OHP question: 10% of oils after the "cooking"?

[Zhuliya]

Hi everyone,

I have been trying to make OHP soaps lately, so far I have made 2 batches and I love the fact that the soap is ready for use right away and that the additives and colours I put in them stay intact in the final soap.

I only have a couple of questions:
in a book I have, there's a recipe of a OHP soap with 5% lye discount that suggests to set aside 10% of the "precious" oils to add to the soap after it's been cooked in the oven, so that the oils won't loose their properties.
I have asked myself whether that is a good idea, since from my understanding of the whole thing this would make a lye heavy soap. What do you think? Am I missing something here?


Also, I had one of the soaps separate while it was cooking in the oven. I took it out, used the stick blender to mix it again for a while, and put it back in. It didn't separate again, but now it has small white dots (I have to specify I used shea butter in it though, which I've read could cause these dots) and it looks really greasy - I used a very high lye discount.
Do you think I got a soap that is not completely safe to use? I can't decide what to do with it... rebatch? If so, what could I add to improve it?

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[krissy]

Re: OP question: oils after the "cooking"?

Hi everyone,

I have been trying to make OP soaps lately, so far I have made 2 batches and I love the fact that the soap is ready for use and that the additives and colours I give them stay intact in the final soap.

I only have a couple of questions:
in a book I have, there's a recipe of a OP soap with 5% lye discount that suggests to set aside 10% rice oil to out in the soap after it's been cooked in the oven, so that the oil won't loose its properties.
I have asked myself whether that is a good idea, since from my understanding of the whole thing this would make a lye heavy soap. What do you think? Am I missing something here?


Also, I had one of the soaps separate while it was cooking in the oven. I took it out, used the stick blender to mix it again for a while, and put it back in. It didn't separate again, but now it has small white dots (I have to specify I used shea butter in it though, which I've read could cause these dots) and it looks really greasy - I used a very high lye discount.
Do you think I got a lye-heavy soap?

Thanks a lot for your help!

ok i think i am understand ing your question... you have a recipe that has 100% of the oils but you only cook with 90%, then after the cook you add your final 10% as a super fat... you want to know if that will be lye heavy? i dont think it would be lye heavy but i dont do OP or HP very often anymore. if i was doing it though and i was setting aside some of my oils to add after the cook, it would be just a couple oz at the most...


as for the second part of your question-without a recipe but going from what you said about being greasy and having a large lye discount- it would seem more like you over superfatted rather than made a soap that was lye heavy.
doing a lye discount means that you use less than the amount of lye required to reach 100% saponification of all the oils you used. by discounting 5% you give yourself a 5% superfat.

did that make sense? lol

 

[Zhuliya]

Re: OP question: oils after the "cooking"?

it would seem more like you over superfatted rather than made a soap that was lye heavy.
doing a lye discount means that you use less than the amount of lye required to reach 100% saponification of all the oils you used. by discounting 5% you give yourself a 5% superfat.

did that make sense? lol

Ok, it's possible that i super-fatted it, but would that explain the separation during the oven cooking? I know what lye discount means I have actually used 8% for this soap, which is quite a lot I think, I've always made soaps 5% or 6% lye discount, so 8% seems a lot to me.

 

[Zhuliya]

Any suggestion for re-batching the soap that separated during the cooking process?

 

[krissy]

if it separates while you are cooking it, you stir it back together... thats it.
:wink: