Kittish
Enthusiastic Newbie
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2017
- Messages
- 1,365
- Reaction score
- 1,387
Five(ish) batches of soap into this lovely, addictive hobby and one of my first thoughts is that stick blenders are over rated. I'm really starting to think that hand mixing at the start is the way to go. It's a lovely meditative exercise, and it doesn't take that long.
I used a SB for my very first batch. Between that, my soap recipe and the EO I used, it accelerated a LOT. Temp was around 130 for mixing, and forced gel in the oven (don't think it actually needed the boost, though). No colorant, dried ground orange peel added. Not pretty, but curing well.
Next CP batch, I did most of the mixing by hand. And it didn't take all that long, really. 3 to 5 minutes to come to emulsion, then walk away for 5 minutes. Come back, and it's about halfway to thin trace. Maybe five more minutes of hand stirring, then add fragrance (non-accelerating blend), split it up and color. I should have touched the first two layers with the SB, they turned out to be a little too thin. Last layer I gave maybe 10 short bursts to to bring it to med trace. Mineral pigment colorant. Temp was around 110 for mixing. No gel, refrigerated soap for about 24 hours then let it sit at room temp to firm up for cutting. Still easily dented with fingers, looks like it'll need a long cure.
Same soap recipe as the previous, but with an accelerating EO blend. Mix to emulsion by hand, let it sit for 5, mix a bit more and split. Color, then add EO blend. Batter was at thin trace and moving into medium at pour, hand mixing only. Batter was entering thick trace by the time I pulled the dividers and swirled. Soap is also firming up much more quickly than the previous. Mineral pigment colorant. Temp was around 120 for mixing. No gel, mold allowed to sit at room temp. Soap firmed up enough to unmold in about 12 hours.
The design trial soap used a different recipe. I wanted it at thick trace fairly quickly, but also wanted it not to set up too quickly. I hand mixed to emulsion and let it sit, then used the SB to help it along. Temp was around 130 for mixing. I'm...not sure if this soap gelled or not. It went into a warm oven and sat there overnight, and was at room temp when I unmolded it.
It's got a lovely, hard waxy surface but doesn't have the translucence you get from gelling. The soap is uncolored, except for thin cocoa lines.
I'm firmly a convert to wire type cutters for soap, vs the bench scraper style. Beautiful, clean cuts.
At the moment, I'm testing two recipes that I've used for several small batches of soap each. First is a bar of the green ombre soap. Scent is just about gone in the bar, showing up very faintly when the soap is dry but disappearing entirely in use. Lather is good, slick but not slimy and fluffing up easily. Leaves my hands feeling very slightly tight but not really dry on rinsing. Second one is a bar from my first attempt at the mermaid tail challenge. Not yet fully cured, only 4 weeks old. Lather is good, again the feel is slick but not slimy. Got a little heavy handed with the pigments, lather is faintly colored and the soap would probably stain a light cloth. Scent is faint, but clearly present. Probably will mostly disappear during cure (I'm tending to be very light handed with fragrances). A little more conditioning feeling than the green. Using with hard water, need to take bars of each to a friend who uses softened water and see how they feel.
Just for the heck of it, also testing a bar of my very first soap, with dried ground orange peel and scented with 10x orange EO. The orange EO is completely gone, no trace of scent that I can detect. The orange peel is a little scratchy, but not bad if you're not using the soap 15 or 20 times a day. Produces thick, fluffy lather with practically no effort. Leaves my hands feeling pretty good, aside from the orange peel. Might have to try the base recipe again.
I used a SB for my very first batch. Between that, my soap recipe and the EO I used, it accelerated a LOT. Temp was around 130 for mixing, and forced gel in the oven (don't think it actually needed the boost, though). No colorant, dried ground orange peel added. Not pretty, but curing well.
Next CP batch, I did most of the mixing by hand. And it didn't take all that long, really. 3 to 5 minutes to come to emulsion, then walk away for 5 minutes. Come back, and it's about halfway to thin trace. Maybe five more minutes of hand stirring, then add fragrance (non-accelerating blend), split it up and color. I should have touched the first two layers with the SB, they turned out to be a little too thin. Last layer I gave maybe 10 short bursts to to bring it to med trace. Mineral pigment colorant. Temp was around 110 for mixing. No gel, refrigerated soap for about 24 hours then let it sit at room temp to firm up for cutting. Still easily dented with fingers, looks like it'll need a long cure.
Same soap recipe as the previous, but with an accelerating EO blend. Mix to emulsion by hand, let it sit for 5, mix a bit more and split. Color, then add EO blend. Batter was at thin trace and moving into medium at pour, hand mixing only. Batter was entering thick trace by the time I pulled the dividers and swirled. Soap is also firming up much more quickly than the previous. Mineral pigment colorant. Temp was around 120 for mixing. No gel, mold allowed to sit at room temp. Soap firmed up enough to unmold in about 12 hours.
The design trial soap used a different recipe. I wanted it at thick trace fairly quickly, but also wanted it not to set up too quickly. I hand mixed to emulsion and let it sit, then used the SB to help it along. Temp was around 130 for mixing. I'm...not sure if this soap gelled or not. It went into a warm oven and sat there overnight, and was at room temp when I unmolded it.
It's got a lovely, hard waxy surface but doesn't have the translucence you get from gelling. The soap is uncolored, except for thin cocoa lines.
I'm firmly a convert to wire type cutters for soap, vs the bench scraper style. Beautiful, clean cuts.
At the moment, I'm testing two recipes that I've used for several small batches of soap each. First is a bar of the green ombre soap. Scent is just about gone in the bar, showing up very faintly when the soap is dry but disappearing entirely in use. Lather is good, slick but not slimy and fluffing up easily. Leaves my hands feeling very slightly tight but not really dry on rinsing. Second one is a bar from my first attempt at the mermaid tail challenge. Not yet fully cured, only 4 weeks old. Lather is good, again the feel is slick but not slimy. Got a little heavy handed with the pigments, lather is faintly colored and the soap would probably stain a light cloth. Scent is faint, but clearly present. Probably will mostly disappear during cure (I'm tending to be very light handed with fragrances). A little more conditioning feeling than the green. Using with hard water, need to take bars of each to a friend who uses softened water and see how they feel.
Just for the heck of it, also testing a bar of my very first soap, with dried ground orange peel and scented with 10x orange EO. The orange EO is completely gone, no trace of scent that I can detect. The orange peel is a little scratchy, but not bad if you're not using the soap 15 or 20 times a day. Produces thick, fluffy lather with practically no effort. Leaves my hands feeling pretty good, aside from the orange peel. Might have to try the base recipe again.
