Whipped soap recipe?

[FlybyStardancer]

Okay, I'm planning on getting everything measured out tonight, and the lye-water in the fridge so that it's cold for making soap in the morning. I do have a question... What's the best superfatting level for whipped soap? Soaping101's recipe has a 0% superfat, and this tutorial doesn't say. And what about water amounts?

The recipe I"m currently planning on using is this:

50% PO
20% CO
15% OO
10% Shea butter
5% Castor

5% SF
33% water

 

[Hazel]

I don't know the best SF but I use 5%. Also, Nizzy uses approximately 5% based on the lye amounts he gave in the tutorial.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Thank you, Hazel! Good to know.

 

[Hazel]

You're welcome! I was looking through some old notes about whipped soap and saw a notation that a couple of people use 8% SF. I suppose it's whatever your preference is for superfat. I used 5% because it was gifts for a nephew and niece. I felt neither of them needed extra free oils left on the skin. I'm fairly positive if I was making it for myself I would have used a higher SF.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I was having trouble finding posts about whipped soap on here. Did an advanced search, but most of the responses that came up didn't look related. How much water did you use? It looked like the Soaping101 one was at roughly 33% water.

 

[Hazel]

I used full water but I could have used less. Did you see these posts?

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=39131
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=19180

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I hadn't seen those! Thanks for the links!

Another question... How to figure out what size of a batch to do? My ideal would be 6-9 eggs. I have three nieces, and would like 2-3 soaps per girl. I think it would be a bit tricky, depending on how much air gets whipped in.

 

[Hazel]

I don't know if this will help.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=34453

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Thank you!

 

[Hazel]

You're welcome! Just a suggestion - you might want to consider making extra just to be sure you have enough. You could pour any extra into small decorative molds and use for embeds or guest soaps. Please let me know how it turns out for you.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

The recipe ended up filling 15 full egg molds, though when I went to unmold the first, it apparently didn't fill up that one as completely as I thought. And the soap was way too soft and stuck a bit to the mold, despite my greasing the molds with mineral oil.

 

[Hazel]

I'm sorry it stuck. Will you have enough good ones for gifts? What kind of mold are you using? I used silicone molds for whipped soap (of course, none were egg shaped) and didn't have any problems. But I can't remember if I had to leave them longer in the mold because of initial softness. I do remember they did cure very hard.

Off topic: You may already know this but sodium lactate helps to create initial hardness. I add 3% sodium lactate ppo for soap that I know will be a bit soft in the beginning. It allows me to unmold them sooner.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I was using those plastic easter eggs as molds, with a hole cut in the bottom and the little holes they were manufactured with sealed up with hot glue, and then the insides rubbed with mineral oil before I sealed the seam with tape. Hopefully there'll be enough!

I've been using sodium lactate, but didn't put it in the whipped soap recipe because I was told it would harden up on its own thanks to all the air. In fact, the other soap I made Friday had sodium lactate added (but was still soft yesterday due to a large amount of soft oils and I think I didn't discount the water). I've been struggling with soft soaps, even when using a majority of hard oils and adding sodium lactate. The only ones hard enough to unmold and cut the next day was my first one (all-coconut), the 50% lard one I HP'd with sodium lactate, and maybe that wacky lye-heavy castile.

 

[Hazel]

Plastic Easter eggs. I can imagine they are hard to unmold. I've used Jello's Jigglers egg mold but only with MP. I've never tried CP in it. The MP was a pain to get out so I assumed CP would be even worse.

I have a problem with soft soaps because I like lots of conditioning oils. Sodium lactate has helped. What percentage are you using?

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Well, it certainly looked easier on the Soaping101 video than using real egg shells as molds did! I'm probably going to need to freeze them, though.

