Tomorrow's project

[John Harris]

Gonna be making a batch tomorrow. The first one in 16 years! My wooden slab mold is all waxed paper'd up and ready. Any comments on the recipe below?

Olive 34.63 percent
Coconut 26.4 percent
Palm 6.65 percent
Lard 17.7 percent
Shea butter 4.87 percent
Beeswax 1.95 percent
Castor oil 7.8 percent

7% superfat

Lye Concentration 33.003 %
Water : Lye Ratio 2.0300:1

 

[artemis]

No comment on the recipe, but curious about using wax paper to line your mold. I've only ever used freezer paper. Won't the wax react with the lye?

 

[shunt2011]

Wax paper will not come off the soap easily from what I've heard from others that have tried it. Parchment or better would be freezer paper.

As for your recipe, give it a go. You may like it. Personally, I'd up the lard, drop the palm totally and lower the olive to about 25%. I also don't use castor over 7% except in one recipe. Generally 5% is adequate. I've never used palm an lard together, so may be worth a shot.

 

[Karmic]

Can verify about the wax paper sticking. I didn't have any freezer paper or cling wrap to put across the top of my unlidded mold before I wrapped it in towels and the towel pressed the wax paper onto the top of the soap. Stuck like hell and pulled some of the soap off the loaf when I tried to lift it to check.

 

[John Harris]

Thanks for the warning about the wax paper. My usual supermarket didn't have freezer paper. I'll check out a couple other places tomorrow morning.

 

[cmzaha]

Wax paper will not come off the soap easily from what I've heard from others that have tried it. Parchment or better would be freezer paper.

As for your recipe, give it a go. You may like it. Personally, I'd up the lard, drop the palm totally and lower the olive to about 25%. I also don't use castor over 7% except in one recipe. Generally 5% is adequate. I've never used palm an lard together, so may be worth a shot.

When I am out of my tallow, I use palm with lard and it makes a very nice soap. I use 39% Palm, 23% Lard with 3% castor. I cut the castor to help slow the trace.
I will also verify that wax paper is very difficult to get off the soap.

 

[John Harris]

Ok! The soap slab has been put to bed! It's sitting in the middle of the breakfast table wrapped in pillows and blankets. I'm hoping for a thorough gel phase. It was very different making it in a small kitchen instead of a wide and open place in the cellar of my previous house.

Something that impressed me was how much care was needed to measure things to the exact gram weight. I didn't remember what was involved in being that precise.

I never did find freezer paper. Probably just another thing you can't find in Canada. Instead I bought silicone parchment paper. I have no idea how it's going to work, but I do know that the tape would not stick to it. I just folded the paper and hoped that it would stay in place through friction-fit.

 

[penelopejane]

A lot of people use bulldog clips to hold their paper in place.

 

[Primrose]

Just a question - why the weird percentages eg. 34.63% olive oil instead of 35%?

 

[Dawni]

Just a question - why the weird percentages eg. 34.63% olive oil instead of 35%?

This happens to me in SoapCalc if I'm not mistaken.. When you input your percentages and batch size and then ask the calc to resize it. I could be wrong.. Haven't used that calc in a while..

 

[Primrose]

This happens to me in SoapCalc if I'm not mistaken.. When you input your percentages and batch size and then ask the calc to resize it. I could be wrong.. Haven't used that calc in a while..

If you input a percentage recipe eg. 50% lard, 25% olive oil, 20% coconut oil, 5% castor oil, and have it resize your batch, the % should always remain the same, just the actual amounts in grams (or ounces) change

 

[penelopejane]

If you input a percentage recipe eg. 50% lard, 25% olive oil, 20% coconut oil, 5% castor oil, and have it resize your batch, the % should always remain the same, just the actual amounts in grams (or ounces) change

Yes but if you want the weights to be easy eg to the exact oz or gram then sometimes the recipe comes out with weird percentages.

 

[John Harris]

Penelope - thanks for the bull dog clip tip.

Primrose - about the weird percentages - not sure why that happened. I was playing around with SoapCalc.

The soap - still warm as of this morning. I don't dare peek at it yet. Gonna wait til everything is cool.

 

[Misschief]

I never did find freezer paper. Probably just another thing you can't find in Canada.

I'm in BC and I get my freezer paper at my local grocery store. It's in the same aisle as wax paper and aluminum foil.

 

[John Harris]

Heh. Maybe it's just a Quebec thing.

 

[penelopejane]

Heh. Maybe it's just a Quebec thing.

You can get it at any Quebec home hardware store:
https://www.homehardware.ca/en/18-x-50-white-freezer-wrap/p/4411489

 

[John Harris]

Well ... the first batch has been laid down for a long autumn nap.

1) When it was revealed 48 hours after mixing, there was the slightest dusting of soda ash on the top of it.
I used tap water and high temps at mixing time (medium low on the stove to melt the hard oils). I stick blended til thick trace.
Here is a pic still in the mold just before cutting.

2) A close-up.

3) And a bar fresh out of the mold. I should have groomed it for the picture! (I made them too thick. I think they must be 5 oz. bars. I will reduce the recipe for next time.)

3) The silicone parchment paper worked very well. Thank you to the Dollar Store and China. (And thank-you to all who offered aid in my search.)

4) My soaps always come out tan, light brown, sometimes a darker brown. Is there a recipe that produces a white soap?

5) My next soap will be Lavender and maybe I will color it. I have a good amount of violet oxide but I don't know how to use it. Any expertise out there?

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Are your bee wax and shea unrefined? If so, maybe they are contributing to the tan color. Do you use goat milk? You didn’t mention it, but your soap looks the same color as a soap I made with fresh goat milk that gelled. I asked about oxides recently and the advice was to disperse in water and go lightly, like maybe 1/8th to 1/4 of a tsp ppo. Here’s the link to that thread.

 

[lsg]

Are you using FOs in your soap? They can often discolor.

 

[John Harris]

Are you using FOs in your soap? They can often discolor.

Ah yes ... I did use 250 mls of dark patchouli on this batch. That is probably the culprit on this one. All of my other soaps get EOs of one sort or another.