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Also, just thought I'd mention from my personal experience playing around with shave soaps... the first recipe you posted on the paper looks like it would make a really nice shave soap. That second recipe, not so much. You can be the judge though! I cook all my soaps, shave soap included...

Ash is something that forms when active lye comes into contact with the CO2 in the air. This is not something that usually happens with hot process since the lye should be pretty much gone by the time you put it in the mold. It is something that frequently happens in cold process soapmaking...

Yes, you are doing hot process. As far as curing, I would say that both hot process and cold process are about the same (and length depends on your soap and oils you used). The main difference is that with hot process, the soap is fully saponified when going into the mold and could...

I just make shave soap for myself and friends. You didn't include details like recipe, process, etc so I'll make some assumptions. Usually quality shave soap has very high stearic acid content. Usually this is added in the form of the pure fatty acid. Because the lye isn't having to break down...

What they said ^ I was assuming this was your first foray into shaving soap which is a completely different thing in my book due to the large amount of pure stearic/palmitic usually added to make it a good shaving soap :) I also include a small amount stearic in my normal hot process soaping...

That’s pretty much what happens when you do shaving soap. Because there are less bonds to break due to the extra stearic, it almost immediately turns into soap. I just keep cooking and mix it around as best I can until it no longer zaps. Not sure if there is a better solution?

I was just gonna say, sounds like you should consider hot process. No issues there with fragrance oils speeding things up. And you can add all your additives (and fragrance) after the soap has cooked.

I've never seen pictures even on the computer. I've only ordered 1 fragrance oil from them so I don't have much experience with them.

Generally speaking, coconut oil can be very drying. I keep it at or below 15% in my soaps. Depends on the person.

I use Soapmaker 3 (the program that you are referring to). Different calculators use slightly different SAP values for the oils so the numbers will be different but still very similar. It is best to stick with a single calculator. As I said in my previous post, it is best to find the correct...

It is best to find the correct specific gravity for each ingredient that you add in there. That way if you use SM3 to do some volume calculations, they will be more accurate.

I only do HP and I always add the fragrance as the last thing right before putting the soap in the mold. My soap is usually 190F+ at that point and, while I have noticed something like steam rise up after putting the fragrance oil in, I've never had any issues with the fragrance going away.

I would guess it would have more to do with your recipe and how long you let the bars cure for rather than the water itself. The longer it cures, the longer it will last. You can change your recipe to use oils that make harder, less soluble soap. Also if you're adding sugar/alcohol/other soap...

Right. For me, there’s a few reasons I prefer the method. The first is time. I want to be able to pull all my soaping stuff out of the closet, make the soap, and put it all back up and finish cleaning in under an hour. Even more important than time to me though is making a really smooth hp...

Yep. In order to speed up the reaction to the point where the soap is fully cooked in around 10 minutes, you always get the rapid expansion that people call a “volcano”. As long as you are standing there, you can just keep stirring and it will keep it from going over your pot. It is best to have...

Nice. I was just writing a response. Glad you got a response Got an email as apparently this was a watched thread from a while back :D I add my superfat first then follow that with yogurt then any extra water with colorant added last. Greek yogurt is fine, I prefer regular though. Just mix it...

Good lookin soap. I bought that fragrance a while back and have been wanting to try it for a long time. I pulled it out a couple days ago to make soap with it but it didn't end up happening. Really like that fragrance. Hopefully it's alright after the cure!

And I didn't mean to give the idea that the soap is at it's peak when I use it same day as made via HP. I do, however, enjoy using it then. It's a bit different as it's quite soft and soluble. Generally, for me, it creates a lot of lather easily. Yes, it goes quickly. That said, since I just...

I HP my soap. I use a sample piece of every bar the day that I make the soap. Obviously if it was CP, it might still by lye heavy.

Seems like you could salt out the soap so that it didn't matter whether you had too little or too much lye. I'm not a history buff on soap so I'm not sure if they salted it out back in the day. It was definitely used in early production soap making though according to some late 1800's books on...