Time Saving Techniques Requested

[Cellador]

So, my oldest is starting Kindergarten on Monday (yay! *weep*), and she has to be at school by 7am. No problem except I normally soap in the evenings after the kids are in bed, and I currently don't have to wake-up until later in the morning. But, as of Monday....
Maybe I'm just slow-moving- it takes me about 3 hours from start to finish, including clean-up. That usually puts my finish time to midnight, then I have to do the whole bedtime routine....
What can I do to speed-up my soaping time? I looked into masterbatching the lye water, but I was disappointed to learn that the solution will warm again if you add additional liquid. It feels like so much of my time is spent waiting for that solution to cool....
I already use the cooling time to measure/melt the oils, prep colors, measure additives, etc. In terms of clean-up, I put anything with batter into a garbage bag and leave it for a couple of days to wash later.
Any other suggestions?

 

[shunt2011]

Master batching my oils and lye have saved me so much prep time. Even though it heats up it it doesn’t get as hot as fresh lye. I soap at night after my husband goes to bed and I’m up at 4:40 to get ready for work. It works best for me. I’m generally in bed by 11.

 

[dibbles]

I don't have little ones around to worry about, but I will often mix my lye solution hours before I'm ready to soap. There have only been a couple of times I haven't made the soap the same day, and in that case I just cover the cooled lye solution with saran wrap. How many littles do you have at home? Maybe arrange a play date for those that aren't in school and make soap while everyone is gone.

 

[Cellador]

I don't have little ones around to worry about, but I will often mix my lye solution hours before I'm ready to soap. There have only been a couple of times I haven't made the soap the same day, and in that case I just cover the cooled lye solution with saran wrap. How many littles do you have at home? Maybe arrange a play date for those that aren't in school and make soap while everyone is gone.

I have two, a 6 and 3 year old. My 2nd starts preschool this year, but it will only give me about 2 hrs to soap. So, that's a possibility but I still need to shave some time.

 

[Moose Wrangler]

I plan my soap about a week in advance and I will measure ito everything I plan to use a few days before actually making the soap. Hard oils in one container, soft oils in another container, and lye water in a third (admittedly since I don't master batch this I tend to do this in the morning the day of but sometimes I do it significantly earlier).

Any additives get measured out too. I also only do a partial cleanup immediately following and then get to the rest the next day.

My fastest time with this has been about twenty minutes on the actual soap making day but that obviously doesn't count the prep and cleanup time the other days.

 

[dibbles]

The preschool timing is hard. There just never quite seems to really be enough time to get much done before it’s time to go pick them up. If you have a place to store prepped oils, etc you could get a batch done. I can get a batch done in 2 hours, including wiping the residue off everything for washing it a day or two later. Maybe give it a try with a single color or two color design, having everything ready to go and see how long it takes with everything prepped in advance. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Edit: 2 hours when nothing is prepped. If everything is ready to go, usually 30 minutes or less start to finish.

 

[cmzaha]

I soap in buckets with lids, and will make up to 10 buckets at a time, and the master recipe printed out. I also master a couple gallons of lye so I am ready to go when I have time to soap. The buckets I use are the hdpe 1 gallon buckets with available lids from an Industrial Supplier such as McMaster Carr. It really speeds up making soap and since having to take care of the parents and not having much time I usually do not worry about intricate swirls. Many times now, I just do an in the pot swirl with two or three colors.

 

[amd]

Wow! Kindergarten is going to be awesome. I hope she has a great time.

I have my soap making down to 25 minutes tops.
When my hard oils are delivered, I take the time to separate them out to the quantities I need for masterbatching my oils. I do this for tallow/lard, shea butter and cocoa butter. I don't do it for coconut oil because that's an easy hard oil to manage. Everything goes into a labeled baggie (I do one oil per baggie, in case I want to use shea butter in another project, etc).

I masterbatch my oils, which takes about 30 minutes for 24lbs of oils. (My pot only holds 12lbs so I have to do it twice.) Part of what makes it so fast is that I have those hard oils premeasured, so all I have to do is grab a baggie, dump, measure liquid/coconut oils, dump, melt together and dump into a bucket with a lid.

I just started masterbatching my lye a few months ago (maybe two?) and that helps too! It warms up, but not fresh lye hot. I do room temp method and haven't noticed a difference in how the soap acts with the little bit of heat from the masterbatched lye.

One thing that saved me time was learning which colors I need to premix and which ones I don't. I started switching suppliers to find micas that I didn't need to premix. I just dump my micas in the soap and stick blend for a few seconds and then hand stir the rest.

Dirty dishes get wiped out with rags from an old sheet. Rags get thrown in a box until the box is full and then washed. Dishes get thrown in a tote until I'm out of soaping dishes... lol. Then I wash them.

Good luck my dear!

 

[NsMar42111]

I mix my lye first and set it outside to finish clearing. Once the oils are mixed and melted, I dump the lye water in-no extra waiting. Honestly, I haven't checked temperatures in years! The only time I will is if a batch gives me an issue, I'll redo it and then check...but it's usually the FO not the lye temp. I mostly do HP now so that matters even less-the only CP's I've done lately are scent testers and 100% CO soaps. I can do my HP batches in less than 2 hours from printing the recipe to having everything soaking in the sink. If I were to masterbatch my oils, that would go to about 1.5 hours-I keep finding myself tweaking recipes so I haven't settled on just one yet. That's next!

 

[Lin19687]

"I mix my lye first and set it outside to finish clearing. Once the oils are mixed and melted, I dump the lye water in-no extra waiting."
I do this too.

