Soap Suds

Mixing to Trace

Now I have made 3 batches of hot process soap.  I have also made one batch of cold process.  I made my first batch of cold process (Hereafter CP) at the same time as I made my third batch of hot process (hereafter CPHP). 
I got the batch of CPHP traced in the crock pot and then started mixing the CP with my immersion blender.  By the way, don't try to trace 2 batches one right after the other.  It gets the blender to hot to hold.  So I get the CPHP to trace and started it cooking while I got the CP to trace. 

Medium Trace

Bars all trimmed and drying

After I got to medium trace I poured it into molds, put the lids on and wrapped them in blankets.  This is supposed to help the soap "gel."  Well, apparently, if you use ice cream buckets as molds and don't fill them most of the way up, they do not keep enough heat to get to the gel stage.  When I unwrapped them on day 2 after I molded them, they looked almost exactly the same.  So since I had heard that you can put molds in the oven to accelerate the gelling process, I thought I would try to see if it would work to save my batch of soap.  I pre-heated the oven to 200.  Since these containers can handle boiling water, I figured that this temperature would be safe with the plastic.  I did not want melted plastic and raw soap all over my oven!  It worked!!!!  I put them in the oven and left it on for about 20 minutes and then turned it off, but I left the door closed and the soap inside overnight. 

All the scraps from trimming the soap.  I will
probably use for liquid soap later.

So at this point I was ready to get it started on the curing process.  (CP needs about 4 weeks cut and with air circulation in order to harden nicely.)  Well, I forgot one critical piece of the puzzle.  I forgot to line my molds with freezer paper or anything else for that matter.  Let me tell you, it was a huge mistake time wise.  I could not get the soap out for anything.  There was just no getting it to budge.  I had also read that you can stick the molds in the freezer to help them release the soap.  Well, of course this was for silicone molds and mine are plastic, but I tried it anyway.  An hour made no noticeable difference, so I left them in the freezer overnight.  It worked, of course I had used two ice cream buckets and I only had room in my freezer for one, so they had to take turns. 

So I cut the soap.  Not to self, next time try a wire!  Cutting bars of soap with a paring knife is not an easy task although trimming the soap is not a problem.  Now my soap is all cut into bars and I just have to be patient (anyone in my family will tell you that this is NOT my strong suit.) and wait for the bars to cure.  I definitely don't want all of my hard work to dissolve into a puddle and go down the drain.  However, I do have the soap that I made for my sister's shower and that is keeping me company until my new batch is ready.