It depends on what formula I'm soaping. If it's a formula with only liquid-at room-temp oils, either with or without 76 degree coconut oil, I'll either soap at room temp without heating anything up, or just heat the coconut oil up until liquid, which doesn't take much heat at all.
If I'm soaping my 2 main formulas that contain a goodly amount of butters along with hydrogenated PKO, I soap anywhere from 110 to 120 degreesF to prevent my batter from going into pseudo-trace before the lye reaction can kick in (which it goes into like clockwork when I soap them cooler than 110F).
If I'm soaping with beeswax, I soap even warmer: I heat my beeswax along with my hard fats until the beeswax is completely melted, which it turns out gets as hot as 200 degrees F before completely melting, then I add my liquid oils and let the mixture cool down to about 122 degrees (which is just above the point where the beeswax start to cloud up again) before I begin soaping.
For what it's worth, I soap with a 33% lye concentration and prefer my soaps to go through fell gel, and I also prefer they don't finish out with stearic spots. I've found it's hard for my 2 main formulas to go through full gel with a 33% lye concentration and finish out with no stearic spots, without soaping on the warm side.
IrishLass