You could pre-measure oils and such the night before ? Mix lye before you go and drop off the little ones.
That would save time.

 

[cmzaha]

. If I were to masterbatch my oils, that would go to about 1.5 hours-I keep finding myself tweaking recipes so I haven't settled on just one yet. That's next!

When I am batching my oils in my soaping buckets that batch of buckets will get all the same tweaks if I tweaked the recipe. Since I use 2 to to recipes my tweaks are usually additives or which soft oil get used. I just like to pickup a bucket grab a jug of my lye, and soap. I also now use micas almost exclusively so I can mix the colors directly in my batter. I can also be done in approx 20 min. These are soaps that have to be restocked into inventory. My buckets and utensils also get wiped with old rags washed and I am done.

 

[dixiedragon]

I like to use a pitcher with a lid for my lye water. Mix it up the night before and put it someplace the kids (and pets) can't get to it. write LYE on it in big letters in 2 or 3 places.

I love the idea of master batching lye water but TBH the math part intimidates me. And since it's just lye + water (vs the 6 oils I like to use in my recipe), master batching lye doesn't save me that much time. If you typically do the same size batch over and over, you could get multiple containers and have 1 batch worth of lye water in each one. Which I guess is master batching in individual containers.

 

[jcandleattic]

I looked into masterbatching the lye water, but I was disappointed to learn that the solution will warm again if you add additional liquid. It feels like so much of my time is spent waiting for that solution to cool....

Adding the extra liquid to a 50/50 solution doesn't warm the solution up enough that you have to wait hours for it to cool. At most (IME anyway) it may warm the mixture 5-10 degrees. The only thing I have to wait for is the lye solution to become clear again after adding the additional liquid, which takes about 3-5 minutes. I take that time to get my colors ready if I've going to do intricate swirls, and weigh out my scent.

I masterbatch both my oils and my lye. If I am doing a "plain batch" (plain for me is just color and scent, no embeds) I can get a batch of soap done from start to finish in about 15-20 minutes. If I add embeds, it will take an additional 5-10 minutes on top of that (if the embeds are made in advance - embeds is where I spend a majority of my time).
Those timelines are with me working at a comfortable pace, and not rushing or moving in fast. If I'm in a hurry, I can make a batch in half that time. (but I don't like to rush!)

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Adding the extra liquid to a 50/50 solution doesn't warm the solution up enough that you have to wait hours for it to cool. At most (IME anyway) it may warm the mixture 5-10 degrees.
...

Very much this. Honestly, if your mater batch is stored at room temperature, the additional heat from adding more water isn't enough to get the lye to soaping temps.

 

[DeeAnna]

Very much this. Honestly, if your mater batch is stored at room temperature, the additional heat from adding more water isn't enough to get the lye to soaping temps.

Ooh! <raising hand> I can answer this! <...rummaging furiously in my computer for a diagram I squirreled away...> Ahem....

If your 50% NaOH solution and your plain water are both at room temp and you mix the two to make a 30-35% NaOH solution, the temp of the final mixture will warm to somewhere around 120-130 F. Or, in other words, on the high side of pleasantly warm to the palm of your hand.

If your fats are at room temperature when you mix them with your warm lye solution, the soap batter will end up at a really nice starting temperature of 95 to 105 F.

Not only does my arcane diagram tell me this, but this what I also experience when I soap. I think it works well -- I hate waiting for lye to cool, even though I don't have little ones to worry about.

 

[jcandleattic]

Ooh! <raising hand> I can answer this! <...rummaging furiously in my computer for a diagram I squirreled away...> Ahem....

If your 50% NaOH solution and your plain water are both at room temp and you mix the two to make a 30-35% NaOH solution, the temp of the final mixture will warm to somewhere around 120-130 F. Or, in other words, on the high side of pleasantly warm to the palm of your hand.

If your fats are at room temperature when you mix them with your warm lye solution, the soap batter will end up at a really nice starting temperature of 95 to 105 F.

Not only does my arcane diagram tell me this, but this what I also experience when I soap. I think it works well -- I hate waiting for lye to cool, even though I don't have little ones to worry about.

Thank you! That is good to know. I add RT water to my RT 50% solution to get it to a 33% solution, I masterbatch my oils, and rarely heat my oils (unless they are on the slushy side then will just micro them until slightly cloudy, so consider those to be RT) and soap.

 

[Cellador]

Ooh! <raising hand> I can answer this! <...rummaging furiously in my computer for a diagram I squirreled away...> Ahem....

If your 50% NaOH solution and your plain water are both at room temp and you mix the two to make a 30-35% NaOH solution, the temp of the final mixture will warm to somewhere around 120-130 F. Or, in other words, on the high side of pleasantly warm to the palm of your hand.

If your fats are at room temperature when you mix them with your warm lye solution, the soap batter will end up at a really nice starting temperature of 95 to 105 F.

Not only does my arcane diagram tell me this, but this what I also experience when I soap. I think it works well -- I hate waiting for lye to cool, even though I don't have little ones to worry about.

Yay! This is good to know...I really was hoping that masterbatching would be my solution!

 

[dibbles]

Yay Cellador! Soap on!

 

[cmzaha]

I add my extra liquid required for my 33% solution to my oils not my 50/50 lye solution. If I have very cloudy oils it still heats up enough to melt the oils

 

[jcandleattic]

Yay! This is good to know...I really was hoping that masterbatching would be my solution!

It saves so much time. I won't soap any other way unless I'm making a special order batch or something like that. I love that in an hour I can make at least 4-5 completely different scented/colored batches of soap.