I have only made hot process soap once (and cold process twice), and the hot process was a total failure. Everything burned and it smelled horrible. I added milk, sugar and oats, and it burned badly. But I have wondered why hot process takes so long, mine was done in minutes. But I think I understand now, it has to do with stirring. I have seen on UA-cam, and I saw it now in your crockpot, that people cook it without stirring and get this white lump in the middle. And it will take long for the soap to cook thru. I stirred like crazy, and stick blended a lot in the process, and boom it was vaseline. It did volcano and separate and all that, yes. And I did hot process without a crockpot. I heated the oils on the stove and dumped it in my stand mixer bowl, and then poured in the hot lye and blended. It is called high temperature hot process. It worked, and it worked fast. But I have learned that no additives can go in before it has cooled a bit, otherwise it will burn. I had to throw the soap in the bin, actually. And my essential oils were horrible, so it made it worse. But, the process itself worked very well, and it worked very fast. I did not take the time, but it was under 30 minutes, I think, from start to vaseline, maybe shorter time. I have no idea, it maybe took only 15 minutes. It was for sure not hours. So I think I will try again, with a little bit cooler oils and lye, plus ONLY oils and lye until everything is done cooking and cooler to prevent it from burning. What I saw, was that the more I stirred the faster it got. I had to stir like crazy and almost burn out my stick blender, because it separated so heavily that I thought the soap was totally ruined. But I managed to stir it back again. And suddenly it was all vaseline. I have seen on another youtuber say that the more you stir the faster it will go, and it will prevent that the soap burns at the sides (when using crockpot). I think that is true, actually. Because all the ones I have seen on UA-cam that not stirs, they have to watch the soap for hours. But I guess it also depends of the temperature of the oils to begin with. This fast high temperature countertop method is maybe different from regular crockpot cooking and needs another way of doing it. But I am not experienced at all, so I have no idea other than what I learn from UA-cam (and have learned from my failed soap). But stirring will distribute heat more evenly, so I can't see why people don't stir their soaps. Theoretically it should cook faster that way.
hi i just wanted to ask regarding additives... can i add the milk in the end or must i replace the water with the milk? i wanted to add coconut milk powder in an existing recipe i have but im afraid if i replace the water with the milk and cook it the milk would scorch... i really like the soap recipe i have and would just like to add coconut milk, oatmeal and honey... any input would be appreciated... thanks
You can certainly add milk in replace of water or even as a percentage of your water. What I recommend doing when you are adding milks is freeze the milk into cubes along with ice cubes and slowly add your lye into the frozen liquid, making sure to keep stirring. The ice will help lower the temperature of the lye mixture and will help keep your milk from burning! The even with the ice you can also add an ice bath by putting your container into a larger container filled with cold water and ice. The milk may turn a tan to orangeish colour but this is to be expected. Hope that helps!
@@sp2295 soaps with milk have a similar shelf life to my soaps without milk - I really havent seen a difference, personally. If you are looking to add morewater to your recipe, I would recommend adding it at trace.
@SARAH'S SOAPS brilliant video thank you. quick question the beer and milk are they what you have used to mix with the lye instead of mixing the water with the lye. thank you
Yes they are! Sometimes I will do a full milk or beer in the recipe or I will split it up with a few ice cubes. You always want your liquids (other than water) to be frozen so they do not scorch and burn with the lye.
SARAH'S SOAPS I wanted to try my own recipe and use goats milk but really struggling to find out how much lye to goats milk. I have worked out the lyrics to my fats and oils but can't for goats milk any chance you could help me :-)
Yes - you can replace 100% of your water to mix with your lye with goats milk! For example, if you need 10 oz of water, you can use 10 oz of goats milk. Hope that helps!
No problem! Just make sure to freeze the milk before hand into small ice cubes to avoid burning the milk! It will turn a yellow/orange colour when you add the lye slowly but this is okay.
Right now that is my first time I got hot process and I didn't have all the 3 stages I thought that there is something wrong but your video make me calm🤗
I have never used sodium lactate before in making any kind of soap and I'm wondering if you add it to hot process soap at what point do you add it? at the end where you usually do your additives or do you add it earlier before Trace?
