My first soap

[Summi]

Hi all!
While I am waiting on some of my supplies, I decided to have a go once I had my SB, digital scale and thermometer. I made a hot process soap (using double boiler method) with the following:
Olive 25%
Palmolein 30%
Coconut 20%
Castor 5%
Sunflower 15%
Kokum butter 5%

I used soapcalc and used their default 5% superfatting. I used an icecream tub for a mold. Sorry, I forgot to photograph the soap in the mold. Unmolded it after 24 hrs and cut.
How long should I cure? Also except the Kokum butter, all the oils were liquid. Is it necessary to have one solid oil ?

 

[snappyllama]

Congratulations on your first soap! Nice!

I give all my soaps at least 4 weeks to cure. That includes HP soaps. Actually, my HP soaps get about 6 weeks snce they often have more water in them. A good indicator is when your bars stop losing water - just pick a bar and note its weigh every week. Also, try out a different bar and note how it feels each week. That way you can experience exactly how the soap is changing during cure.

You don't necessarily need any solid oils in a recipe. Castille is made exclusively with olive oil. It takes a lot longer to get out of the mold though and needs a very long cure time to be nice... 6 months to a year. In general, soaps made without a fair percentage of solid oils will just take longer. In your recipe, CO would also be considered a solid oil.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

For soaping purposes, your palm olein is probably pretty close in "hardness" to ordinary palm oil, even if it's liquid at room temperature. Coconut is considered a hard oil as well but can melt in a warm room. Good work on your soap. Keep the pictures coming.

 

[shunt2011]

Congratulations on your first soapy adventure.

 

[lisajudy2009]

Good job! The first soap is always exciting! Mine was just a Castile soap.

 

[Summi]

@Snappyllama
Thanks! This one was also difficult getting out of the mold, hence I thought about the hard oils. Thanks about the weight tip, that'll really give me some idea about the curing process.

@topofmurrayhill
Thanks! You're probably right, Coconut oil freezes only in Dec-Jan where I live and I think Palmolein does too.

@Shunt2011
Thanks!!

@lisajudy2009
Thanks! I was going to do exactly that- cp castile soap. But then I thought since I am going to wait 1 yr for the curing, why not make a large batch and play with some colours!! SO while I am waiting for the molds and the colors, I did this 500 gm batch.