Premixing your oils..

[thecandlespastore]

I have heard of some premixing their soaping oils into one big container so that when they are ready to make a batch they just give it a good shake and pour the amount of oil in ounces that they need. I wonder if its a good idea. Anyone here do that?

[CareBear]

This is a great idea if you do a lot of soaps and want to whip them out as quickly as possible.

I am still in the totally hobby stage, though, so the most I'll do is mix my oils and butters and melt them earlier in the day and make up my lye sol'n then too so that when I am ready I don't have to wait for everything to cool.

[eugenia]

I have heard of some premixing their soaping oils into one big container so that when they are ready to make a batch they just give it a good shake and pour the amount of oil in ounces that they need. I wonder if its a good idea. Anyone here do that?

I do. Love that method. Just make sure to stir well. 5 Gallon pails work well.

[thecandlespastore]

Cool! I am so tired of having to weigh out each oil, so this is something I am going to give a go:cheesy2:

[eugenia]

You will never look back. I was a doubter. Could not believe that my hard oils would stay melted, but they do. My pessimism stopped me from trying this long ago; please learn from my mistakes!

e

[heirloomoriginals]

I can't wait to get to this stage! I think I finally figured out a recipe that I want to use, now I just need to get the oils to see if I like it!

Steph

[jenniejr]

Curious...... can't you do the same for your lye/water? (if your using the same oils everytime?)

If so, is it safe to store the lye water in plastic jugs? (ie: milk jugs) tia

[thecandlespastore]

I have heard of that as well.. How to reheat the lye water though?

[jenniejr]

I think the point behind pre-mixing the lye water is so that it is already cool (room temp) when you are ready to make soap with the already cool (room temp) pre-mixed oils.

[eugenia]

I do mix the lye for each batch 1 day ahead and soap the lye cool.

e

[thecandlespastore]

Did not know that! So I can just make a big jug of lye water and pour whatever I need into room temperature oils? I have always thought they had to be around 100 degrees +/- 10 or so to trace well.

[Grumpy Girl]

I just don't care for using a master batch method for my oils. I would rather weight out my oils per batch into individual (per mold) containers, label and date them, seal them up, and put them on a shelf. Whenever I want to make several batches, I just pull what I need off the shelf and I'm good to go. It helps that I've finally standardized my soap molds for the most part, and use the same size mold so my recipe never really changes. I do have a few recipes that I make in a different mold, and I label those containers accordingly, along with the lye and water amount info on the label.

I never could get the master batch of lye mix in my head so it made sense to me, so I just mix as I go. If I could ever understand it, I'd probably master batch the lye though just because it's a PITA to mess with it.