Awesome tips thank you very much, also the soap in your photos looks great as well. I am new to soaping have only made a few batches and was curious about whether I could use a cold process recipe. So just to be clear, when i have mixed my oils and lye in cold process do i just wait till trace then turn on the crock pot? Another question i have been dying to ask someone is when using frozen ice cubes to mix with lye do i just weigh it out as if they were liquid?
Welcome to soap making! You can definitely use a cold process method - how I like to do it is heat the croc pot to medium/medium low and then add my traced soap in to the croc. Also, weigh out your ice cubes just as you would liquid, yes!
Would the superfat you add at the end be like a small portion of your olive oil set aside and mixed with your essential oil or would it be only your essential oil?
Would the superfat you add at the end be like a small portion of your olive oil set aside and mixed with your essential oil or would it be only your essential oil? Also, would I set aside some of the olive oil to mix my Kaolin clay and color as well. I really loved your video. This will be my first time. I could really use your tips.
your superfat is a % of your base oils that you add AFTER, it is not a portion of your oils that you need to mix with your lye. I would add your kaolin clay when you are adding your lye and mixing everything together! Good luck!
hello. I saw other people asking you questions lol so I decided to chime in for some advice! I wanted to know .. am I supposed to add a preservative to my Hot Process soap?? (Phenonip? to avoid D.O.S.?) I'm not sure. I haven't tried hot process yet but I've been watching so many informative videos before I do. if I do have to add a preservative to the hot process soap recipe.. when should I add it??
Can we use 15 percentage or 20 percentage basically less percentage than normally recomended like 28 or 33 of lye in water to get a fluid like consistency so that it is easy to pour in the end? If yes, than are there any side effects of using more water in HP?
If you are looking to many it more pourable, you can use the full amount of water in your recipe. I do not recommend using less lye (sodium hydroxide) in your recipe
@@sarahssoapsca Well i am not sure what full water is as it gets described differently at times.. what i meant was say x grams of oil need 100 grams of lye so I can use following percentage of lye in water. 100 grams lye in 100 grams water will be 50 percentage 100 grams lye in 300 grams of water will be 25 percentage 100 grams lye in 400 grams of water will be 20 percentage. I normally use 28 percentage for cold process so was wondering what to use for hot process to get fluid consistency post cooking.
@@tusharkathuria9 there are different tutorials for fluid hot process, you may want to start there! You could use more water mixed withy our lye to have the soap batter less thick, however I don't achieve the thinness of cold process when I use hot process. Usually do a 1 part lye with 2-3 parts water depending on my recipe as a rule of thumb, of course being more specific with calculations when I am actually making
@@sarahssoapsca thanks for your reply.. actually i use high percentage of butters so even cold process batter gets thick very fast.. hence i was leaning towards HP as it might solve this problem.. anyways will continue to look for answers and experiment myself.. if nothing worked than i might just lower the butters.. though i like high butter...
quick question. I made my first batch. I had great success, but when I used it, is it supposed to smell and feel oily? Not like regular soap, right? Sorry if it a silly question.
Great video! i've only tried the HP method once, and thrown the whole batch away because even after 4 hours cooking it smelt really bad! want to try HP again, but need to know if it's normal that the HP method can smell really chemical?!?!
Hmm... I can't see anything wrong here. However, some of my batches do have a stronger odour than others sometimes. Because the lye is cooking and saponifying you do get more of an odour than cold process - it may be just that. I know when I replace water with milk or other additives I get a very strong ammonia-like smell, but it later goes away. Did you happen to check the pH level after the first little while it has been cooking? 4 hours is a very long time!
Something to consider if you are finding your soap smelling badly--did you ensure that the oils you used were fresh enough? Some oils go rancid after sitting on the shelf for a while, especially if they are stored anywhere near a source of heat. Not sure if that is what caused it for you, but your recipe sounds like it should have turned out okay!
melt and pour and hot process are two different methods of soap making! Melt and pour soap is already premade, you just melt and repour. Hot process soap is making it from scratch. Hope that helps!
to superfat a soap means to add more oil or butter after the saponification process (after mixing in the lye and letting it react). that way the oils and butters you added to actually make soap have made soap and there's pretty much no more lye left to react. so then you superfat it - add more oil or butter and what you add will not be turned to soap cause there's no more lye to react with and the oil/butter you used for superfatting your soap will remain in it as oil/butter and moisturize or nourish your skin. if you want to superfat your soap by 5%, you simply add 5% of the weight of all the oils/butters AFTER saponification, that means after you added the lye and mixed it all through. in cold process it's at the end before molding it, in hot process it's after cooking it to the gel phase, when there's absolutely no more lye in it to react.
