Need Recipe

[JaniceWlodyga]

I have been making soap for fourteen years now and make a wonderful vergetable oil cold process soap. I have been making just the old standard square bars. I very much want to make molded soaps but am having a great deal of trouble achieving this. I do not want to make a melt and pour soap with these molds. I have seen success in the market with what appeared to be a cold process soap in a beautiful mold. Can anyone help me? I am mixing these at 120 now and see greater success but the quality is still not there. Thanks so much to anyone that can help me find the right recipe for these beautiful molds!
Janice

 

[agriffin]

If you want to post your recipe we could help you tweak it.

I've found that when using individual molds you need to consider a few things:

1. Use a higher percentage of hard oils/butters/fats
2. Use a water discount....the most you are comfortable
3. adding beeswax or stearic really helps in unmolding

I typically do a recipe that looks like:

40% palm or lard
25% olive
20% coconut
5% castor
5% butter
5% avocado oil

It does pretty well.

Amanda

 

[carebear]

What molds?

If the soap doesn't gel it can take a long time to be hard enough to remove successfully from a fancy mold. You may want to force gel by putting the molds on a heating pad. Or include beeswax in your mix, or maybe (have to think this one through) sodium lactate.

 

[NancyRogers]

I have had some success with CPHP using sodium lactate in fancy molds. I usually have to freeze them and then let them sweat a bit to remove them, but it works pretty well. I haven't quite been able to get all of the bubbles out, but I'm working on it.

 

[nattynoo]

For me getting a mould soap to look good is making sure I don't let the soap get too thick. That way it runs into the shape nicely.
Also agree ...try adding something like cocoa butter & wait till its completely hard.
I can never unmould a fancy mould when its the slightest bit soft.

 

[AZ Soaper]

I use SL in all my soaps, molded or slab. When I do have trouble unmolding(depends on the mold) I put it in the freezer and comes out just fine. I don't use a lot of hard oils or beezwax and I don't "condition" my mold either.

 

[Lindy]

I brush my molds with mineral oil. Just a light coating and then let the soap set up. I don't worry about forcing gel, I just let them sit a couple of days and unmold. I get nice detail with this method.....

These are CP....

 

[Hazel]

Lindy,

Does the mineral oil absorb into the soap? I've read of this tip before and I've wondered about it.

Thanks

 

[BakingNana]

Lindy, those look terrific! I'm curious about the mineral oil, too.

 

[tespring]

If I remember to...I spray Pam on my plastic bar molds and it works for those but have not tried it with fancy molds like Lindy's Those are lovely!

 

[jennikate]

I have used minereal oil it doesn't saponify so works well as coating to make sure soap come out of mold ok. Hope this helps.

 

[Hazel]

Thanks for the reply. How do you clean the mineral oil off of the soap?

 

[Mayren]

I can CP cool and pour into fancy molds but i've not yet
found decent cost molds to hold the heat of my HP....
I am however starting to make my own molds but so
far I'm out of my fancy-mold-wanting phase.

 

[Sillysoap]

I am a new soaper & thought I would share my "hotwheel" size car soap. I used a jello mold, using CP. I let it set up for 24 hrs put it in the freezer for about 30 mins, set it on the table & once it started sweating it popped right out.

ETA: Can't figure out how to make it bigger.

 

[Hazel]

Did you do anything to the mold? I used some soap from an HP batch in the football jello mold and I still can't get the darn thing out!

I thought it would come out after it cured but...nope...it's still stuck. :x

 

[Sillysoap]

In one mold (we used two) my DD sprayed with Pam & the other we forgot but they both came out the same. I have never done HP but could you try the freezer? You would have to leave it longer.

 

[Hazel]

I'll try the freezer and see if that works. If it comes down to it, I could always put some water on it and see if it softens enough to come out. I only used one cavity because I was curious to see if I could use jello molds.

I'll have to try mineral oil or PAM next time. The PAM is a good suggestion. Thanks everyone!

 

[Sillysoap]

I would like to know if it the freezer works for you & up load a pic if you can.

I plan to make more this weekend & hope to find something for little girls.

 

[Hazel]

I forgot about sticking it in the freezer. I just went and put it in before I forgot again. I don't think it's going to look very good. And idiot that I am...I mislaid the charger to my camera. I really need to get organized. The house has gotten cluttered and I've been receiving complaints about all the "soap stuff".

But if it does look good and I haven't found the charger, I'll ask my sister to take a pic so I can post one.

 

[Sillysoap]

I hope it comes out for you!

I know what you mean about clutter, for the last few weeks I have taken 4 to 5 bags of stuff to the goodwill each week. I try to clean out one room or closet ect every weekend.

I'm not getting rid of any soap stuff! When my house if finished I think I already have a place just for soap. :wink: