Ideal "room temp" for soapmaking?

[FlybyStardancer]

Is there an ideal "room temperature" for soapmaking?

I'm asking because other than my first batch (100% coconut oil), every other batch of bar soap I've made seems to be staying soft for a suuuuuper long time.

They only insulation they've gotten has been being stuck in a non-functional oven. However, every batch has had a heater in it, sugar at the very least.

Now, I know the second batch I did was full of soft oils and had no water discount, but it's been two weeks and I can still feel some give, so I'm not even trying to cut it yet. (It feels like an avocado should feel when you're checking for ripeness.)

Third batch was my shampoo bar, again with the soft oils, but it had a water discount this time, and honey. I haven't even checked it for unmolding yet, though I'm not really worried since it was poured in individual cilicone molds. I'll probably leave them in there a week before attempting to unmold.

My most recent batch is what's puzzling me the most. I did a similar recipe to what I used for the second, but I added enough shea butter to bring it up into what soapcalc considers the 'ideal' range. It also had a water discount, and two heaters in it (honey and milk), and it was the first soap that I didn't use a silicone mold for. On the one hand, silicone is insulating, on the other hand, it doesn't let the soap breathe. This one was in a pringles can lined with freezer paper. I kept feeling the can periodically after pouring, to check on gel, but it didn't feel like it got beyond maybe 80-ish degrees. Unmolded on the second day, when it was feeling firm through the mold, but it was still waaaay too soft for cutting.

Could my room temp be a contributing factor to how long it's taking for soaps to harden up? The thermostat is set to the low 60s in my house. It's not like I live in a humid area, so I can't imagine humidity being an issue.

 

[gurdeep]

I do room temp for the oils no need to heat then bring it down also have a blanket ready to insulate 100% coconut should be hard next day also this is super drying

 

[fuzz-juzz]

Have any of them gelled? If they haven't, ungelled soaps can take up to few days or a up to a week to harden up.
My last facial bar batch didn't gel and it took 3 days to harden. It was also in individual molds. Which one would think will set and dry soaps faster.
However, batch of soap made on Sunday gelled and I was able to get it out of mold after just 6h. And that was avocado oil soap which tends to be really soft.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Gurdeep--my oils are often a bit warmer than room temp, since there's always been something that's needed to melt (coconut oil and/or a butter of some kind). I have curious, curious cats so leaving something out just covered in a blanket is an invitation for them to get caustic proto-soap on their whiskers!

100% coconut oil soap is possible, it just needs a really high superfat--20%. That's the one I haven't had an issue with hardening up! That was unmolded and cut the next morning (somewhere in the 12-18 hour range), and was the perfect firmness for cutting.

fuzz-juzz-- I don't think any of them have gelled! The most recent one with the honey and milk might have a partial gel, but it doesn't quite look right for a partial gel. Even without the gel, some of the timespans are getting a bit ridiculous, like the one that's still not ready to cut after two weeks.

 

[gurdeep]

I use a crockpot for coconut and any butters plus you could use a oven heat up the oven and them turn it off and use the heat

 

[seven]

i admit, i no longer use a thermo these days. well, i do, but only for making mp base. when i soap RT, i put my lye mixture to the freezer to quickly bring the temp down (yes, i am impatient). sometimes i forget, and left it there too long, it got too cold, but it don't matter. if i must, i add a dash of water to bring the temp up slightly.

 

[judymoody]

How much water are you using? When you say discount, how much?

It sounds like you're not gelling. Gelled soap will harden much more quickly. If you don't gel, add sodium lactate at 1% of oil weight and that will help.

Regarding evaporation, what is most germane is not what your mold is made of (soap molds don't breathe. Silicone molds don't breathe any more or less than a lined Pringles can or a freezer-paper lined wood mold). Rather, it's the exposed surface area that's most important. So (a slab mold will dry out quickest and a Pringles can the slowest) Conversely, the more surface area, the less likely your soap is to gel.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

seven--I've never used a thermometer for my soaps. I've just gone by how the bowl feels. I mix up my lye water until it's clear (or until the ice has melted if I'm using ice), then heat up the oils to melt anything solid (coconut oil and/or a type of butter), wait until that's cooled a bit, and then mix the two together. It ends up still being warm to the touch (even the last one with the milk and honey--I was just too impatient!), but not hot.

judymoody-with the shampoo bar the water was at 34%. I accidentally put the wrong number into my records for the last batch, because there was no way I only used 127g water for 700g oil. I know I was aiming for somewhere in the low 30%, but wasn't going for an exact percentage because I wanted to see where just the tea cubes would get me. I think it ended up being somewhere around 31-32%.

I currently have no way of heating up the soap to encourage gel. The oven doesn't work (not even the light--I tried putting in a new bulb to see if I could Easy-Bake the thing and it still wouldn't light up), and I don't have a heating pad. The best I've been able to do is to add things I know encourage gelling, like sugars and milk. I've read so much about others having issues with their soaps overheating with those ingredients and needing to put them in the fridge or freezer that I thought for sure I'd get some kind of gel with them... but it doesn't seem like it. I have yet to try sodium lactate. I only purchased a small bottle from WSP, and it was still in its box with a sleeping cat ontop when I made the shampoo bar. I figured I was less likely to need it with the last one, because was in the recommended range for hardness according to SoapCalc, and I was doing a water discount ontop of that.