Hi Patsy, I wish I had an exact time for you but it really depends on your recipe and your crock pot that you are using. Some of my crocks in the past have been a little slower, where as the one that I have now is faster. A little tip that I have found, the more you stick blend once you add your lye, the faster your soap may cook. I like to bring my soap to the thickest trace that I possibly can before I put the lid on. Hope these help!
hello. wondering can you help. just done a cp method recipe including a couple of oils and carrot puree were the lye water was added to the puree then the lye added to this mixture then this added to the oils . i would like to do this recipe using the HP method. would the process be the same up to trace .I would also like to use melon and avocado some time thank you
When using fresh additives, I like to add them with the lye if they are fully liquid. If they are a bit thicker (like carrot puree, I add the puree to the oils and then add my lye in after and cook everything like normal. You can do the same for avocado and melon - simply blend + strain the puree and add to the oils before stick blending in your lye water. That is how I like to do it, hope that helps!
Can I do this process with a batch of soap I made that came out to brittle because it is lye heavy? Just reheat it and cook it? Like you describe, maybe add buttermilk warmed up? Maybe add more fats like coconut oil or castor oil? I don’t want to throw this soap away, it smells so good I heavily scented it with lavender? I am a very green soaper. Lol help!
I would say try it! to make it not lye heavy, you would need to know how much oil you are lacking to make up for the extra lye. Go over your recipe again and check. Only oil will fix the lye, not buttermilk. You would probably have to grate it really finely to melt, add a little water and put it on low. Rebatch soap takes a little time, it is a low and slow process. Good luck!
Thanks so much for the boost of confidence. I had a hard time finding any information about rebatching lye heavy soap. Most people ( soapers) said : “ get rid of it! “ just throw it away. Some suggested I call poison control and have those guys with suits come and get it ! Seriously some folks panic way too easily. I was determined to make this product useful and I didn’t want the end result to be detergent. So I watched quite a few videos on just plain ole rebatching and looked into how the pioneers made soap. I wanna tell you I learned so much by this mistake. The first thing I learned is you can’t wing it with making soap. It’s not like cooking an eatable meal where you don’t have to measure. ESPECIALLY THE LYE. Well to make a long story short I couldn’t make this wonder soap again if my life depended on it. I did it all on my stove top because I don’t have a crock pot ( but I’m gonna get one ) I have a small one I ended up using for this project. I basically just used my common sense after reading and watching a boatload of info. First I soaked the crumbled up soap over night in milk. Next day that caustic soap had soaked up all the milk and was solid again. Next I put that bowl on top of a pot with boiling water after breaking it up and I was suppose to get something akin to applesauce. 2 hours later it still wasn’t all applesauce! I said to myself enough of this so I took it off the stove and got my blender ( because I didn’t have an emersion blender ) ( I have one now) after I mixed the heck out of it I had what looked like dry oatmeal.. grrr I said to myself hmmmm let’s add more coconut oil, and how’s about some castor oil. I know I broke every rule but I didn’t measure I just plopped in a few tablespoons of each. Put the potential soap in a crock pot I have I didn’t use it originally because it is on the small side. Put it on high! ( I figured I had to cook that lye out! 🤪) now it heats up and it looks better more like that applesauce I was looking for but it still wasn’t quite right. So I added some honey and what the heck I added cream too! Now I was cooking with gas! It was starting to do what I’d seen in many videos it never did the volcano thing but it took another hour and a half but I finally got what soapers call fluid. It turned a georgeous dark brown honey color. The lavader scent was history and so were the flecks of lavender I think they just infused into the soap. I can’t even explain how it smells it kinda reminds me of a mix between chocolate and vetiver. It was starting to come to the Vaseline stage so I tuned off the crock pot and scooped it out into a loaf mold and I had a few basic square molds. The square molds looked like brownies. I had some ph strips and I checked the ph amazingly it was between 8.0 and 8.1 I also did the zap test .. no ZAP! Yeah!! I could not recreate this in a million years it’s awsome soap. It lathers like a crashing sea wave in the ocean and I gave some to my sister who loves it too! IN THE FUTURE I PROMISE TO OBEY THE RULES AND LEAN HOW TO USE A LYE CALCULATOR! Thanks lady for being one of the few who encouraged me. Here is the only link I found on how to rebatch lye heavy soap. www.ehow.com/how_5733094_rebatch-lye-heavy-soap.html
Hi can you tell me when adding super fat at the end this means I put 0% when using my soap cal? And add the 5% at the end of the cook? And is it 5% of the total oils ? I usually do a 39 oz of oils batch so I only use approx1.8 oz of super fat ? Sorry for all the questions
Ask away! Yes that is correct. I use a 0% superfat level when calculating my recipes in a soap calc. I calculate by hand anywhere from 5-7% percent and add that after the cook. That is also when I add any essential oils or fragrance oils. Hope that helps!
