :)
 
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