Are Hot Process Recipes a Rare Find?

[FyrWyf]

Why is it so hard to find hot process recipes? The majority I seem to come across are cold process.

Is it ok to take any soap recipe and make it using whichever method you prefer? For instance, can I take a cold process recipe and make it using the hot process method? Or is that a no-no? Please advise!

 

[dixiedragon]

Cold process and hot process recipes are the same. Here's a basic one I like:

40% lard (you can sub palm here for an all veg soap)
20% coconut
35% olive
5% castor

With hot process, make sure your soap will fit in the slow cooker (or whatever you are cooking it in) with lots of head room. The pot should be 2/3 full AT MOST. I prefer 1/2 full myself.

 

[SoapTrey]

You can HP any cold process soap recipe. All you are doing when you HP it, is force the saponification process by "cooking" it rather than waiting for the process to occur over a much longer period of time if it's simply cold processed.

Contrary to a lot of what you will read on the internet... you will still need to cure the soap for the same amount of time as CP soap.

Here's a good read: http://www.modernsoapmaking.com/hot-process-soap-in-a-crockpot-tutorial/

 

[FyrWyf]

Thank you!

 

[toxikon]

I believe that hot process needs a bit more water than cold-process does. So using the standard amount of water (25% lye concentration) is generally a good idea for hot process, while you have more wiggle room with water discounting for cold-process.

(This is just my assumption from what I've read from other HP'ers, as I don't HP).

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

∆∆∆ this would be my advice, too. More water for hp than you would use in cold process

 

[FyrWyf]

How would one go about figuring out how much water to use?
I'm fairly new to soapmaking so was wanting to stick to tried and true recipes for now but HP recipes are hard to find.

 

[toxikon]

How would one go about figuring out how much water to use?
I'm fairly new to soapmaking so was wanting to stick to tried and true recipes for now but HP recipes are hard to find.

You'll definitely wanna familiarize yourself with lye calculators!

Most of us like to use percentages when offering up recipes, so they can be scaled to any size in a lye calculator.

So for example, this is one of my favourite recipes:

50% lard
20% coconut oil
15% olive oil
10% avocado oil
5% castor oil

(You'll want your total percentage of oils to add up to 100%)

So you can take those numbers and plunk them into a lye calculator based on what size batch you want to use.

My favourite lye calculator is Soapee. It has a nice UI and is easy to use.

http://soapee.com/calculator

If you go to Soapee, you'll see "2 - Select recipe units of measure". If you set "Oils total" to 100g, and below, put in the percentages of the recipe I posted above, you'll see that you'll want to use the following amounts of oils:

50g lard
20g coconut oil
15g olive oil
10g avocado oil
5g castor oil

Make sense?

The other two big factors will be determining your "lye solution concentration" and your "superfat".

Under "3 - Amount of water in recipe", you can select "Lye Concentration" and set it to 25%. That means your solution will be 25% lye and 75% water. Some people prefer a higher lye concentration like 30-40% - this is also known as a "water discount", because you are using less water. But for hot process, stick with 25%.

Standard superfat (the amount of oil left over after your other oils are saponified) is 5%. Some recipes may call for a higher superfat, especially high coconut oil recipes. Some prefer a low superfat of 2-3%.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[Kamahido]

If you are new to soap making I would suggest sticking to Cold Process. Hot Process is generally only used for fragrances that do not behave well in Cold Process.

 

[penelopejane]

Why do you want to do HP?

 

[FyrWyf]

I don't know why but I find hot process easier lol. Maybe because that's the way I first learned how to make soap. So that's what I've stuck with.

 

[dixiedragon]

How would one go about figuring out how much water to use?
I'm fairly new to soapmaking so was wanting to stick to tried and true recipes for now but HP recipes are hard to find.

Most lye calculators have a standard setting of 38% water (as percentage of oils). I like to bump that up to 40%, but 38% is okay too.

If you are new to soap making I would suggest sticking to Cold Process. Hot Process is generally only used for fragrances that do not behave well in Cold Process.

I don't think that's correct. Lots of people enjoy hot process more than cold process. You don't have to worry about things like false trace, and if you have separation it's easy to fix.