Thank you just doesn't suffice...as a novice soap maker (only 3 batches, one in the trash) I can't than you enough :-) for the tips and tricks... PS...I also LOVE VALUE VILLAGE, lol
Thank you +ndngoodness canada ! Such kind words. :) Yes me too, there are so many great finds there! Good luck on your hot process soap making endeavours!
Hi primrozie - I do not time my soaps because I know some recipes take longer or shorter than others to cook. 2 hours seems like a very long time to be cooking your soap, which would definitely explain why it is so dry. Try cooking your soap less and looking up some ways to test if your soap is done. I use the old fashioned method - I take a pea sized amount of soap and let it cool on the bench. Once it is firm I touch it to my tongue like a 9V battery test and if it is a little fuzzy on my tongue I know to cook longer. If it tastes like soap, it is done! You can use PH test strips as well to see if your soap is done cooking, but 2 hours (to me at least) sounds like a long time!
This is all kind of new to me and I am learning. I heard you mention additives, so I just wanted to know, that's all. Would you mind sharing what additive you use please. Thanks So Much!
Nice video.. One .Word of warning you should never ever do the zap test that some soap making people do. Unless you want to burn a hole thou your tongue.
Thank you +Ed Port I have been doing the test for years now. For the most part, I can tell when the soap is mostly done if not fully done by the look/texture so there is no foul here. Thank you for your concern!
Very helpful! Plus you have a lovely clear voice!
Thank you! This was so helpful!
A nice, quick summary. Great photos.
Excellent advice. Love, love, love all the little tips and tricks-so helpful!
Geny R. Thank you!!
nice tips, i watched a video that said you don't have to stir it while is cooking and that worked great.
have you tried that method?
Excellent explanation!
thank you, glad to hear it was helpful!
I have only made hot process soap once (and cold process twice), and the hot process was a total failure. Everything burned and it smelled horrible. I added milk, sugar and oats, and it burned badly. But I have wondered why hot process takes so long, mine was done in minutes. But I think I understand now, it has to do with stirring. I have seen on UA-cam, and I saw it now in your crockpot, that people cook it without stirring and get this white lump in the middle. And it will take long for the soap to cook thru. I stirred like crazy, and stick blended a lot in the process, and boom it was vaseline. It did volcano and separate and all that, yes. And I did hot process without a crockpot. I heated the oils on the stove and dumped it in my stand mixer bowl, and then poured in the hot lye and blended. It is called high temperature hot process. It worked, and it worked fast. But I have learned that no additives can go in before it has cooled a bit, otherwise it will burn. I had to throw the soap in the bin, actually. And my essential oils were horrible, so it made it worse. But, the process itself worked very well, and it worked very fast. I did not take the time, but it was under 30 minutes, I think, from start to vaseline, maybe shorter time. I have no idea, it maybe took only 15 minutes. It was for sure not hours.
So I think I will try again, with a little bit cooler oils and lye, plus ONLY oils and lye until everything is done cooking and cooler to prevent it from burning. What I saw, was that the more I stirred the faster it got. I had to stir like crazy and almost burn out my stick blender, because it separated so heavily that I thought the soap was totally ruined. But I managed to stir it back again. And suddenly it was all vaseline.
