did you try it yet? let us know how it goes? I was so nervous first time, whatever you do dont breath the lye./water mix, yucky, i open window and at first covered my mouth and nose with a towel, now i just turn away, while stirring!
Green Eyed Monster is creeping......
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I haven't tried it yet - still looking at the slow cooker.
I've been so busy lately I haven't really been able to think about trying it.. lol and still a little nervous. Maybe I should try making it at my cottage one weekend so that I can do it outside =P
I should go to Value Village or something and see if I can buy a big pot.
Then I'm going to watch some youtube videos - maybe then I'll try =)
How do you do CP without measuring the temperature? Just wait till the pot is warm to the touch? and then pour the lye mixture in?
I've been so busy lately I haven't really been able to think about trying it.. lol and still a little nervous. Maybe I should try making it at my cottage one weekend so that I can do it outside =P
I should go to Value Village or something and see if I can buy a big pot.
Then I'm going to watch some youtube videos - maybe then I'll try =)
How do you do CP without measuring the temperature? Just wait till the pot is warm to the touch? and then pour the lye mixture in?
Ditto on the Candleandsoap link. That's a great site for learning. The Miller's Soap site is excellent, too. You also can't beat the forums. I think I've learned the most just from reading about everyone else's real-life soaping adventures (and misadventures! 
).
Cp is my first love and it's the method I use about 99% of the time, but I do the occasional HP batch when I know a fragrance I'll be using is a troublemaking seizer for me in CP.
For HP, I use the method that kaseencook posted a few posts above where she talks about using a large pot in the oven (OHP). I can vouch that it works great and it is so easy. I think the only thing I do differently is that I set my oven to 170 degreesF, but 210 is fine, too. I only set mine at 170 because that's what the person who taught me set hers to and that's what I'm used to doing.
-Making sure to use a full water amount, I first start out mixing my lye water and oils in my big soup pot like I'm making a CP batch, but I omit adding the fragrance oil and any other goodies until later.
-I bring the mixture to medium trace with a stickblender and stick the pot (covered) in my preheated oven and check on it every so often- about every 20 minutes or so. I don't stir it or anything- I just peek to see what it's doing.
-Although the timing may vary from batch to batch, usually after about 40 minutes or so it goes into what I call the 'island stage' where it looks like an 'island' floating in the middle of a sea of gelled soap. I re-cover the pot and continue cooking it and checking it periodically.
-When it all gets transluscent looking (or the 'island' disappears into the 'sea'), I take a little bit of the cooked soap in my gloved hand and rub it between my gloved fingers under a faucet or running water to see if it suds. If it doesn't, I cook it some more. If it does, I touch the suds to the tip of my tongue to check for zap. If it zaps, I cook it for 10 minutes more, which is usually all it takes to get the zap out.
-When there is finally no zap, I add my colorants and then I cool down my soap on the counter by stirring it until it gets just below the flash point temperature of my chosen fragrance oil. Then I mix in my fragrance oil and pour.
I get a fairly smooth pour (instead of an awkward glopping) out of my HP by mixing 3% Sodium Lactate and 3% sugar ppo (1 tbsp ppo of each) in with my lye water. It's not as pristinely smooth as CP poured at medium trace, but not mashed potatoes either. It's kinda like thick, but smooth and jam- much like CP poured when it's at a very thick trace, but still fluid.
My finished HP soap looks very cp-like except for the very top surface. That part always ends up with a rough, funky look to it because the soap hardens up quickly as the air hits it as I'm pouring, but I'm able to make the top surface look smooth with some 'plastic surgery' after unmolding by 'sanding' it down with a damp, green, kitchen scrubby thing, and then by rolling over it with my handy-dandy, plastic, decorative fondant roller that I bought at WSP. I love that thing! It cleans my HP soap up nice!
IrishLass
).Cp is my first love and it's the method I use about 99% of the time, but I do the occasional HP batch when I know a fragrance I'll be using is a troublemaking seizer for me in CP.
For HP, I use the method that kaseencook posted a few posts above where she talks about using a large pot in the oven (OHP). I can vouch that it works great and it is so easy. I think the only thing I do differently is that I set my oven to 170 degreesF, but 210 is fine, too. I only set mine at 170 because that's what the person who taught me set hers to and that's what I'm used to doing.
-Making sure to use a full water amount, I first start out mixing my lye water and oils in my big soup pot like I'm making a CP batch, but I omit adding the fragrance oil and any other goodies until later.
-I bring the mixture to medium trace with a stickblender and stick the pot (covered) in my preheated oven and check on it every so often- about every 20 minutes or so. I don't stir it or anything- I just peek to see what it's doing.
-Although the timing may vary from batch to batch, usually after about 40 minutes or so it goes into what I call the 'island stage' where it looks like an 'island' floating in the middle of a sea of gelled soap. I re-cover the pot and continue cooking it and checking it periodically.
-When it all gets transluscent looking (or the 'island' disappears into the 'sea'), I take a little bit of the cooked soap in my gloved hand and rub it between my gloved fingers under a faucet or running water to see if it suds. If it doesn't, I cook it some more. If it does, I touch the suds to the tip of my tongue to check for zap. If it zaps, I cook it for 10 minutes more, which is usually all it takes to get the zap out.
-When there is finally no zap, I add my colorants and then I cool down my soap on the counter by stirring it until it gets just below the flash point temperature of my chosen fragrance oil. Then I mix in my fragrance oil and pour.
I get a fairly smooth pour (instead of an awkward glopping) out of my HP by mixing 3% Sodium Lactate and 3% sugar ppo (1 tbsp ppo of each) in with my lye water. It's not as pristinely smooth as CP poured at medium trace, but not mashed potatoes either. It's kinda like thick, but smooth and jam- much like CP poured when it's at a very thick trace, but still fluid.
My finished HP soap looks very cp-like except for the very top surface. That part always ends up with a rough, funky look to it because the soap hardens up quickly as the air hits it as I'm pouring, but I'm able to make the top surface look smooth with some 'plastic surgery' after unmolding by 'sanding' it down with a damp, green, kitchen scrubby thing, and then by rolling over it with my handy-dandy, plastic, decorative fondant roller that I bought at WSP. I love that thing! It cleans my HP soap up nice!
IrishLass