 

[SoapTrey]

There's nothing wrong with hot processing soap. Some of the best soaps I've made have been HP'd. Just to note, I've never adjusted my recipes for additional water and have never had any issue at all. Isn't that what we want... less water in the finished product? I realize you could cook the soap so much that not having enough water would be a problem... I've just never run into that. I kinda thought this was a part of HP'ing... keeping an eye on the cook to ensure it doesn't dry out too much. Now... if I end up HP'ing a 'failed' batch, I'll add additional water.

 

[dixiedragon]

There's nothing wrong with hot processing soap. Some of the best soaps I've made have been HP'd. Just to note, I've never adjusted my recipes for additional water and have never had any issue at all. Isn't that what we want... less water in the finished product? I realize you could cook the soap so much that not having enough water would be a problem... I've just never run into that. I kinda thought this was a part of HP'ing... keeping an eye on the cook to ensure it doesn't dry out too much. Now... if I end up HP'ing a 'failed' batch, I'll add additional water.

I like to add more water to my HP so it's a bit more fluid and it pours better. I've got a bottle of sodium lactate but I haven't tried it yet.

If you want your HP to have a slick top (vs bumpy), the easiest way is to get a wire cheese cutter and just cut the top off of the log when you unmold it.

 

[Britannic]

I used to use more water for my HP soap batches, until I started using press and seal plastic between the crockpot lid and the pot - it dramatically cut down on the water evaporation during the cook. My crockpot is one of the cheaper ones, so the lid didn't fit as well, YMMV.

 

[SunRiseArts]

Is it ok to take any soap recipe and make it using whichever method you prefer? For instance, can I take a cold process recipe and make it using the hot process method? Or is that a no-no? Please advise!

Yes. There is no such thing as recipes for HP or CP. Any recipe for CP would work for HP. You are just more limited in design, but I make beautiful hanger swirls with hp.

I have never adjusted or added more water either.

I used to make HP exclusively. I still love it. I personally find the outcome of HP soap better than CP. But just because is my personal preference.

Why do you want to do HP?

IMO HP is way less intimidating, and easier to manage. Also easy clean up.

You melt your oils in the pot, can use a disposable container for the lye, and after you are done, you can go ahead and clean your pot.

Your bars are also harder way faster, and like a rock after 6 weeks.

 

[NsMar42111]

I use the same recipe for HP and CP-I do a 30% lye concentration and my "regular" recipe rarely has issues in HP (unless it's a really naughty FO).

 

[SoapTrey]

IMO HP is way less intimidating, and easier to manage. Also easy clean up.

You melt your oils in the pot, can use a disposable container for the lye, and after you are done, you can go ahead and clean your pot.

Your bars are also harder way faster, and like a rock after 6 weeks.

I love this post... I really do.

When I do an intricate CP recipe and have 5 bowls of different colors, spatulas, measuring stuff... etc., the clean-up is the worst part, it's messy and time consuming and sometimes I don't want to make another batch for a while simply for this reason.

HP is so much easier to clean, and I completely forgot about that benefit simply because it's kinda rare that I HP now-a-days. But this thread is getting to me.... Thanks SunRiseArts

 

[Complexions]

I have used recipes for both HP and CP, with little to no adjustments.

My personal Pros to HP: cleanup is so much easier; I can control the super fat; no issues with ricing or seizing; some fragrance oils either misbehave or disappear, this happens less often with HP; I can get the soap molded, cooled, and cut all in 1 day; did I mention sooo much easier to clean?

 

[fuzz-juzz]

My next batch will be HP.
Last two CP batches were a complete disaster - my mistakes.
I'm scared I might stuff it up again lol and also, I am so short on soaps, if I do CP now it will never cure in time for use as I like my CP soaps to be 3 months old at least.
I have so FOs that I want to test in HP as some of them change quite a bit in CP.

I did few HP batches in past but keep forgetting how nice they can be. I usually don't go for the looks of the soaps as much for the feel, so HP soap looks or single colour don't bother me.
I have some HP rebatch that I'm using at the moment and it's so nice. I forgot how lovely it is in the shower. But it definitely needs bit of a cure because of high water %.