I have seen on another youtuber say that the more you stir the faster it will go, and it will prevent that the soap burns at the sides (when using crockpot). I think that is true, actually. Because all the ones I have seen on UA-cam that not stirs, they have to watch the soap for hours. But I guess it also depends of the temperature of the oils to begin with. This fast high temperature countertop method is maybe different from regular crockpot cooking and needs another way of doing it. But I am not experienced at all, so I have no idea other than what I learn from UA-cam (and have learned from my failed soap). But stirring will distribute heat more evenly, so I can't see why people don't stir their soaps. Theoretically it should cook faster that way.
Very helpful!
hi i just wanted to ask regarding additives... can i add the milk in the end or must i replace the water with the milk? i wanted to add coconut milk powder in an existing recipe i have but im afraid if i replace the water with the milk and cook it the milk would scorch... i really like the soap recipe i have and would just like to add coconut milk, oatmeal and honey... any input would be appreciated... thanks
You can certainly add milk in replace of water or even as a percentage of your water. What I recommend doing when you are adding milks is freeze the milk into cubes along with ice cubes and slowly add your lye into the frozen liquid, making sure to keep stirring. The ice will help lower the temperature of the lye mixture and will help keep your milk from burning! The even with the ice you can also add an ice bath by putting your container into a larger container filled with cold water and ice. The milk may turn a tan to orangeish colour but this is to be expected. Hope that helps!
@@sarahssoapsca what will be the shelf life of added milk? And what will be if added water?? Please reply
@@sp2295 soaps with milk have a similar shelf life to my soaps without milk - I really havent seen a difference, personally. If you are looking to add morewater to your recipe, I would recommend adding it at trace.
@@sarahssoapsca 1 year shelf life I can consider??
@@sp2295 with milks personally, I would recommend to use within 6 months just to prevent spoilage
Can I use these tips and tricks when making body wash?
@SARAH'S SOAPS brilliant video thank you. quick question the beer and milk are they what you have used to mix with the lye instead of mixing the water with the lye. thank you
Yes they are! Sometimes I will do a full milk or beer in the recipe or I will split it up with a few ice cubes. You always want your liquids (other than water) to be frozen so they do not scorch and burn with the lye.
SARAH'S SOAPS I wanted to try my own recipe and use goats milk but really struggling to find out how much lye to goats milk. I have worked out the lyrics to my fats and oils but can't for goats milk any chance you could help me :-)
Yes - you can replace 100% of your water to mix with your lye with goats milk! For example, if you need 10 oz of water, you can use 10 oz of goats milk. Hope that helps!
SARAH'S SOAPS oh great stuff I didn't know if the goats milk would need more lye than water thank you so much I really appreciate that
No problem! Just make sure to freeze the milk before hand into small ice cubes to avoid burning the milk! It will turn a yellow/orange colour when you add the lye slowly but this is okay.
Right now that is my first time I got hot process and I didn't have all the 3 stages I thought that there is something wrong but your video make me calm🤗
I have never used sodium lactate before in making any kind of soap and I'm wondering if you add it to hot process soap at what point do you add it? at the end where you usually do your additives or do you add it earlier before Trace?
I have not yet used sodium lactate in any batches, sorry I can not be of much help!
Thanks a lot ❤
Awesome tips thank you very much, also the soap in your photos looks great as well. I am new to soaping have only made a few batches and was curious about whether I could use a cold process recipe. So just to be clear, when i have mixed my oils and lye in cold process do i just wait till trace then turn on the crock pot? Another question i have been dying to ask someone is when using frozen ice cubes to mix with lye do i just weigh it out as if they were liquid?
Welcome to soap making! You can definitely use a cold process method - how I like to do it is heat the croc pot to medium/medium low and then add my traced soap in to the croc. Also, weigh out your ice cubes just as you would liquid, yes!
very helpful...Thanks
Would the superfat you add at the end be like a small portion of your olive oil set aside and mixed with your essential oil or would it be only your essential oil?
Thank you soooooooo much.
Thank you💕
Thank you so much
If you use ph strips does it matter what kind?
Would the superfat you add at the end be like a small portion of your olive oil set aside and mixed with your essential oil or would it be only your essential oil? Also, would I set aside some of the olive oil to mix my Kaolin clay and color as well. I really loved your video. This will be my first time. I could really use your tips.
your superfat is a % of your base oils that you add AFTER, it is not a portion of your oils that you need to mix with your lye. I would add your kaolin clay when you are adding your lye and mixing everything together! Good luck!