I've mentioned it in a few threads floating around... Part of it is that my soaps haven't been gelling. (It's just been too cold in my house, and the batches are smaller with molds that aren't great at insulating soap.) For sodium lactate, when I've been able to use it, I calculate out how much of solution would give me 1% sodium lactate, which is roughly 1.66% PPO of solution. I had also thought that using more hard oils would help, but the CP 50% lard recipe was also very soft. :/

I didn't even bother checking the soaps I made Friday yesterday. The whipped ones are in individual molds, and the loaf has a high % soft oils and 8% SF. I doubt it would have been hard enough yesterday, not with the way things have been going for me.

 

[Hazel]

Whoops! I told you a lie. I checked and the egg molds aren't Jello Jigglers. I'm not sure what company made these molds because there isn't a name on them. All I can say with confidence is these are really old molds.

Have you tried increasing the percentage of the SL? It took me awhile (and many batches) to go from 1% up to 3%. But just because I'm happy with the results with this percentage, doesn't mean you need to use 3%. As I mentioned earlier, I use a high percentage of conditioning oils. They cure hard but are a bit of a pain to unmold without causing indentations.

I've had problems with complete gelling, too. I've been using CPOP for a few loaves just to make sure of gelling. Have you tried to CPOP?

 

[FlybyStardancer]

CPOP is not an option for me. My oven has been broken for years and my landlord (aka my father) hasn't replaced it. He means to remodel the kitchen, but it's beyond procrastination at this point.

 

[Hazel]

What are you using to cook with if your oven is broken? I use the microwave a lot but I still need the oven and range for most of the cooking.

I've used a heating pad with a slab mold to ensure gelling. I don't know how well it would work with a loaf mold. Maybe someone else would have a suggestion.

Although, not gelling is okay and a lot of people prefer it over gelling. I go back and forth. Some recipes I want to gel and others I try to prevent it. Eek! Writing this just reminded me I have a buttermilk batch sitting on the patio. I meant to bring it in earlier and forgot. :shock:

 

[FlybyStardancer]

The stovetop range is still working, it's just the oven itself that's broken. I've also gotten creative with countertop appliances. Heh. (Did you know a bundt pan fits exactly in the base of a round 5qt Rival Crock Pot? Perfect for baking cakes!)

I purchased a heating pad to use to encourage gel, but I just haven't had a chance to use it yet. The whipped eggs and loaf were sharing space in the oven, and I didn't want to risk the whipped soap collapsing or the hot glue seals melting off.

Even recipes that have had milk and sugar haven't gelled for me! So weird. lol My main thing with gelling is that it's supposed to make the soaps harder, which would be very nice. I'm sure I'll have less troubles once it heats up to late-spring temps around here. (Though I'm already having issues with lye and static electricity... I'm dreading how bad it'll be as it dries out more around here! When I made the loaf, I got MAJOR static problems, even though the container I was measuring lye INTO had just been quickly dried from being washed, and I had a sink full of water maybe a foot and half away from where I was measuring out the lye.)

 

[Hazel]

The stovetop range is still working, it's just the oven itself that's broken. I've also gotten creative with countertop appliances. Heh. (Did you know a bundt pan fits exactly in the base of a round 5qt Rival Crock Pot? Perfect for baking cakes!)

No, I didn't know and now I'm craving cake. That's a clever idea to use a bundt pan and crockpot.

Gelling helps with hardness in the beginning but I've noticed over time, the ungelled soaps cure as hard as gelled ones. This is just based on my recipes. Someone else might not find this to be true. I use soapcalc and I thought the hardness value meant how hard a soap would be after the cure. Deeanna corrected me on this and explained that the hardness value is just the initial hardness which signifies whether a soap will be easier to unmold and cut. She wrote a very good post about it. Scroll down to post #13 to see her explanation. http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=36564&page=2

Gelling vs not gelling is more of an aesthetic issue. Some people like the more 'transparent' or glossier look of gelled soap and other people prefer the opaque look produced by not gelling. This is kind of a simplification but there are discussions about gelling vs not gelling which you might find interesting.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=28073
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=29487
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=26012