Request for Tips for making soap dough

[akseattle]

I'd like some tips for making soap dough.

I signed up for March's Challenge for fruit inspired soap. At this time, I'm thinking that I will try using embeds for the fruit inspiration part of the soap (in addition to fruit FO).
However, I've only made M& P embeds and I'd really like to try CP embeds.

I have watched Lisa's (of I Dream in Soap) video which @Mobjack Bay recommended.
I've watched Lisa's video many times this last year (including a couple times in the last couple days.) Lisa makes it look so easy that I don't believe my eyes!

I have the following questions:

1. @Mobjack Bay, you said you use your regular recipe but use a 31% lye concentration.
Lisa's video does say that you can use your own recipe. And I would love to use my regular recipe.
At first I thought that @Mobjack Bay reduces the lye concentration so that the batter would be slower to harden, but now I'm wondering why exactly?

I usually use a 38-40% lye concentration. If I use a 31% lye concentration, does it matter if the loaf that I'll be putting the embeds into has a 38-40% lye concentration?
I increased my lye concentration because I didn't like how small my bars ended up after curing with a lye concentration closer to 31%.
Does this difference in shrinkage make a difference when using embeds?

2. Lisa says you can go online and find recipe's for soap dough.
I'm wondering if there are certain oils that are better than others if you are making soap dough?
Would you be wanting your recipe to have a lower or higher value on hardness? Or does it matter?

My regular recipe has 49% combined lard & tallow (usually more lard than tallow.) I like this because I get a WHITER bar without using TD ( still suffering from TD PTSD...)
and also because it helps me get a harder bar. But, should I be using a recipe with a lower hardness value for soap dough?

3. Do you store your dough at room temperature? Is a cold basement too cold?
I get the impression from Lisa's video that soap dough should NOT be stored in the refrigerator, is that correct?

4. I had been thinking of using a column mold for embeds. @Vicki C discouraged that, she thought I could be hard to remove.
Would it be harder to remove because it would be sticky? What if I just wait longer to remove it?

5. I know that the idea is that you put your batter in a container and try to keep out any air.
How much time do you have from when your batter emulsifies to the time you put your batter in a tub and cover it before you are risking getting too much air on your dough?

6. In the video, Lisa talks about kneading the dough. Is it important to knead the dough, OR does she just need it because its gotten a little drier and she wants to get back a smoother consistency?

7. I just read some online discussions on Reddit. Some people who used Lisa's video to try to make soap dough said they had a problem with their soap dough being too sticky.
Some people swore you can expect stickiness and that all you have to do is sprinkle cornstarch or flour on your dough and knead it.
Is it true that this is to be expected? Do others use cornstarch or flour to address stickiness?

Are there little issues I should watch out for?

I've been wanting to try soap dough for the last year but have been too chicken.
Lisa makes it look so easy, but that i see these online discussions, and I get chicken all over again.

any tips, tricks, or comments on recipes or oils would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance!!

 

[Relle]

That's a lot of over thinking, I just make my normal recipe, put it in a zip lock bag for a few days, then use it like play dough, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I'm no soap dough expert, but here's what I can contribute. For context, my recipes which are typically 20% or less lauric+myristic, 40% or more oleic, 30% palmitic+stearic, and 3-5% ricinoleic fatty acid.

When I use column molds to make embeds, e.g. a heart or moon for an entire loaf of soap, I use my normal recipe, fill the mold, and let it sit overnight for use the next day.

The soap dough recipe I used most recently was 55% lard, 20% coconut, 20% high oleic sunflower and 5% castor, and 33% lye concentration. I poured the batter into square cavity molds, covered them with plastic and let them sit on a rack on the counter overnight. When I unmolded the soap I put each color in a heavy duty plastic freezer bag and also double bagged the individual bags as a group. The basic process is just like making a regular loaf of soap.

There are undoubtedly many recipes that work for soap dough. If the recipe contains a lot of liquid oils and castor, I imagine the dough can be quite sticky, especially early on. I imagine the dough would be easy to knead and I guess the cornstarch helps with stickiness.

The water content of the dough is going to influence pliability.

The soap dough I make is not sticky. It can be a little stiff, but it softens up as I knead it.

The longer you leave dough sitting out, the drier it will get. If your dough is drying out while you're using it, stick most of it back in a plastic bag. I've probably also lightly spritzed dough with water at some point in the past. How fast the dough dries out is going to depend on moisture in the dough, relative humidity, etc.

Hope this helps.