@@sarahssoapsca thank you !!
hello. I saw other people asking you questions lol so I decided to chime in for some advice! I wanted to know .. am I supposed to add a preservative to my Hot Process soap?? (Phenonip? to avoid D.O.S.?) I'm not sure. I haven't tried hot process yet but I've been watching so many informative videos before I do. if I do have to add a preservative to the hot process soap recipe.. when should I add it??
No, you dont need a preservative in a hard bar of soap of any kind!
Can we use 15 percentage or 20 percentage basically less percentage than normally recomended like 28 or 33 of lye in water to get a fluid like consistency so that it is easy to pour in the end? If yes, than are there any side effects of using more water in HP?
If you are looking to many it more pourable, you can use the full amount of water in your recipe. I do not recommend using less lye (sodium hydroxide) in your recipe
@@sarahssoapsca Well i am not sure what full water is as it gets described differently at times.. what i meant was say x grams of oil need 100 grams of lye so I can use following percentage of lye in water.
100 grams lye in 100 grams water will be 50 percentage
100 grams lye in 300 grams of water will be 25 percentage
100 grams lye in 400 grams of water will be 20 percentage.
I normally use 28 percentage for cold process so was wondering what to use for hot process to get fluid consistency post cooking.
@@tusharkathuria9 there are different tutorials for fluid hot process, you may want to start there! You could use more water mixed withy our lye to have the soap batter less thick, however I don't achieve the thinness of cold process when I use hot process. Usually do a 1 part lye with 2-3 parts water depending on my recipe as a rule of thumb, of course being more specific with calculations when I am actually making
@@sarahssoapsca thanks for your reply.. actually i use high percentage of butters so even cold process batter gets thick very fast.. hence i was leaning towards HP as it might solve this problem.. anyways will continue to look for answers and experiment myself.. if nothing worked than i might just lower the butters.. though i like high butter...
ty
This was so helpful! Thank you!
No problem, glad it helped!
quick question. I made my first batch. I had great success, but when I used it, is it supposed to smell and feel oily? Not like regular soap, right? Sorry if it a silly question.
Great for beginners. ThanQ :-)
Thank you +Jennifer A Shepherd!
Great video! i've only tried the HP method once, and thrown the whole batch away because even after 4 hours cooking it smelt really bad! want to try HP again, but need to know if it's normal that the HP method can smell really chemical?!?!
Do you mind if I ask what recipe/oils you used? Just want to get a better feel of what went wrong!
+SARAH'S SOAPS
- 176 gram water
- 70 gram Lye
- 30 gram Shea butter
- 128 gram Coconut oil
- 85 gram Palm oil
- 113,5 gram Castor oil
- 56,75 gram Jojoba oil
- 56,75 gram olive oil
Hmm... I can't see anything wrong here. However, some of my batches do have a stronger odour than others sometimes. Because the lye is cooking and saponifying you do get more of an odour than cold process - it may be just that.
I know when I replace water with milk or other additives I get a very strong ammonia-like smell, but it later goes away. Did you happen to check the pH level after the first little while it has been cooking? 4 hours is a very long time!
Something to consider if you are finding your soap smelling badly--did you ensure that the oils you used were fresh enough? Some oils go rancid after sitting on the shelf for a while, especially if they are stored anywhere near a source of heat. Not sure if that is what caused it for you, but your recipe sounds like it should have turned out okay!
Hai Sarah. I tried HP (double boil)and my stainless steel pot start to decay I believe. Can I still use it?(soap n the pot) sorry for my poor English.
Hello, I would use a new pot. May be from the lye... You don't want any of that decay in your soap!
SARAH'S SOAPS thank u sarah
awesome
MP soaps and Hot process both are same right 🤔🤔please reply??
melt and pour and hot process are two different methods of soap making! Melt and pour soap is already premade, you just melt and repour. Hot process soap is making it from scratch. Hope that helps!
@@sarahssoapsca OK Thanks
Temperature wise, does the crock pot need to be on low ?
This all depends on how your crockpot runs - low is perfect on my personal crock as sometimes medium is too high for those hot spots on the pot!
