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@amd I did some Googling after I posted this thread since I didn't get any response. What I found is that you have to cool it fast, like put it in the freezer after you pour. I still haven't got around to trying it. @earlene you posted right when I was typing my response. I'll check out the...

Gotcha. So that would explain why people will use palm oil or lard to get more hardness in the soap, because they're bringing more palmitic acid to the party. So while we're on the properties of different soaps, what differences could I expect between stearic soap and palmitic soap? I used...

Perfect answer as always. It makes sense that the acid would have the H+ there. Not sure why I didn't think of that initially. Interesting to me that from what I understand stearic acid with NaOH is supposed to make a very hard soap, but the chemical reaction actually produces more water. Maybe...

Summon @DeeAnna. :) So, I think I'm getting a better understanding of the chemistry involved in soap, but I got to thinking about something yesterday and it got me wondering. So here's how I got there (and please let me know if I'm misunderstanding any of this): 1. Someone said in a thread...

This sounds like a more reasonable and thorough process than what I was doing...("Does it look like mashed potatoes yet? I'm not sure, give it another 5 minutes..."). I'll definitely follow this next time, whenever that may be. My soap turned out fine as far as I can tell, I've shaved 3 times...

Reading this made the light bulb appear over my head, complete with the ding sound, just like in cartoons. SO...it changed state to "mashed potatoes" presumably because I had finally cooked enough water out of the soap. That actually may be a good thing in this case because the soap ended up...

I just want to see what happens if I insert an emoji from my phone and then view the post on the desktop. Will it recognize it? Edit: Doesn't look like it did. Oh well. SCIENCE!

@JayMae My mother, sister, and brother all still live in OKC. Funny you say "in the sticks just outside OKC", I have an aunt and uncle that live out in the country just north of Edmond, they're address is actually on "Sticks Trail". And it kind of is the sticks in that area. They're closer to...

Pretty sure that's the right one. I used the SoapMaker program to calculate the lye amounts, never used Soapee. Maybe you have KOH and NaOH backward? You say "KOH:NaOH 10:90" but I'm doing 6.5 to 1 the other way around. More KOH than NaOH. It's a shave soap so I wasn't going for a hard bar at...

@DeeAnna I was planning on doing a "zap test" on the tongue, but once it got to be 11:30 PM I decided that I was going to stop at "mashed potato" since I just wanted to go to bed at that point. Is there a better way you'd recommend?

@shunt2011 My working hypothesis is that I opened it up to stir too frequently and that caused it to take longer to heat to the proper temperature. I took some advice in the other thread to check every 5 minutes. And the tutorials I had read all said "stir frequently" but never really said how...

This is precisely what I did that resulted in the 3 hour cook time. If that's normal than I'm fine to do it that way, it just sounds like people have been able to achieve much faster cook times than that, so I'm wondering if I did something "wrong", or at least different than what people...

Well, I'm not speaking as an expert or anything, but I don't think that's how it works. Different oils will produce different types of soap dependent on the fatty acids that compose the oil. It's the mixture of your base oils to get a certain fatty acid "profile" that determines the...

Interesting. I have a stainless steel cooking pot that I've designated as my soaping pot. When I do CP I do my mixing in that. Certainly I could use that on the stove to do HP. What setting do you use on the hot plate? I want to get it done faster but I definitely want to avoid the overheating I...

Hello JayMae. Tulsa here, where are you specifically? People here have been pretty helpful to me, but I'm still learning to make it as a hobby. I've seen quite a few threads with people having questions about selling theirs, so I'm sure you can get your questions answered. Anyhow, welcome.

Yeah, I guess that would be important information wouldn't it. This is for a shaving soap: 6.5 oz Coconut Oil (41.9%) 6.5 oz Lard (41.9%) 1.7 oz Stearic Acid (11%) 0.8 oz Shea Butter (5.2%) 0.8 oz Powdered Goat Milk 1.3 oz Glycerin 2.6 oz KOH/0.4 oz NaOH (6.9% Discount) 6.4 oz Water

My father passed 2 and a half years ago at age 61, which was the first "major" loss I've had in my life. I've lost grandparents and more distant relatives but losing Dad was just different. He was a father of course, a disciplinarian when I was young but as I got older he became a dear friend as...

Hi Brandon. I've been on the forum for a week and have been making soap for 3 and a half weeks. Doing it as a hobby. Don't know your level of experience but it sounds like it runs in your family. People here seem pretty helpful about answering beginner questions so don't be afraid to ask.

Hello again all. Friday night I did my "second" HP batch (I use quotes because it was my first batch that was done properly and wasn't a complete disaster, see my previous thread for details). Everything went pretty much as expected, except that it took 3 hours to reach the "mashed potato"...

I'd definitely give at at least another week, if not 2-3. The cure takes time. Some people will cure for years, especially with a soft soap like a Castille. My almond scented batch was at a similar point after a week. I don't know how sodium lactate affects soap. Is it supposed to make a harder...