Smooth looking Soap

[rainwater]

Hi,
I recently purchased some CP Soap and it is amazingly smooth. I keep my soap in a the silicone mold for about 2 days, I wait another day to cut it. However it is still not as smooth as the soap I purchased. Does anyone have any advise for me to achieve a really smooth finish to my soap?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Hello and welcome.

What do you mean by 'smooth looking', especially when you say that yours is not smooth? Can you post pictures?

 

[Susie]

If you mean the edges/corners are smoothed out, it is done with a soap planer. If you are talking about the sides being smooth, then pictures would help as I am not sure what you mean. Some soaps I have bought, I am sure they rubbed them under water to smooth out the sides.

 

[rainwater]

Hi,
Sorry, it's hard to explain. Let me see if I can figure out how to post a picture.
I plane my soap and bevel the edges. It's the actual texture of the soap. It has a very creamy appearance and is just so smooth. My soap seems to be harder but just has a rougher appearance. I've tried, it seems 100's of recipes and tweaked them all. I like the recipe I am using now, but the texture is not as smooth as I would like it to be.
I thought maybe I might need to superfat more. Right now I am superfatting at 5%.

 

[marilynmac]

It looks like it may be tiny air bubbles in your soap. Slam it on the floor a lot to make the bubbles rise to the top and pop. also burp your mixer to be sure there is no air caught under it, or you will be whipping lots of bubbles into the soap.

I have heard that cutting with a wire gives a more textured cut. I'm using a bread knife, but that leave stripes on one side.

 

[rainwater]

I probably do need to slam it down more. That's a good idea. I use a Bud Cutter and it works great... but if you could see this soap you would agree it's really smooth.. Like butter smooth. Oh well... I'll just keep trying. Thanks eveyone for your help.

 

[marilynmac]

I probably do need to slam it down more. That's a good idea. I use a Bud Cutter and it works great... but if you could see this soap you would agree it's really smooth.. Like butter smooth. Oh well... I'll just keep trying. Thanks eveyone for your help.

what is a bud cutter?

 

[Obsidian]

You might try a knife, see if that smooths the surface of your soap more. Every time I use wire, I get the same texture you do. Now I use a very thin knife and I get beautiful smooth surfaces.

 

[pamielynn]

The "smoothest" recipe I have is made with sunflower oil - that's the only difference. Don't know why - just is

 

[DeeAnna]

Bud cutter -- Bud Haffner. You can find him and his soap cutters on Etsy.

 

[IrishLass]

Which silicone mold are you using? I ask because I have a couple of different ones, but only one of them always seems to gives my finished soap a bubbly surface everywhere that the soap was in contact with the mold, even if I had burped my stick blender and banged my mold (talking about my ED silicone mold). Otherwise, it's a great mold and I love using it (it's very versatile and gives me several swirling options), but I've resigned myself to always having my planer at the ready once the soap is unmolded.

The pic below is a perfect depiction of what I'm talking about. The blue soap on the left was made using my Woodfield's silicone mold (see how smooth it is? I did not need to plane this soap at all); and the green soap on the right was made with my ED silicone mold (the surface bubbling is typical for me with this mold). Both were soaped using the same recipe at the same temps, and both were placed in my oven to ensure gel at the same temp.

And here is my green soap after one swipe with my planer (it needed 2 swipes in the end to make it perfectly smooth):

IrishLass

 

[Obsidian]

My smoothest recipe is 75% lard. Hard, waxy and super smooth.

 

[katsntx]

Which silicone mold are you using? I ask because I have a couple of different ones, but only one of them always seems to gives my finished soap a bubbly surface everywhere that the soap was in contact with the mold, even if I had burped my stick blender and banged my mold (talking about my ED silicone mold). Otherwise, it's a great mold and I love using it (it's very versatile and gives me several swirling options), but I've resigned myself to always having my planer at the ready once the soap is unmolded.

The pic below is a perfect depiction of what I'm talking about. The blue soap on the left was made using my Woodfield's silicone mold (see how smooth it is? I did not need to plane this soap at all); and the green soap on the right was made with my ED silicone mold (the surface bubbling is typical for me with this mold). Both were soaped using the same recipe at the same temps, and both were placed in my oven to ensure gel at the same temp.

And here is my green soap after one swipe with my planer (it needed 2 swipes in the end to make it perfectly smooth):

IrishLass

''

Are you kidding me, IrishLass?? Why in the world would the ED mold do that? I have two of these molds and have never seen anything like that. Have you contacted ED about it? I certainly would if it were mine.

 

[cmzaha]

Have to admit that I am not real forthcoming with my recipes but I do have a really nice super smooth feeling bar that I make. Recipe follows
lard 37%
Palm 18%
Sunflower 17%
coconut oil 15%
Canola 7%
Castor 6%
sugar
salt
3% superfat
33% lye concentration
This is a very silky smooth bar of light color soap. I do not superfat it high because of the low cleansing number. Tallow could sub for lard but will bring up the cleansing number

 

[Obsidian]

Irishlass, I love the bubbled surface. Its a really neat pattern, reminds me of the moons surface.

 

[OliveOil2]

I have noticed that both lard and rice bran oil contribute to a smooth waxy surface, and I think that the finish on the inside of the silicone liner also makes a difference. The silicone lined mold that I have been using recently leaves the soap almost looking like melt & pour. The bottom and sides are smooth and shiny like glass, wonder if someone will think that it is melt & pour.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Does the water amount have any effect on it at all?

 

[CaraBou]

Not sure I have clear insight to the smoothness of my soaps so I'll leave that question to the others. But I do have something to add about IrishLass's bubble texture. Like katsntx I have 2 ED silicon molds too (a red and a white), and have never gotten that pattern. I suspect it has to do with the oven / gel temp as I don't usually do CPOP (at most, I have put these molds into a warm oven that has already been turned off). But I agree with Obsidian, that looks nifty!

 

[froggybean37]

I probably do need to slam it down more. That's a good idea. I use a Bud Cutter and it works great... but if you could see this soap you would agree it's really smooth.. Like butter smooth. Oh well... I'll just keep trying. Thanks eveyone for your help.

I recently bought a cutter from bud and (while the quality of the cutter is great) my soap which usually looks very smooth looks very rough when cut with it. I have gone back to using just a plain, non serrated knife.

 

[rainwater]

I also have the same experience with my Bud Cutter. I was so excited to get it, but when I compare my knife cut soaps to the wire cut soaps the texture has little bumps which I have to plane off. I spent so much on it I feel like I need to use it.