Thanks for the video, why do you use beer?
as s newbie. exactly what is superfats? is this why my h/p is not setting up?
to superfat a soap means to add more oil or butter after the saponification process (after mixing in the lye and letting it react). that way the oils and butters you added to actually make soap have made soap and there's pretty much no more lye left to react. so then you superfat it - add more oil or butter and what you add will not be turned to soap cause there's no more lye to react with and the oil/butter you used for superfatting your soap will remain in it as oil/butter and moisturize or nourish your skin. if you want to superfat your soap by 5%, you simply add 5% of the weight of all the oils/butters AFTER saponification, that means after you added the lye and mixed it all through.
in cold process it's at the end before molding it, in hot process it's after cooking it to the gel phase, when there's absolutely no more lye in it to react.
Bravo!!! I finally understand this process. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
how much weight we lose after cooking
thanks for tips
No problem!
can you please tell me how long should a4 pound batch take to cook on low setting
Hi Patsy, I wish I had an exact time for you but it really depends on your recipe and your crock pot that you are using. Some of my crocks in the past have been a little slower, where as the one that I have now is faster. A little tip that I have found, the more you stick blend once you add your lye, the faster your soap may cook. I like to bring my soap to the thickest trace that I possibly can before I put the lid on. Hope these help!
hello. wondering can you help. just done a cp method recipe including a couple of oils and carrot puree were the lye water was added to the puree then the lye added to this mixture then this added to the oils . i would like to do this recipe using the HP method. would the process be the same up to trace .I would also like to use melon and avocado some time thank you
When using fresh additives, I like to add them with the lye if they are fully liquid. If they are a bit thicker (like carrot puree, I add the puree to the oils and then add my lye in after and cook everything like normal. You can do the same for avocado and melon - simply blend + strain the puree and add to the oils before stick blending in your lye water. That is how I like to do it, hope that helps!
Can I do this process with a batch of soap I made that came out to brittle because it is lye heavy? Just reheat it and cook it? Like you describe, maybe add buttermilk warmed up? Maybe add more fats like coconut oil or castor oil? I don’t want to throw this soap away, it smells so good I heavily scented it with lavender? I am a very green soaper. Lol help!
I would say try it! to make it not lye heavy, you would need to know how much oil you are lacking to make up for the extra lye. Go over your recipe again and check. Only oil will fix the lye, not buttermilk. You would probably have to grate it really finely to melt, add a little water and put it on low. Rebatch soap takes a little time, it is a low and slow process. Good luck!
Thanks so much for the boost of confidence. I had a hard time finding any information about rebatching lye heavy soap. Most people ( soapers) said : “ get rid of it! “ just throw it away. Some suggested I call poison control and have those guys with suits come and get it ! Seriously some folks panic way too easily. I was determined to make this product useful and I didn’t want the end result to be detergent. So I watched quite a few videos on just plain ole rebatching and looked into how the pioneers made soap. I wanna tell you I learned so much by this mistake. The first thing I learned is you can’t wing it with making soap. It’s not like cooking an eatable meal where you don’t have to measure. ESPECIALLY THE LYE. Well to make a long story short I couldn’t make this wonder soap again if my life depended on it. I did it all on my stove top because I don’t have a crock pot ( but I’m gonna get one ) I have a small one I ended up using for this project. I basically just used my common sense after reading and watching a boatload of info. First I soaked the crumbled up soap over night in milk. Next day that caustic soap had soaked up all the milk and was solid again. Next I put that bowl on top of a pot with boiling water after breaking it up and I was suppose to get something akin to applesauce. 2 hours later it still wasn’t all applesauce! I said to myself enough of this so I took it off the stove and got my blender ( because I didn’t have an emersion blender ) ( I have one now) after I mixed the heck out of it I had what looked like dry oatmeal.. grrr I said to myself hmmmm let’s add more coconut oil, and how’s about some castor oil. I know I broke every rule but I didn’t measure I just plopped in a few tablespoons of each. Put the potential soap in a crock pot I have I didn’t use it originally because it is on the small side. Put it on high! ( I figured I had to cook that lye out! 🤪) now it heats up and it looks better more like that applesauce I was looking for but it still wasn’t quite right. So I added some honey and what the heck I added cream too! Now I was cooking with gas! It was starting to do what I’d seen in many videos it never did the volcano thing but it took another hour and a half but I finally got what soapers call fluid. It turned a georgeous dark brown honey color. The lavader scent was history and so were the flecks of lavender I think they just infused into the soap. I can’t even explain how it smells it kinda reminds me of a mix between chocolate and vetiver. It was starting to come to the Vaseline stage so I tuned off the crock pot and scooped it out into a loaf mold and I had a few basic square molds. The square molds looked like brownies. I had some ph strips and I checked the ph amazingly it was between 8.0 and 8.1 I also did the zap test .. no ZAP! Yeah!! I could not recreate this in a million years it’s awsome soap. It lathers like a crashing sea wave in the ocean and I gave some to my sister who loves it too! IN THE FUTURE I PROMISE TO OBEY THE RULES AND LEAN HOW TO USE A LYE CALCULATOR! Thanks lady for being one of the few who encouraged me. Here is the only link I found on how to rebatch lye heavy soap. www.ehow.com/how_5733094_rebatch-lye-heavy-soap.html
Cute video.
