Going cold...

When I first started making soap I used the cold process method. After mixing the oils and lye solution you pour the soap into a mold of some sort and wait for four or more weeks before you can use the soap. Saponification doesn't usually take quite that long but you want to be sure there is no live lye in your soap and you want to give the bars a chance to harden.

With hot process soap you basically cook the soap batter either by heating it in a crockpot until it volcanoes and goes through applesauce, mashed potato and Vaseline stages, or by soaping at high temperatures (in the 200F area) in a stainless steel pot/plastic container, all of the stages happen pretty quick when soaping that hot. It's pretty fun to watch this all take place within a half hour.

There are a few advantages to the hot process method. First, it's fast, once the cook is over, saponification has taken place and you can use the soap immediately. Usually you give it a few weeks to evaporate some of the moisture and give the bar a chance to harden. Another advantage is you're able to add the superfats to the soap after saponification so you can add the really good fats then, giving you the chance to control which awesome oils aren't eaten up by the lye. It's good practice to use the more pricey oils at this point. It can also help to add essential oils after the cook so they're not superheating and loosing their oomph.

There are a couple of disadvantages to the hot process method as well...at least for me. One is, the soap batter is pretty thick and while it's possible for some soapers to get some amazing swirls, it's not as easy to get the pretty bars that you get with the cold process method...at least for me. Another disadvantage is that there can be quite a bit of stirring of the hot batter which is like stirring a mix between brownie batter and cookie dough.

Due to the job I have, my hands and wrists already take a beating and stirring a thick batter gets extremely painful. Over the summer I've been working on cold process soaps because it's not as hot as working over very hot soap batters. Making the cold process soaps made me realize how much easier it was on my hands and wrists and I'm thinking I may have to go back to that method.

One concern I have is not having the ability to choose which oils/fats will superfat my soaps. I'm not even sure it will be noticeable. I'm going to give it a try and see if there is any difference in the properties of the soaps. Quality, moisturizing soaps is my number one goal. I'll do what works best to achieve that!

Hot Process Soap

I work compacted work weeks. One week I work three-12 hour days and have four days off, the next week it’s the opposite. This week, however, I had to take two days off due to illness. I really didn’t want to use up any sick time this early in the year, unfortunately it couldn’t be helped. Working the compacted work weeks allows me time to concentrate on my soaps on my days off, I like that.

I was able to get a batch of Leslie’s Hippy Dippy Days Patchouli Soap done last night and this morning I made Amber’s Cedarlyptus Soap for my nephews wife. Both will be listed in my shop in a few weeks.I find soapmaking very interesting and I took the following pictures to share with you while making Amber’s soap.

I've added the hot oils, lye solution and apricot seed.

Basically I use the countertop hot process method. I soap with the oils at 200F-210F and the lye solution at 195F. Once I’m sure the oils and lye solution are mixed well I cover with plastic wrap and wait for the batter to go through several stages. 

The soap batter is beginning to volcano.

Once the batter volcanoes I stir it down and then stick blend it for a minute to keep the batter moving. The soap batter is no longer on a heat source and is cooking itself. It usually heats up a bit more during this process.

Stick blending after the first volcano.

At this point I'm waiting for it to volcano again...gotta stay right by the pot so it doesn't volcano over the top. Sometimes it volcanoes a couple of times, sometimes even more. A few times I’ve had batches that didn’t volcano at all but went through all of the other stages. It will volcano until the lye is done reacting with the oils, or possibly if the batter cools down too much.

Second volcano, I have to admit I find this pretty interesting.

Once it’s done with the obvious volcanoes and it’s been blended well after each, I let it set to continue the process. I can tell this hasn’t finished “cooking” yet because there is still some white “mash potato” like areas in the batter.

Still some white streaks in the batter, it isn't done cooking yet.

At this point I either stir or stick-blend to get those white areas to finish processing. The last stage is the “Vaseline” stage. The soap batter gets shiny and translucent.

Vaseline stage, the cook is pretty much complete and saponification has taken place.

Once the soap has hit this stage I check it’s temperature and the temperature of the superfats I’m adding to be sure they’re pretty close, then add the superfats.

The superfats included annatto seed oil which gave this soap a beautiful orange color.

I’m really happy with the orange created by the annatto seed! After the superfats were completely mixed in I added very warm yogurt and coconut milk, mixed well and let it set for five minutes. The eucalyptus and cedarwood essential oils were added once the batter had cooled a bit more and then the batter was plopped into the mold.

Amber's Cedarlyptus Soap in the mold.

I’m really happy with the finished bars...

Amber's Cedarlyptus Soap

I love the speckles of apricot seeds!