Sous Vide HP (SVHP) experimental thread

[SaltedFig]

This is an experiment (attempt 1 of a new idea).

I cut it too early (it was soft), and there's flaws (dots, spots and drags) that were mostly caused by me stopping to take photo's when I should have got on with what I was doing

I'm after your opinion ...

I've left the photo large, it's completely unmodified except to make it the right way up, reduce the size and to give it a name.

The soap itself is four oils, NaOH, water and sugar, with charcoal for colour and nothing else.

It was hand cut using a knife, and has not been washed, trimmed or smoothed in any way, so it's as raw as it gets. If you want to see it's litter-mates, there's others (I like this one because the alien is included in the space theme ).

It's HP. Please tell me what do you think



Nearly forgot - it's 5 & 1/2 hours old.

 

[Obsidian]

It looks quite good for HP, I would have thought it was CP. Not sure what you want a opinion on but here it goes. I can see some white chunks of what looks like dried soap from over stirring, this is one of the things I dislike the most about HP. I really like the grey color but not the yellow, would have looked better with white.
The swirl is nice, reminds me a bit of marble.

I can't see any drag marks or other flaws. The bar itself looks good. Personally I like the looks of just cut soap with raw edges, its what handmade soap should look like. I don't care for fancy beveled edges or washed/polished surfaces.

 

[SaltedFig]

Thanks obsidian ... that's along the lines of what I am after.

The spots are definately my fault (the aforementioned taking photo's when I should have been doing). Batch 2 is cooling (there shouldn't be any spots, because I didn't do any photo's during the making. It won't have the marble ... it's just a simple skewer swirl.

The yellow is ugly now, but it's high olive (just over 50% - it started out dark green!), so it will fade off to white in a few months (I dont' like the yellow either, it's rather intense when it's new!).

Thanks for that. The comment that you would have thought it was CP is exactly where I was aiming with the technique (there's a bit of work to be done on actually making it look good )

No stirring involved.

 

[penelopejane]

It does look more like CP than HP.
Personally I am more into a controlled swirl that is repeatable but since I don't do HP I don't know if that is even possible. It is certainly one of the nicest HP soaps I have seen.

I like the depth of the grey colour and think it will be a good match for the OO when it cures.
I don't mind the raw edges but one of my friends says they scratch too much so I generally bevel my edges a tiny bit but don't touch the faces after cutting.

 

[SaltedFig]

You can do repeatable swirls with it, but you've got to be reasonably quick.

The marble is because I like it in CP (I did it in the creature soap from last month - pictures in my media) and I wanted to see if it would work in HP. I probably could have made the first go a little less busy

I didn't do that with the second batch, so when I cut it I'll pop a picture up ... the second attempt is just two colours, skewer swirled (hopefully not overdone)

 

[soapmaker]

Very nice, anxious to see the next one.

 

[dixiedragon]

Very nice! I like the fact that the swirl is clearly discernible and not muddy. ANd also that there is variation from dark grey to light. I agree with Obsidian about the yellow, but I am wondering if it looks yellow b/c of the yellow object in the background?

 

[soapmaker]

Very nice! I like the fact that the swirl is clearly discernible and not muddy. ANd also that there is variation from dark grey to light. I agree with Obsidian about the yellow, but I am wondering if it looks yellow b/c of the yellow object in the background?

Yes, I was wondering that too. My olive oil never does that. Also wondering if the fragrance played a part.

 

[dixiedragon]

The fragrance very well may have. What's the FO? Top of my head - BB's Black Raspberry Vanilla (BRV) and Bittercreek's Oakmoss turn yellow for me.

 

[SaltedFig]

Thank you!

(No FO, but thanks for the thought )

You are right, it's more yellow in the picture than it is in person!

I'll try taking another photo in the morning (it's nearly midnight here), with natural light and on a plain background

 

[cmzaha]

I also think they look just fine, but I do bevel the edges on my soaps or they are to hard to hold comfortably.