+Maria Winzler thank you!
Hi can you tell me when adding super fat at the end this means I put 0% when using my soap cal? And add the 5% at the end of the cook? And is it 5% of the total oils ? I usually do a 39 oz of oils batch so I only use approx1.8 oz of super fat ? Sorry for all the questions
Ask away! Yes that is correct. I use a 0% superfat level when calculating my recipes in a soap calc. I calculate by hand anywhere from 5-7% percent and add that after the cook. That is also when I add any essential oils or fragrance oils. Hope that helps!
Thank you just doesn't suffice...as a novice soap maker (only 3 batches, one in the trash) I can't than you enough :-) for the tips and tricks...
PS...I also LOVE VALUE VILLAGE, lol
Thank you +ndngoodness canada ! Such kind words. :) Yes me too, there are so many great finds there! Good luck on your hot process soap making endeavours!
Thanks so much xx
Okay, so if you super fat at the end, do you set the lye calculator to 0 % super fat when running your recipe?
Yes! I calculate my own superfat by adjusting the soap calc superfat levels to 0%, then calculating any superfat percent I would like!
I leave my beer go flat in the refrigerator for a week. no need to simmer/boil alcohol
Hi. Is it necessary to time the soap? Someone taught me to cook it for two hours. My soap is always too dry to go in the molds fluently.
Hi primrozie - I do not time my soaps because I know some recipes take longer or shorter than others to cook. 2 hours seems like a very long time to be cooking your soap, which would definitely explain why it is so dry. Try cooking your soap less and looking up some ways to test if your soap is done. I use the old fashioned method - I take a pea sized amount of soap and let it cool on the bench. Once it is firm I touch it to my tongue like a 9V battery test and if it is a little fuzzy on my tongue I know to cook longer. If it tastes like soap, it is done! You can use PH test strips as well to see if your soap is done cooking, but 2 hours (to me at least) sounds like a long time!
helpful. Thanks
Interesting. Not the way I do it, but, very good advice for a beginner. 😀💗
Are the additives bad for your health?
There are no harmful additives in my recipe!
This is all kind of new to me and I am learning. I heard you mention additives, so I just wanted to know, that's all. Would you mind sharing what additive you use please. Thanks So Much!
Absolutely! By additives, I was referring to any herbs, spices, clays etc!
@@sarahssoapsca oh wonderful. Thank you so much for your quick responses.
It's better to let beer sit for a few days. By cooking the beer on the stove, you are also cooking some of the benefits of the beer out of the soap
That is also a great idea, thanks Jane.
Rebatch soap tips
Please send descreption soap formula ingredient
FYI, there is no such thing as Seizing when it comes to Hot process soap. Seizing can happen only in Cold process soap.
Alvin Smith In regards to seizing, I am referring to the consistency of the batter I am working with
Please send ingredient name and/
Thank you ...................
+Vera Lands no problem!!
Nice video.. One .Word of warning you should never ever do the zap test that some soap making people do. Unless you want to burn a hole thou your tongue.
Thank you +Ed Port I have been doing the test for years now. For the most part, I can tell when the soap is mostly done if not fully done by the look/texture so there is no foul here. Thank you for your concern!