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RT = room temperature. Basically you let your oils and lye cool to room temperature before combining instead of when they are still hot.

If you want a smoother looking soap then try what Heartsong suggested and just make a normal CP soap without the oven. If you want to ensure gel, just wrap them in towels and place on the counter. As far as what does it look like when you HP it and it's ready for the mold, the common...

NOW I read this! I just made my first 100% coconut oil laundry soap a few days ago. I'll have to try this next time!:-D

Also what was your recipe? Some oils are more prone to DOS then others. A pic and the recipe might help us diagnose.

Ditto to paillo, though I use vinegar when I need to sour milk for cooking (pancakes!). But for soapmaking I actually go out and buy buttermilk...then make pancakes with the leftovers! My girls love pancakes! I make a buttermilk bastille for my daugthers and it's a great soap.

I might be in. I had a plan to soap this weekend and after looking at the song list I know have an idea about how I can still make what I want and meet this challenge. Now I just need to finish making my mold!

Plugging the numbers into soapcalc (took a guess and used Crisco for the shortening) I get that you have about a 15% superfat and 38% water. A bit high for my taste but I don't think it's that bad. But combined with full water and 50% olive oil it might account for the softness of the soap...

I think some people also use the trimmings (free samples generally). I've seen people at farmer's markets do that. A few of the videos I watch on youtube from people who sell generally trim the ends and they are maybe 1/4" thick. You could cut those in half or thirds or something as samples...

Welcome. As far as storage, I had a cupboard available that is above our fridge that I have all my oils, lye, FO, colorant, pretty much all of the "chemical" side of soapmaking stored in. It's well out of reach of little hands, even if they somehow managed to get on the counter (It's a pretty...

I too recently purchased the Cuisinart with the detachable blender (really looking forward to easier cleaning with that). And since I'm a sucker for anything blue I got the pretty dark blue one. And a set of blue, high temp, durable spatulas to be used only for soapmaking.

You could do that (158.76/2) if you want. Or you can use the 63.05 grams water and the rest milk. Never go below a 1:1 ratio lye to water. Really you can do whatever you want as long as you don't go below that 1:1 ratio. Frankly I like to freeze the milk and just use 100% milk but to each...

I get the canned coconut milk in the Asian section of the market place. I try to find one that has the least amount of ingredients. I used to be in an area where I could get a brand that was straight up coconut milk. Last time I bought some I couldn't find that brand so bought one that had...

My salt bars lathered great in hard water and they were high coconut oil and salt (ha!). Related but different: I just moved to a place with soft water and frankly, we HATE it! I almost miss my hard water. It feels like the soap isn't washing of you (even my husband's commercial soap), my...

I heart Alton Brown! That episode on herbs was really cool.

Heartsong - Not really thin and not really thick. Nice soap consistency if that makes sense. It runs but not like water. Next time I might add some salt to thicken it up a bit but since half of these are going to end up in pump bottles for hand soap I don't think it's a problem. Would have...

MKRanville - I used Green Clove & Aloe from Peak. Kazmi - since I did the glycerin method it actually went pretty quickly. I heated the glycerin up to about 215 (that didn't take very long), slowly added the KOH until it dissolved. Then added the lye/glycerin to the oils that had been heating...

Well, so far so good. I did the lazy man's method of diluting by just adding the boiling water to the crock pot and letting it sit overnight. This morning I had a lovely, clear soap. I reheated the soap, added the FO and then cooled again before bottling. Looks like the FO caused some slight...

For my second attempt at making liquid soap I'm attempting the glycerin method. Woohoo! Got it the pot now. I'm still going to cook it for longer then the 1.5 hours that is in the soapmaking 101 video but I'm looking forward to this new method. Last time I made liquid soap I used a recipe...

I've noticed that some FO turn the soap batter a bright yellow color. I don't use colors right now (but want to soon) so I don't know how it affects the colors after saponification, but in my plain, uncolored soap, the color turns back to white or tan (if I used milk) once it's set a day...

Could it be made with the spoon technique as well? Just curious. I've only seen vides of both, not actually tried either yet.