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Any thoughts on where to buy the surfactants Susan discusses? I'm having a hard time finding them all in one place.

Wait, you make your paste directly in the crock pot and then just add water to dilute? Guess that makes sense. I hate pouring stuff out of the crock though, but mine is more oval shaped than circular.

Okay hot water plus melted paste = giant bubble explosion (think superheated liquid) :). Will try to heat the combined water/paste in the microwave and see if that goes any faster/better. Maybe just easier to do crock pot with a bunch of jars.

Yeah my issue may have been I had big chunks of paste in my mixture so it took a bit longer. I did attempt a small amount of paste in the micro and it liquified in a few seconds. I can see how one could over-zap it and burn it, but it may be a good way to break apart the larger chunks...

So the dilution process is more labor and time intensive than the paste making process! There must be a more efficient (energy and time) way of doing this. I wonder if the microwave is the tool to use here. Melt the paste in the microwave (a la chocolate melting process) and then pour...

Just got my first batch off the stove. I must admit, the transitions that occur while you stir are really cool, especially the Lawrence Welk stage!

Really?? Interesting. I wonder why both of those allegedly help get bubbles in CP soap but fail in liquid soap. I guess in liquid soap you really never want crazy suds to form, but I figured the properties of the saponified fats and oils would behave the same. Maybe the large amounts of...

Agreed, but ultimately, I think most things like off the shelf body wash can make bubbles, but it is getting them to stick around that is the problem. Hence, my stearic acid comment. As with most things in soap, I would just experiment with it and see what happens. I'm thinking a liquid soap...

The addition of stearic acid may stabilize the bubbles, as that is what is used in shaving soap recipes.

Yeah I may try one more half batch soon to see if it was a fluke of some sort. Maybe I'll cut back on the water/lye from 2.5:1 to 2:1.

Mine is 20% coconut....48hrs in, still can indent with my finger if I push with any reasonable force. Looks like a failed experiment on my end.

So odd, I stick blended mine for a good 5 minutes without much thickening at all. Must be some weird interaction going on.

Agreed. I've made plenty of salt soap with say 75% salt based on oil weight, but even then it doesn't harden immediately, but usually within 3-6 hours. Of course, that is almost 100% coconut oil, so I'm wondering if different fats/oils behave differently with salt.

Well I made a batch of this yesterday and we'll see what happens going forward. I followed the directions from the link by using 25% salt by weight of water with a 2.5:1 ratio of water to NaOH. I used my standard formula where the two highest percentage fats/oils are olive oil and lard. I had...

May have to try this. The two aspects that I don't like about salt bars are the crumbly nature of them and the fact that they are slightly drying. This technique seems to address those two issues with the fact that you can use your standard recipe with typical levels of coconut oil and get...

Ugh, not really itching to spend $120 on a wand. Good to know it works well though.

Actually, I think I can help with your bubbly issue (and your comments do help a bit with the stringies). Allegedly, if you perforate your film, as the bag shrinks, the air bubbles will be pushed out and it will give a smooth finish. This is why many folks get perforated films (I did). I'll...

Okay, clearly I am either clueless, or there is some secret voodoo that goes on with shrink wrapping. I did try watching some videos on Youtube, but those weren't very helpful. I got a roll of the 75 gauge perforated from National Shrinkwrap and one of those standard blue impulse sealers...

How long after cutting are you folks planing? With the planer I got off of etsy, I seem to get a divot near the end of the bar for some reason and I'm not sure if this would simply go away as the bar hardens or if it is my technique.

Silly question, but what is the advantage of shrink wrapping your soap?