Did my first pull through with a kit bought from Wild Plantanica and it was really fun. I fully expected these to be a blobby failure and for there to be a steep learning curve, but I was happy with the results and look forward to getting better and trying other discs/patterns/colors. These are even more fun to cut than normal swirls because each one is so different from the others, the fronts are so different from the backs, etc. The pictures are from two different discs, and are of the whole batch in each case, I realized that I should have taken care to put them in order of cutting to see what the changes were in each soap, but the top left shows the end/most imperfect cuts in each batch.
I used 20% CO, 40% lard, 35% olive, 4% castor. 5% SF, 28% lye concentration. The sat:unsat fat ratio was 41:59. Soaped at about 90F.
The one thing that I think I will be better prepared for next time is waiting for a thicker trace to pour. I was really concerned that I would not have enough time to pour enough color cycles without the soap thickening up too much, so I initially poured at too thin of a trace, I should have waited until it was closer to medium. Other things I might do: increase the lye concentration (see below)/decrease the water amount, soap at a slightly higher temp.
With the earliest pours I had trouble getting them centered and circular, which became much easier as the batter thickened. After a couple of those watery pours I actually stopped and waited a little bit (10-15 minutes) for medium trace, shaking the bottles intermittently to help speed trace and keep the batter mixed well.
One interesting thing, I got glycerin rivers! It didn’t bother me because I kind of like them and I hardly ever get them. I guess they should not have been a surprise since I soaped at full water (28% lye concentration) and CPOP’d. Next time I will increase my LC just so I don’t have to wait as long for the right trace which should reduce/eliminate the glycerin rivers.
A note regarding the molds in the kit, which were PVC. After spending some time researching, I was worried (a) that the soap would overheat if I CPOP’d (a number of posts said PVC was susceptible to overheating when gelling) and (b) that I would have a really hard time getting the soap out of the molds. Neither ended up being a problem. ETA: Chass/Wild Plantanica uses a particular type of PVC which is heat safe to a very high degree, (I think) 270F, maybe this is why there are less CPOP/gelling problems, plus no fumes/melting. They are black, so you do have to use a headlamp with them to see into the molds while you are pouring.
I did my normal CPOP procedure – heated to the lowest temp of 170F, turned off oven, left on light, put in soap – and it was fine. Unmolding was also fine. I used sodium lactate and put the soaps in the freezer for an hour after leaving them in the oven overnight (I meant to line with freezer paper and forgot.) I used a couple of tins to push the soap up from the bottom and it came out very easily (in fact after the soap can treatment when I turned one upside down it slid out and got dented on the top
I can’t wait to try again and highly recommend the Wild Plantanica discs/kit. The WP owner, Chass, is super fast getting stuff out, is very responsive to questions, just great to deal with all round.
I used 20% CO, 40% lard, 35% olive, 4% castor. 5% SF, 28% lye concentration. The sat:unsat fat ratio was 41:59. Soaped at about 90F.
The one thing that I think I will be better prepared for next time is waiting for a thicker trace to pour. I was really concerned that I would not have enough time to pour enough color cycles without the soap thickening up too much, so I initially poured at too thin of a trace, I should have waited until it was closer to medium. Other things I might do: increase the lye concentration (see below)/decrease the water amount, soap at a slightly higher temp.
With the earliest pours I had trouble getting them centered and circular, which became much easier as the batter thickened. After a couple of those watery pours I actually stopped and waited a little bit (10-15 minutes) for medium trace, shaking the bottles intermittently to help speed trace and keep the batter mixed well.
One interesting thing, I got glycerin rivers! It didn’t bother me because I kind of like them and I hardly ever get them. I guess they should not have been a surprise since I soaped at full water (28% lye concentration) and CPOP’d. Next time I will increase my LC just so I don’t have to wait as long for the right trace which should reduce/eliminate the glycerin rivers.
A note regarding the molds in the kit, which were PVC. After spending some time researching, I was worried (a) that the soap would overheat if I CPOP’d (a number of posts said PVC was susceptible to overheating when gelling) and (b) that I would have a really hard time getting the soap out of the molds. Neither ended up being a problem. ETA: Chass/Wild Plantanica uses a particular type of PVC which is heat safe to a very high degree, (I think) 270F, maybe this is why there are less CPOP/gelling problems, plus no fumes/melting. They are black, so you do have to use a headlamp with them to see into the molds while you are pouring.
I did my normal CPOP procedure – heated to the lowest temp of 170F, turned off oven, left on light, put in soap – and it was fine. Unmolding was also fine. I used sodium lactate and put the soaps in the freezer for an hour after leaving them in the oven overnight (I meant to line with freezer paper and forgot.) I used a couple of tins to push the soap up from the bottom and it came out very easily (in fact after the soap can treatment when I turned one upside down it slid out and got dented on the top
I can’t wait to try again and highly recommend the Wild Plantanica discs/kit. The WP owner, Chass, is super fast getting stuff out, is very responsive to questions, just great to deal with all round.
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