This weekend's coconut milk adventure (pics)

[Hausfrau007]

So this weekend, I tried my first milk soap using only olive oil and coconut milk. Here's the recipe, using a 33% water discount and superfatted at 7%.

24 oz olive oil
7.92 oz frozen coconut milk, careful not to scorch!
3.024 oz lye

The molds are PVC downspouts with one of the sides cut off, and a small coconut water container for leftover drips and drabs:

The oil I used was run-of-the-mills olive oil from Costco:

Unfortunately, I got too busy and excited melting down my frozen coconut milk with the lye, and I forgot to take further pictures until it was poured and "decorated".

So what I did was I slowly melted the frozen chunks of coconut milk with the lye, let it cool in an ice bath to 78F and added it to the room-temperature olive oil. It took longer than expected to reach trace; maybe 10-15 minutes? I use a stick blender, so I'm usually quick to reach trace with my oil/water soaps. After I reached thin-ish trace, I separated approximately a quarter of the soap and added a tbs of cocoa powder. I poured the plain soap, then stick-blended the cocoa powder portion until it reached a heavier trace so I could fluff up the top portion, like so:

After reading up on some advice on whether to insulate or not, I decided not to. I must have touched the sides of the molds 100 times that afternoon, and I'm pretty sure they never went into gel phase. There was some very very slight warming (could have been my imagination), but there was absolutely no heat whatsoever.

Here's a cross section of my work six hours after I poured it into the molds (seems to be firming up nicely -- again, no heat whatsoever was generated):

After 20 hours, I couldn't stand it any longer and unmolded:

And after another four hours, I decided to slice it up and set it out to cure. The soaps were very, VERY soft to cut, and I handled them very carefully.

I'm happy to report that this morning, 36 hours after pouring the soap, they are hardening nicely, and I can no longer put a thumb print into them. Also, the yellow-ish discolouring on the tops seems to have morphed back into a yummy chocolate brown. I'm very impressed with the opaque no-gel look, and I might just try to avoid gelling of further milk soaps in the future. Why oh why do I have to wait so long to try them???

So ya. That was it for the weekend.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

YAY! So glad it worked for you! They look awesome! :clap:

 

[Hausfrau007]

I know! lol Thanks for your help figuring out the recipe.

 

[prettypoppy]

It looks delicious!!!!!
I love the color and texture~

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

I know! lol Thanks for your help figuring out the recipe.

You're so welcome...glad I could help

 

[judymoody]

Very pretty and smooth. They look great. Congrats!

 

[Hausfrau007]

Would water/oil soaps retain the same ice cream texture if I don't let them go into the gel phase? I'm thinking my next batch is going to be goats milk, and I'd like to try and prevent gel again, but would oil soaps react the same yummy way?

 

[Hausfrau007]

Shoot, I think I have to reword that. my next soap is going to be goats milk, hopefully keeping it cool enough to prevent gel. Regardless, if I made a non milk soap, would they look as yummy if they don't go to gel?

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Ungelled soaps do tend to look "yummier" - creamier, more opaque - than gelled soaps...but they also tend to take longer to saponify. It's hard to keep milk based soaps from gelling, but since you've done it once, I'm sure you can do it again. :wink:
I have one recipe with Rose Clay that gels but looks smooth and opaque like Raspberry Cream...

 

[Wandawump]

They look awesome, love the shape the pipe gives them too
When you say you've done a 33% water discount, does that mean you've taken away 33% of what the soap calculator recommends you use?

 

[Maythorn]

Ohhh, ahhhhh! I love these layered soaps with textured tops. They look so delicious. My soaps when they turn out that is, are total squares. I like your molds, too.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

They look awesome, love the shape the pipe gives them too
When you say you've done a 33% water discount, does that mean you've taken away 33% of what the soap calculator recommends you use?

When referring to water ratio, "full water" in a recipe is considered to be 38% of your oil weight, so a water discount of 33% would be 33% water to oil ratio.
Example:
100 gr Oil : 38 gr Water = 38% Full Water
100 gr Oil : 33 gr Water = 33% Water Discount
A water discount is used by some to speed up trace and have less water to evaporate during cure, which results in a less warped bar that is closer to its actual finished weight and size at initial cutting. It is not recommended to go below 30% water discount, and you not want to use a steep water discount with a fast moving recipe or accelerating FO. Also, higher lye concentrations result in "volcanos" and sometimes lye heavy soap or lye pockets as it gets the saponification process going before you can mix it well.
If you're new to soap making, I'd stick with full water until you get the hang of it :wink:

 

[Hazel]

Those are beautiful - very creamy looking.

 

[DragonQueenHHP]

very nice

 

[brandnew]

they are lovely!!! an attractive design on the sides from the molds!!! Is that just a thick-ish plastic sheeting you've used on the ends?

 

[seo]

Those look really neat! I love the molds you used- good idea. Good job!!

 

[Hausfrau007]

they are lovely!!! an attractive design on the sides from the molds!!! Is that just a thick-ish plastic sheeting you've used on the ends?

That's good ole' fashioned duct tape, my friend.

 

[maiseycat]

Is there nothing that duct tape can't do?


Those look beautiful! I love the colours, it looks almost like one of those caramel-marshmallow desserts.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Is there nothing that duct tape can't do?

No. It could even bring about World Peace...if we taped ALOT of mouths shut with it. :twisted:

 

[Hausfrau007]

lol