When to unmold and cut castile?

[Lin]

I made some castile soap this morning. I was wondering about when should I unmold and cut it? I placed it in the freezer to avoid gel. With my previous recipes since they were soft soaps they needed 2-3 days before they could be cut. Will it be about the same for the castile, or even longer?

 

[jcatblum]

I just made a HP batch 100% OO, I unmolded after 1 day & let it set 2 days before I cut. It is still pretty soft, but cut well.
Press the loaf with your finger. If it gives too much it needs to wait longer before cutting.

 

[Lin]

This is CP castile

 

[Obsidian]

I've had CP castile set up hard in 12 hours, other batches took 2-3 days before I could cut. Depends on how much water you used.

 

[Lin]

38% liquid

I haven't even looked at the soap since I made it, was knocked down with a migraine.

ETA: oh wow... Well the soap is super liquid-y still. It startled me. It spent probably about 36 hours in the freezer, and I asked my bf to take it out before leaving for work 4 hours ago.

I first was messing with a different batch of soap, where I had taken some of the castile base and colored it light green, added a little salt for hardening, and then "painted" it on my green christmas trees so I could add green sprinkles. That was fine. Then I checked on my pumpkin rounds from before, where the top 2 had holes in the center from my bf forgetting to tamp the air out. I had taken aside pumpkin castile base as well, added salt, and filled in the holes for some insurance that they don't snap in half. I looked at those next, peeling off the wax paper I placed over the holes. It was still super soft but I didn't think much of it. I smoothed the edges a bit with my finger, and then out of curiosity touched my tongue. It tingled, so I think that was a slight zap? But I wasn't too worried because it hasn't even been 48 hours. Then I went into the kitchen and looked down on the pringles molds, and reached in to touch the top where it was like pudding and came away on my finger!

I also have a little dixie cup of soap, where I put the extra of the green and pumpkin soap with the added salt after I worked with it. That was still in the freezer, but feels solid and normal like other batches of soap I've done. I'm thinking thats a combo from hardening up faster due to the salt, and having been in the freezer. I brought that cup to the bedroom to keep an eye on and see what it looks like once thawed. The pringles ones I left alone. I'd be totally freaked out that something went wrong if it wasn't for the bits I'd separated out being fine, so I'm just hoping the pudding consistency is from needing much more time...

 

[Lin]

Ok, well, since the dixie cup has thawed its pudding consistency too... At how many days should I worry? Both recipes were 38% liquid and I completely subbed out the liquid with 100% pumpkin for one and 100% greek yogurt 2% fat the other. 7% superfat. I'm repeating to myself that since the soap I painted on the trees dried/hardened fine, and the soap I filled the holes in my previous pumpkin rounds is a soft solid its just going to take more time for the large amounts in the pringles can and wax paper cup. its about 42 hours or so since I made them.

 

[kazmi]

Adding salt will harden it much faster. A castile and one with added pumpkin could take days (even up to a week) at 38% water.

 

[Obsidian]

Yep, just give it more time. Not only did you use full water but being in a round, there is only a small amount exposed to air for evaporation to take place.

 

[robnbill]

I made some castile soap this morning. I was wondering about when should I unmold and cut it? I placed it in the freezer to avoid gel. With my previous recipes since they were soft soaps they needed 2-3 days before they could be cut. Will it be about the same for the castile, or even longer?

I made my Castile about 6 months ago. Nothing but olive oil and lye water. No EO, FO or color. I used a fairly heavy water discount based upon what I had read. It took forever to reach trace. I fact I burned out my cheap stick blender trying. However, once it reached trace and I poured it into the mold, it was pretty hard in 24 hours. It is rock hard now after 6 months.

Bill

 

[Lin]

The salt is only in the soap thats in the dixie cup, since thats in the bedroom I've kept an eye on it and its mostly solid now but very soft. I added salt in this soap that I separated out so it would harden faster because I was using a tiny amount in my soap that I'm giving away for christmas, the soap I painted on my trees for sticking the sprinkles. The bars that I filled the holes in will be my and my boyfriends bars not given as gifts but I'd also like to use them sooner than later, hence the salt to harden it since its only castile base.

The ones in the pringles have no salt, I haven't had a chance to check on them today. I didn't have any problem bringing them to trace. I just took my time with the first batch plus a short break letting it sit while I swapped clothes into the dryer, with the second after it was fully emulsified I poured off the little bit I wanted to use, colored it green, stick blended it, then with a medium trace painted it on the trees and did the sprinkles. When I went back to the main soap and started blending it with the stick blender again and it reached trace rather quickly.

I used 38% liquid but with 100% swaps, one for frozen canned pumpkin and the other for frozen greek yogurt 2% fat. No colors or scents, I don't usually use those. Only have with a couple of my christmas soaps. I'm still a newbie and don't feel comfortable doing water discounts yet. So far I've had no problems with my soap and would like to get more batches done before I used water discounts. I'm probably at 7 soap batches now, most of them only around 1lb with one large batch and now these pringles batches were 28 oz each.

 

[robnbill]

The recipe I used was.

Olive Oil 100% (53 oz)
Lye 6.7 oz
Water 6.9 oz
5% Superfat

I have found that at 130 days cure time it is extremely mild. It took a long time to trace but it was almost too hard to use the wire cutter to cut them after 24 hours. I have actually used it as a tooth soap for about a month now. Almost no taste. I am tempted to do it again and add some sweetener and peppermint to make just a tooth soap.

 

[Lin]

This soap is going to be for next christmas, so I'm sure it will be plenty hard by then haha. At first I wasn't wanting to make a castile since the cure is so long, but then I started wanting to again and when I read about someone making castile last christmas for this christmas I thought that was a great idea and decided to do it. Since its taking so long to harden, now if only I could find a cheese slicer before it needs cut.... I really don't want to cut it by knife and have my soap next christmas look the same as my cuts this christmas lol.