When I started soap making, I heated up my lye and my oils and made sure they were ~120-130F and never more than 20 degrees apart. I didn't get too adventurous then...basic soaps and maybe one color. This year I've started with the colors and more recently the swirls. Because of this site I have started using lye at cooler temps and my oils as well. I keep them within 10 degrees of each other but the last few batches have been in the 90s.
So I doubt I'm getting a gel phase (in all honesty I never really understood what it was or why I wanted it), I don't care about soda ash because I usually cut off that area and use it as a test soap...and there is always ETOH if I want to avoid it. Most recently I did a batch of black and blue/green eucalyptus/spearmint EO soap with my usual hard recipe...mostly liquid oils for a longer thin trace and shea...and the results I got were confusing. Lots of dots (air bubbles??) on the top, my black looked more gray...everything just seemed off and I now wonder if I'm pushing the limits of my CP soaps with cooler temps.
What is the lower limit of cool for CP and why?
So I doubt I'm getting a gel phase (in all honesty I never really understood what it was or why I wanted it), I don't care about soda ash because I usually cut off that area and use it as a test soap...and there is always ETOH if I want to avoid it. Most recently I did a batch of black and blue/green eucalyptus/spearmint EO soap with my usual hard recipe...mostly liquid oils for a longer thin trace and shea...and the results I got were confusing. Lots of dots (air bubbles??) on the top, my black looked more gray...everything just seemed off and I now wonder if I'm pushing the limits of my CP soaps with cooler temps.
What is the lower limit of cool for CP and why?