I made the soap today using the cold process-oven process and it's come out really well! I tweaked the recipe again and this is what I finally used:
1. Olive oil: 43%: 215 gms
2. Coconut oil: 22% : 110 gms
3. Avocado oil: 23% : 115 gms
4. Castor oil: 7%: 35 gms (An extra 3 gms spilled out from the bottle, so 38 gms)
5. Shea butter: 5%: 25 gms
I also added 10 gms of turmeric, and 15 gms of gram flour, that's chickpea flour.
I made it last night and unmolded this morning. It was fairly hard, if pressed, it left a light indentation. When I added the turmeric and gram at trace it turned a blood red. After gelling, it's a dark orange. It smells downright delicious to me. It's got a warm, earthy scent, I really like that.
Trace crept up on me. One minute it was very liquidy and I thought nothing was happening. I used the high speed on the blender for 10 seconds and suddenly it was incredibly thick. I thought maybe it was false trace so I took its temperature, it was high, 54 c/129 f. I figured it couldn't be false trace at that temp.
The lye was 43 c/109 f and oil was 52 c/125 f when I mixed them. The oil heated up faster, and the lye cooled down faster than I thought. I figured if I just added them together they'd get close enough to 47 c/116 f which is where I wanted them. I left the soap in the oven at 70 c/158 f for an hour, before taking it out and putting it in the microwave to insulate.
I did the zap test after unmolding, I felt nothing. It actually didn't taste all that bad! I had increased the superfat to 7%, and then when making it there were 2 or 3 grams extra castor oil, and 1 gram less lye. So I think the superfat percentage has increased to 8 or 9%. It does feel a bit greasier than the hand made soap that I buy.
I cut off a small piece and used it. It was outstanding! I don't think my hands have ever felt this good. The lather was super creamy, it could have foamed up just a touch more I thought, but was still plenty bubbly. It left my hands feeling clean and soft. I can't wait till the 4 weeks cure time is up! I will update after using it fully.
I didn't have a proper mold. I bought a silicone mold to get clean looking bars but there was a white residue on it after washing it. So I used baking paper and a glass box I had. Which means the bars don't look pretty at all, very rough slices. There was also a cakey looking patch on a couple of them, pictures attached. I don't know what that is, but when I rub my finger on it it just blurs out into the soap. Could it be a bit flour that didn't mix properly?
Sorry for the long post, but I have a question about the oven process. If I cut out the oven and just insulated this mixture, like wrapping the box in a towel and shutting it in the microwave at the temperatures described above, would it gel as evenly? The ambient temperature is 21 degrees c/70 f. Would adding honey help keep the temperature high?