"Room temperature" soaping

[melinda48]

I do consider this RT, although I don't measure the temp. I cool my lye on the cold tiles in the shower recess and it doesn't feel warm to the touch on the outside of the container in about an 1 hr, not under an hour. Some days I don't get to soap after I've made up the lye, so it will be the next day. My oils are only just melted and by the time I get organized it has cooled down somewhat.
My first ever soap it took me 2 1/2hrs to get it in the mould with hand stirring and trying to get the lye and oils to temp with a thermometer. I thought if I was ever to make soap again, I wouldn't be doing that again and have never used a thermometer since. I haven't the time to fiddle around and this works for me.

I soap at between 77-80 which is room temperature in my house. We keep our house at 77. Rarely have problems.

 

[LilianNoir]

There‘s a fragrance I love that causes me to wait until my lye cools otherwise I love the heat transfer method.

I usually make lye the day before because my energy levels can be really inconsistent, but one day! I will try the heat transfer method.

I've typically added all of my oils together without heating (or measuring temp), then using the hot lye to melt the combination of hard / soft oils. The other day I tried using the hot lye to melt just the hard oils before combining with the soft and I had a volcano mess before pouring. Then it occurred to me that I was outdoors in 90 degree summer which may have played a part. Doh!

Heh I live in Florida. Right now temps are in the mid 90s, with humidity around 60-70% and heat index around 98. I won't even make lye outside because of the humidity here.

I use master batched lye, which is room temperature. My room is about 80. I melt my hard oils just barely - add my liquid oils and start soaping. I rarely take the temperature of the lye or the oils. For the first 5 years I didn’t even own a thermometer. I am soaping about 8 years now. The 10 degree thing is a myth - there’s a lot of soap making myths around. I am usually able to make multiple colors without any difficulty. I don’t seem to get stearic spots, and I think the key is to make sure the hard oils are clear (but not hot).

I think the 10-20 degree thing is a myth too which is part of why I wanted to see what others do/consider room temp because if lye is room temp and oils are heated until just clear that can be more than 20 degrees (for me lye was 78, oils at JUST clear was 100) and I don't see any real issues.

On the other hand, I have used a thermometer for all my batches and have had temperature related problems. One batch accelerated because the oils were TOO warm (130) and another batch I got stearic spots because too cool (although in that case, oils weren't really clear so I didn't need a thermometer to tell me that XD)

It's funny to me. When it comes to things like cooking and even baking, I can easily work "by instinct", but with soap the logician and scientist in me come out and I am most comfortable and seem to work best with measurements. I suppose time and experience will help.

Thanks for the replies folks! It's interesting to see how others do and interpret things.

 

[cmzaha]

I think iv understood the issue u faced and what ur waiting to know.
I just started Soaping .Made two batches using exact recipe of Jerrika zimmarman( she is a pro soaper and runs a channel on youtube) BUT failed miserably- So Temperature is the issue iv understood and am sure. Then after I started my research on the internet .everywhere I read and is mentioned that the temp should be AROUND 120-130 f ..BUT OF WHAT ? LYE OR THE OIL? I decided to keep my lye at 105f and oils at 115 in my 1st batch which failed ( at 115f my oils were not absolutely Clear ).. the oil mixture got very thick instantly on adding lye.My 2nd batch I tried with lye at 90f as I watched the video of Jerrika where she mentions that she waits till her lye is below 100f which I followed but failed again.. my oils were about 107ish where they were a little cloudy ( I was trying to keep a difference of 10f) as soon as I poured the lye the mixture thickened SO NOW I think that it's the temperature of the oils that is very imp ... It should be at the temperature where all the oils / butters/ fats are ABSOLUTELY CLEAR ( to give you a good flowery consistency to work) and not so much the lye temperature coz I have been reading that people use lye prepared a day in advance and just heat their oil to clear and donot encounter problem as I did ..next step after that should be to keep stirring not pulsing more than a second till emulsification takes place and then after trace of choice..
My recipe which failed and still am determined to use( coz I know it will give very good soap once I tackle it correctly) is -
Oils in% are - olive O pamace-25,Rice bran refined-20,sweet Almond-8, castor oil-5, coconut oil 22 ,Shea butter 20. Superfat -6. Water: lye-2:1.
Will appreciate if there is someone here who can give suggestion please ..

I would be very curious why you say your soap failed. What failed? Looking at your recipe I am hoping you do not mean -6 (minus 6 superfat) and you really mean 6% superfat. The recipe above would not fail even if you soaped it very cool. Pomace does trace faster than regular OO and the 20% Shea will up trace some but not drastically, neither RBO nor SAO will hasten trace, so no problems there. Granted it could thicken up when you first add in a cool lye solution due to an immediate false trace, but you just need to stir until your soap batter warms up and changes color, then move on until you reach trace or emulsification. My batter always false traces when I first add my lye.

For me, room temp is whatever my lye temp is at the time I am soaping. I masterbatch my lye into 1-gallon jugs, so it can be in the high 60's in the winter, upper 80's in the summer. I masterbatch my oils into gallon HDPE buckets, which are individual batches, that I have initially melted down in the microwave. When I am ready to soap, I can either re-heat the oils if they are resolidified too much or just soap them while still cloudy which I normally do, even my high palm recipe which is 40% palm. I Do Not soap heat transfer.

 

[SPowers]

We keep our place very cool so my temps seem to be between 95 - 105 with small variations between oil and lye solution. I'm more often in the higher range - it works well for me.

 

[Kasuda]

First and foremost thank you for the reply.
I'm sorry about the typo .I meant 6% superfat .
I said my 2soap batches failed because the minute I poured the lye into the oils the mixture turned very thick. I panicked and thought things have all gone wrong because it turned very thick to work.I immediately spooned it into the mold after about two pulses of the blender.I think the emulsification must have not happened .I had to press it to level it into the mold.
I wonder why it happened with me though I'm using the same recipe as a Jerrika zimmarman ( youtube video) except for the olive oil which is very expensive here in India so I opted to use the OO pamace.she has the batter so fluid and good to work well while mine drove me nuts ,not once but twice ..

1.Should I keep my lye temperature about 100F?
2.will have the oils at around 120 f.and will stir and give time until the mixture warms up . Was not aware about this .

Hope my next attempt goes well. I want to creat swirls .
Thank you .

 

[TheGecko]

I think maybe my original question/thought is getting a little lost. I'm not asking about the steps or general soaping temps so much as what people consider "room temperature".

Which can mean different things to different people.

Depending on the recipe..."room temperature" can be literal...where the oils and lye are the same temperature as the room they are being mixed in.

"Room temperature" can mean the temperature that the person is comfortable making soap at...which can be anywhere from 80F to 120F.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I made my first ever batch of soap with all ingredients at exactly the room temperature in my soaping space (73F). I melted and mixed the fats yesterday and left them sitting overnight. I was originally planning to warm them up for soaping today, but then thought I would go ahead and try it because the mixture was more or less the consistency of cream and seemed surprisingly smooth. The soap is in the mold awaiting judgement. I was trying to pour a ridiculously intricate pattern, the ultimate challenge for any recipe, and the batter was getting a bit sludgy at about the half way mark. I will be happy as long as I don’t get a bunch of stearic spots. I used a lard-based recipe, which seems like a safe choice, since I usually don’t have stearic spot problems with lard. I have a harder time imagining success with palm, but if this soap turns out well, I might try it.