For those of you who haven't done this before: A little trick to save time melting cocoa butter is to run it through your salad shooter. I always hated waiting for my chunks of cocoa butter to melt. They were always the last to melt. So I decided to run it through the salad shooter and make shreds. Then scoop it out with a spoon to measure. I do a large batches of this (5 lbs. at a time so you only have to clean the shooter only once.) I've tried this with beeswax and it just gums up the sides and makes it work really hard. Sometimes if you watch you can buy these at thrift stores or Goodwill. HTH! =)
I pre-mix my whole recipe including my hard oils. I melt them down and stick blend everything together. I use: Shea coconut tallow palm olive castor Then pour into dispenser. I then give it a really good shake before dispensing. If anyone would like instructions, pm me and I can send them to you.
I use the tide container and I think Gain has one. The tide one hold 300 oz. so I make a master batch of oils that is 290 oz. just to make sure it fits without overflowing.
I use those too for making master batches of my recipe. I fill it up with the hottest water possible and let it overflow in the sink. Rinse and do it again. Then let it air out for a couple weeks. I love it!
I love the cp but when you make it for a customer and they are in a hurry for it, hp rules. Hp you can cut sooner and use right away. I think hp has better lather by far. hp saves on fos and eos as long as you add it when it's not to hot. I like cp for the fancier swirls but you can make some cool looking marbling with hp that shines as you use the bar.
If you can do Hp, you can do cp. It's the same thing only you wait for your lye to cool down a bit and you pour it in the mold right after trace. No putting in the crockpot. Cover the mold to insulate, wait 24 hours, cut, cure for 3-4 weeks and use.