Is there a tried and true HP soap recipe used successfully by many people?
- Thread starter BARJRD
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There's no magic optimal recipe for HP soap. At least I've never heard of this.
Any recipe that makes a good soap with cold process will make good soap with hot process. So if you have a favorite CP soap recipe, use it for HP too.
The only thing that's typically different is the amount of water -- many people use 25% lye concentration (3:1 water:lye ratio) for HP versus something like 33% lye concentration (2:1 water:lye ratio) for CP. The additional water for HP allows for more water evaporation during the cook. But if you have a method for HP that reduces evaporation to a minimum, you can even use 33% lye conc for HP.
The other thing with HP is that it needs as long (or longer) cure time as CP soap. There's this myth that HP soap is safe and ready for use in a few days but CP soap isn't safe and ready for use until weeks go by. Honestly, BOTH are safe for use fairly shortly after they're made, but both are at their best after they cure for some weeks -- better lather, better hardness, better longevity, better mildness.
It's been my experience that HP soap needs a few weeks longer cure to become as hard and firm as comparable CP soap.
Any recipe that makes a good soap with cold process will make good soap with hot process. So if you have a favorite CP soap recipe, use it for HP too.
The only thing that's typically different is the amount of water -- many people use 25% lye concentration (3:1 water:lye ratio) for HP versus something like 33% lye concentration (2:1 water:lye ratio) for CP. The additional water for HP allows for more water evaporation during the cook. But if you have a method for HP that reduces evaporation to a minimum, you can even use 33% lye conc for HP.
The other thing with HP is that it needs as long (or longer) cure time as CP soap. There's this myth that HP soap is safe and ready for use in a few days but CP soap isn't safe and ready for use until weeks go by. Honestly, BOTH are safe for use fairly shortly after they're made, but both are at their best after they cure for some weeks -- better lather, better hardness, better longevity, better mildness.
It's been my experience that HP soap needs a few weeks longer cure to become as hard and firm as comparable CP soap.
I encourage you to read through the recipe threads here, and run some of them through the calculator to see what values come up. But keep in mind that most experienced soapers want the cleansing number to be much, much lower than the calculator recommends (often 12 or less). Also, many of us don't care as much about longevity, either (we make a LOT of soap, so we need to use it up faster).
Also, some prefer lather with bigger bubbles, while others prefer lotion-y lather. Some hate lard or tallow because they can smell it, other hate high OO soaps, and others hate high CO soaps. Can you see why it is hard to recommend a "great" recipe? What's great to me might not be great to you.
With all those caveats, here is a starter recipe to try:
40% lard
30% OO
20% CO
5% cocoa butter
5% castor oil
3:1 water:lye ratio, 3% SF
Since you are hot-processing this recipe, I recommend stick-blending to thick trace. Then cover and cook it on low heat, stirring now and then and keeping the soap off the sides of the pot, to make sure it cooks evenly.
I only cook just to vaseline stage, which is rarely more than 30-40 minutes for me. Don't go all the way to mashed potatoes, which makes it too dry, too chunky, and too hard to mold, IMO. You don't need to zap-test it at this point, either. Remember that soap will saponify all on its own, even with zero cooking, so stopping earlier in the cook is always better than waiting till it is overcooked.
For each lb of oils used, dissolve 1 T sugar in ¼ cup HOT water. At the vaseline stage, stir that hot sugar water into the cooked soap. Then stir in your desired fragrance, and pour the soap into the mold. It is normally firm enough to cut within 12 hours. Wear gloves in case in case it is zappy, but wait at least 24 hours to zap-test it since it may still be saponifying.
Also, some prefer lather with bigger bubbles, while others prefer lotion-y lather. Some hate lard or tallow because they can smell it, other hate high OO soaps, and others hate high CO soaps. Can you see why it is hard to recommend a "great" recipe? What's great to me might not be great to you.
With all those caveats, here is a starter recipe to try:
40% lard
30% OO
20% CO
5% cocoa butter
5% castor oil
3:1 water:lye ratio, 3% SF
Since you are hot-processing this recipe, I recommend stick-blending to thick trace. Then cover and cook it on low heat, stirring now and then and keeping the soap off the sides of the pot, to make sure it cooks evenly.
I only cook just to vaseline stage, which is rarely more than 30-40 minutes for me. Don't go all the way to mashed potatoes, which makes it too dry, too chunky, and too hard to mold, IMO. You don't need to zap-test it at this point, either. Remember that soap will saponify all on its own, even with zero cooking, so stopping earlier in the cook is always better than waiting till it is overcooked.
For each lb of oils used, dissolve 1 T sugar in ¼ cup HOT water. At the vaseline stage, stir that hot sugar water into the cooked soap. Then stir in your desired fragrance, and pour the soap into the mold. It is normally firm enough to cut within 12 hours. Wear gloves in case in case it is zappy, but wait at least 24 hours to zap-test it since it may still be saponifying.
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^^^ i can't recommend this too much, ever. I started soaping because I saw a recipe on a random website (not a soaping site, so I wasn't looking for it at all) but it had some ingredients which I wasn't sure that I wanted to use but had no idea what I could replace them with. So I ended up here and YouTube, looking at all of the recipes posted and the advice/comments on them and built up the picture of what I would need in a recipe to get something that sounded good to me.
Was it quick? No, far from it. I read almost every thread in the recipe sections on at least 10 pages! But it worked
Was it quick? No, far from it. I read almost every thread in the recipe sections on at least 10 pages! But it worked
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