General CP question......

[bthouse]

Hi all;

I dont make soap yet, still suffering with candle testing, but would love to look into it at some point next year.

I recently watched the show on HGTV about clever crafty people, and a lady was making CP soap. She was making it in her basement, which was bare brick walls, at first I thought it was a garage. Think she was in North Carolina area....

She went outside to do the lye part, but the rest was inside and she did cover the soap overnight with blankets.

So I just have a general question right now. Do you not need a certain air temperature to make the soap and keep your supplies. I have plenty space in my garage to set up workshop for this, but just wonder about the extremes of temperature etc. and how that works, before I go fixing up my garage either way.

Thanks for reading

Kathy

[Scented]

Didn't see the show, but doing the lye outside helps move the fumes from it outta there (better ventilation) as well as quicker cool down if I'm not mistaken.

As for temps, for instance, in the summer it was difficult to keep a 50# pail of coconut oil pretty solid. Now that it's winter, it's still a little difficult to keep that 40# or so pail solid. The oils that have shorter shelf lives, they live in my fridge to extend their life.

Is that what you were looking for?

[bthouse]

Yes, that all makes sense. Thanks.

I dont know much about the making of the soap, have not studied it yet. I was just curious as she had so many supplies there in what I thought was a cold-looking garage and was just curious about the temperature.

Thanks .......

[Scented]

Cool is good.

[Fire and Ice]

For me, I'll be making soap in my basement, which IS cold but I will be firing my large wood burner down there when making soap. I will fire it first thing in the morning and feeding it throughout the day. I will soap in early afternoon and continue to keep the basement very warm until I go to bed, putting the last wood on the fire at about midnight or so. And I'll put a lid on the mold as well as at least on blanket. I've got everything I need including a stove & oven and a sink for making soap in the basement.

Fire

[CareBear]

I store my oils in the coolest place in the house - my unheated garage & unheated laundry room. But I soap in the kitchen (and mix my lye sol'n there too) and if anything the chilly nights (with the thermostat at 55) contributes to incomplete gel so I need to insulate really well in the winter.

[Crafty1_AJ]

Yeah, that TV show featured a soapmaker named Tina, right? Her biz is Faerie Made, I believe.

Oils break down in heat. They go rancid faster if exposed to high temps. So cool is always better when it comes to storing them.

Don't forget that soaps typically contain some unsaponified oils, so they also need to be stored in cool, dry places to avoid DOS.