Soap Cool Question

[izzy2]

I am going to be making the Shortening and Shea Sudsy soap recipe from the recipe section. One person said to soap cool. Does this mean melt oils etc., lye and liquid, and then soap when they are cool? If so how cool should it be? do it one day then soap the next? Sorry for the dumb questions but wanting to get it right.

TIA

[8-GRAN-ONES]

I am not an expert..but I soap cool..I heat my hard oils just enough to melt..and put in the liq. oils..I let them totally cool..I can put my hands on the pan and not feel any heat...I do the same with the lye water..HTH :highfive:

[sudsnwicks]

It isn't a dumb question. For me cool means around body temperature or slightly lower. The lye water will get very hot when you dissolve your lye into your water. You should let it cool down instead of adding it directly to your oils. The oils should also be around the same temperature, so after you've melted them, let them sit for a little while to cool down.

[topofmurrayhill]

You can soap as cool as you want, provided that the oils are clear and melted all through the process of mixing in the pot and sitting in the mold.

Depending on the ingredients, that could mean totally room temperature (like letting the oils sit overnight would be fine), or it might mean warmer if there's enough hardness in the recipe to make the oils cloud up and thicken as they cool down. Just watch what happens and you'll know.

The one thing that defines CP is that we let most of the saponification happen in the mold. Until that process is completed, the oils should remain liquid. If they start to congeal from being too cool, they may not stay properly emulsified with the lye solution.