 

[SaltedFig]

Thanks! Yes, these have no prettiness or comfort giving bevel applied (all testers at this time, although I think batch number 3 is going to get treated like a "real" soap ).

Batch 2 ... hmmmm. I really need to stop complicating things (I put it in a warm oven after I finished, which was pushing things just a bit much).

Aside from that, the pour worked much better, there aren't any white spots, and it was liquid enough that my skewer was too thin to drag much soap around.

Batch 2 (on the right) is going to be a square soap when it grows up :


(on to batch 3) ...

 

[Lin19687]

I alwasy get the white blobs in mine and it may be from milk/yogurt added after.

Looks great to me

 

[SaltedFig]

I alwasy get the white blobs in mine and it may be from milk/yogurt added after.

Looks great to me

Thanks Lin, these didn't have any milk or yoghurt - I let the batter cool a bit too much before piping it (L plates on with a new technique)!

The recipe is just an ordinary 4 veg oil recipe at 33% lye concentration, with no additives other than a little sugar.

I did a pictorial on how to replicate the technique for the April challenge

If you try it out, I'd love to hear how it goes (and pictures, of course, would be wonderful!)!

 

[Lin19687]

Great, just Great SF ! MORE for me to read. I don't get any soaping done just kidding, sorta.

I will read that over as I am HP this batch
I am making a HP batch but lower temps, diff recipe, stirring every 5-10 min....... I now know what true Zap is. I have been tasting soap all these years hahaha

 

[earlene]

White balance your camera first, by pointing it at something really white. then focus on your soap. That should help get the colors more true.

 

[Lin19687]

White balance your camera first, by pointing it at something really white. then focus on your soap. That should help get the colors more true.

Good to know !

 

[SaltedFig]

Thanks Earlene

Lin, don't eat the soap

Seriously - this one sets up hard as a rock as soon as it's cool (really quick, bit of a surprise). I washed my hands 5 & 1/2 hours after making it (and it was over 50% olive!), and no tingle (THEN I zap tested it ... I don't know I'd be game to test soap WHILE it was being made!).

I still haven't made batch 3 ... procrastinating again (I want to try a coconut soleseife swirl, so my excuse is the salt is still ... in the jug )

 

[SaltedFig]

Ok, batch 3 is done. Coconut soleseife.

30 minutes from mixed oils to washing my hands with a bar of soap. That's just nuts.

And all I can say is nope. It's ridiculously (impossibly) fast.

I steamed it this time (that part is very easy, but I think it's a bit hotter than a gentle hot water bath - I will be using this idea again, with less steam).

The soap was setting into flakes as I was smooshing it into the mold. I got bars, but they are NOT pretty.

This one counts as a swirl fail. On to batch 4 in a few days ...

The coconut soleseife batter in bags


And the fully saponified soap (untrimmed in any way)

The finished soap photo was taken 37 minutes after the one above (by this stage I'd made the others, bagged up some flakes for a steam rebatch, washed my hands with a little blob and then remembered to take a photo).



... I took it from here, washed my hands with it and zap tested. No zap. Lathered just fine for a baby soap.

Probably could be the fastest way to make soap flakes!

Edited to add: Once I trimmed off the flakes and washed my hands with it again, it just looks like an badly made bar of soap (it isn't falling apart at all - none of them are). I'll be smashing one open tomorrow (and testing steaming again for rebatching - that worked really well!).

******************
Update: I think I have an idea for SVHP salt soaps, but for the moment I'm going to focus on regular soaps.

Test 4 in a few days

Something I've noticed - the bags don't swell much at all, so I'm starting to trust that they won't burst on me. I have to do an "over-cooking" test.

So Test 4 is either going to be the first recipe (deliberately over-cooked in the bag) or an olive-free recipe.

An observation - none of them are getting any sign of ash.

 

[earlene]

Thank you so much for the ongoing reports as you test this method, SaltedFig. It is really helpful.