HP:do continue cooking after adding SF oils?

max_ime · Jun 7, 2014

I recently made some mostly coconut and palm oil soap bars and I tried to push the limit by making it a 26% SF. When I cut the loaf I realized that the edges of each bar where whiter and softer than the center and there is 2 or 3 spots in the whole loafs that look more translucent, a bit less white than the rest. Very much looks like a partial gel, but can it be one ?

My soap was fully gelled/cooked before I added my SF oils, I wonder if I should have let it cook some more and for how long instead of pouring it right away after mixing in the SF. Do you have to gel your SF oils? in the past when using 8% SF I did not have this problem.

Thank you for any comments

lpstephy85 · Jun 7, 2014

No, you don't have to gel or cook your SF oils. The nicest thing about HP vs. CP is that you can superfat AFTER the cook. If the inside is still more translucent once cutting, it is probably because the soap held the heat in. Once cut and cured it will probably look more uniform.

max_ime · Jun 7, 2014

I cut them one week ago and there is no change, I think it might be linked with my high SF%, but it seems very little soapers have gone this high so not many people will be able to tell me.

lpstephy85 · Jun 7, 2014

Yeah I have never gone that high so it is possible, especially if that is the only thing about your recipe that you changed.

max_ime · Jun 7, 2014

I might be wrong but I believe that it's better to super fat as much as possible without having complications of whatever kind to make the soap milder. As long as you use the soap to wash yourself, especially the face the milder the better?

FlybyStardancer · Jun 7, 2014

It's possible to superfat too much-- to much superfat (especially with liquid oils) leaves the soap soft, and leaves your skin oily. How much is 'too much' is highly individual, though.

lpstephy85 · Jun 7, 2014

High superfats also inhibit the lather of the soap.

max_ime · Jun 8, 2014

Soap Tempering

lpstephy85 said:
Yeah I have never gone that high so it is possible, especially if that is the only thing about your recipe that you changed.

There is another thing I changed I did add deodorized cocoa butter as 5 %of the oils. It was my first time using cocoa butter for making soap. I just melted the butter a bit in advance, like 5-20 min and then I took it off the heat source and I added it to the crock pot when the soap was fully gelled and ready for SF.

I Wonder if it matters if the cocoa butter was too cold in comparison the the soap. I know cocoa butter to be ULTRA capricious when it comes to making chocolate, you have to temper cocoa butter and chocolate if you want it to have that glossy finish and that right texture. If the chocolate is (Not brought up to a certain temperature and let to cool down until a certain temp. and then heated again till it reaches another temp. and then held at that temp) then it just crystalizes in the wrong crystal form when it cools down to room temp so it has a more crumble texture, no snap, is not shiny and has different spots of different tones of colors. So I Wonder do guys temper your soap when using butters or temper your butters before adding them?

Obsidian · Jun 8, 2014

No, you don't have to temper butters when making soap. I would guess your transparent spots are from the SF oil you used not getting mixed in quite enough. I have made regular soap with a 20% SF and I didn't get any weird spots or soft areas, I made mine CP though.

Increasing SF to make a non drying bar isn't the best way to go. I used to think the same thing but it never really helped my dry skin. Now I make a milder bar with 8% SF and its much better then the bars I made with 10% or higher SF.

HP:do continue cooking after adding SF oils?

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