[newbie] I made Olive Oil/Coconut Oil/Castor Oil soap !

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Gaspar Navarrete

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Hello everyone,

I just wanted to say that I successfully made a 2 lb hot-process batch of Olive Oil/Coconut Oil/Castor Oil soap. I zap tested it in several places and did not get a zap :D, just a soapy taste.

A picture of the unmolded soap is below. 4 weeks at least to cure, I understand.

The information that you all have shared with me helped to make this the best batch that I have made yet.

By the way, what kind of washing properties does this soap recipe have ?

One Question though ...
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Next time, I want to cook the soap an extra hour (for a total of 3 hours) to make sure that ALL the lye has reacted. To insure that my HP mashed potatoes doesn't get too thick, I was planning on adding an ounce of water as needed. Is it okay to do this ? Is overcooking an issue ? What happens when it overcooks ?

Here is what I did (for those who are curious)
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I used 21 oz of Sadaf brand Pomace Olive Oil, 10.5 oz of KTC coconut oil, 1 oz of KTC castor oil, and 4.6 oz of Roebic Crystal Drain Opener Lye.

HERE WAS MY LYE CALCULATION: (21oz of olive oil) x (0.133) = 2.793oz lye ; (10.5 oz of coconut oil) x (0.190) = 1.995oz lye ; (1 oz castor oil) x (0.128 ) = 0.128oz lye. Adding up to get the lye needed for all the oils: 2.793 + 1.995 + 0.128 = 4.916oz lye at 0% lye discount. For a 6% discount: 4.916 x 0.94 = 4.62oz lye. I checked my calculation at thesage.com. It gave me 8-12oz water and 4.61oz lye. I also checked my calculation at brambleberry.com. It gave me 10.73oz water, and 4.53oz lye. So I used 4.6 oz lye and 10.7 oz of water.

MIXING & COOKING: I warmed all my oils to about 100 deg F and prepared my lye solution. I mixed the lye solution and oils in the crock-pot. I stick blended it with a mixing drill bit attached to an electric drill. After about 20 minutes of continuous blending, I got a light trace. I then began the cook. It took about 1.5 hours for it to gell completely. Another half hour for the phenolphtalein to become clear when I tested samples from the gelled batter (this only tells me that the pH has gone down significantly, nothing more). I then cooked it another 15 minutes for a safetly margin. During these 15 minutes, I had to add 2 oz of hot water because my batter was getting too thick. Total of 2hrs 15 minutes cook time. Temp in the crock pot was 175 degrees F. All done in the backyard. I then scooped it into the mold. The mold had a fitted lid on it, which I used to flatten the top of the loaf. I unmolded it and zap-tested it the next day.

Soap3s.JPG
 
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If you're worried about losing too much water in the cook, it would be easier to add it at the beginning than in the middle of the cook. (Not impossible, just harder.) If you can get your hands on some sodium lactate, that would also help with keeping the batter fluid while HPing.
 
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