Got my ocean... maybe

[Neve]

My Saffire Blue supplies arrived and I decided I would christen the new silicon mould with an ocean breeze scented soap that I got in the pile of new stuff. Well, my first time with major acceleration. It was almost at trace so I went and measured out the fragrance, only half-strength, poured it into the mix and instant concrete mix! I still had to add my salt, split some off for colour and do my 'pouring'. Yikes.

I sure hope it turns out ok. Will soaping cooler help with this? I don't think the oils or lye were overly hot but I admit I didn't take the temperatures. I kinda go by feel.

It looks very pretty, just like I wanted. I was only going to do a partial top swirl so I'll have to see what happens there. I'm thinking I'll have to cut this one fairly soon? At least I didn't have to wait 30 minutes to texture my top like on the last batch!

 

[shunt2011]

Were you making salt bars? Hope they turn out for you. I add my fragrance to my oils before I add my lye. I've found I have much better control over how it traces. Also soaping at cooler temps may help too. I generally soap at room temp.

 

[Neve]

Yes salt bars. I'll try that next time - adding to the oils. I usually soap at around room temps, I know the oils were about that. The lye was probably a little warmer. It was all going beautifully until I added that fragrance. Glad I didn't use full strength.

 

[Tienne]

I have some tricky FO's that are pretty much useless for CP soaping (ricing and seizing) and have been experimenting with how I could use them anyway. (I'm not a fan of HP) I have somewhat been able to tame them by soaping at room temp, by adding the FO to my oils and then when it comes to adding the lyewater, I add only about a third of it to the oils. The batter will then react angrily as usual with those FO's, but not having the full lyewater amount added gives me time to stickblend out the ricing and/or lumping while the batter is still liquid. Then when the batter is uniform, I add another third and the thickening really starts up, but the worst reaction is usually when adding the first portion, so I still have time to stickblend/stir it in. Then, before I add the last third, I put away the stickblender and with the mould right next to me and ready to roll, I stir in the last third of the lyewater briskly with a spatula. You need to move fast at this point! The batter will still get very thick, very fast, but it's not unmanageable and the last soap I tried doing this way using a "bad" FO, was actually still pourable!! (Or gloopable rather, but at least it wasn't soap on a stick.) The FO I used was so bad, that I knew multicolours was out of the question, so I had also added just a single colour to my oils before I added any lye at all, so that was taken care of in advance as well. The soap came out nice and I even managed to get it poured/glooped into a pringles can and got some nice rounds out of it without any bubbles or air pockets! It was a right miracle!

 

[Neve]

As it stands, I wouldn't use this FO again. My batch is pretty much a disaster. I don't really like the scent either. I don't want a tropical smell, I want a salty ocean smell.

There are little liquid pockets in it (likely FO because I couldn't blend it properly), I only got five slices that didn't crumble too. Giving up on salt bars until I can get a 12 cavity silicon mould.

The mini ones sliced ok.