How important is the heat in cold process soaps?

[Egzandra]

My most recent batch of soap, which was a combo of coconut oil, vegetable oil and olive oil, took quite a bit of time to trace which the recipe said it would. By this time there was not much heat left in the mixture and I wrapped it up well and tried not to peep. Now 45 hours later it is setting but still not hard enough to cut.

I am just wondering if the long trace time is responsible for soap not setting quickly? Last week when I made my honey soaps I put them in small moulds, kept peeping and they were very soft (though they are hardening now - but they still do not look very nice). They felt cool quite quickly.

Would it help when stirring the soap for CP if I placed the pan inside another pan of hot water over the stove and kept more heat in the mixture?

My first two batches, which had tallow in, traced and hardened quickly.

Any comments from the Soap Makers of the Forum, gratefully received.

 

[SimplyE]

It would help to post your recipe, but heat is not necessary. I actually avoid heat and avoid gel because I prefer the way mine turn out without gel/heat.

Post your recipe, and we can help you out. Olive oil will take some time to set up, so don't fret. Give it time, and you will be surprised. What kind of vegetable oil did you use?

 

[Guest]

This question posted twice , just letting you know.

 

[SimplyE]

 

[Egzandra]

Sorry about the double posting. Maybe a moderator could combine the two?

Thank you very much everyone for your helpful replies.

SimplyE, the vegetable oil in my last soap was rapeseed I think, the yellow flowers were on the label, although there might have been a mixture of other oils in there as well. The combination was: veg oil 12 oz, coconut oil 10 oz, 00 9 oz. For good measure, because I can never follow a recipe exactly, I threw in 1.5 oz of beeswax with the oils. The recipe also asked for a tablespoonful each of glycerine and apricot kernel oil at trace plus the essential oils and some colouring.

Oh, and 4and a half ounces of caustic soda and 13oz water.

I have just put the mould in the freezer so that I can now get the soap out and cut it, it is not hard like a cheese but more of a firm gel. I like the appearance of it although I should have added some more colour.

When I do the olive oil soap I think I will do an 80%/20% ratio of olive oil to coconut oil.

Maybe I should stick to oils that I am sure of the sap values of - those veg oils/solid veg oils may be a mixture of oil and therefore I don't quite know whether the amount of sodium hydroxide is correct.

Thank you everyone for the tips on heat and cold for gel and non gel. This is a great forum.