October 5, 2012

Deep Discount

Soaping with a deep water discount. So, for the first time ever I soaped at a 1:1 lye water ratio. I was a bit scared after reading about it,but decided to take the plunge. Probably the most notable and scarey part is handling such a concentrated lye solution- as always you don't want to splash it in your eye or spill it on yourself. The other troubleshooting issues are really the usual-the possibility of acceleration or volcano. I view these issues as something you should ALWAYS be prepared to handle when you make soap. I used an eo blend I knew would not cause me trouble with acceleration to begin with(a blend of peppermint and spearmint) and just went for it. I was a bit concerned because I was using Extra Virgin OO which can accelerate even without such a lye concentration. Upon reading about using this sort of lye water ratio with my particular formula I found that it is in fact desirable to have a very hot gel-this aids the molecules into laying down once the soap is at the cooling stage + creates more glycerine. The results of this should a be a harder bar sooner(due to the lesser amount of water),however this does not mean the ph is settled sooner so a cure of 4-6 weeks is still recommended. I will keep you posted of the results as soon as I unmold.

2 comments:

Jennifer Young said...

If you are doing pure castille (only olive oil...) let us know how soft it is when you unmould! Timing was key for me. 24 hours in the mould, and if I touched the bar, my finger would go right in, two days was about right, maybe 3 days before demoulding, then wham, if I waited 4, it was too hard to cut. Intrigued..... can't wait to find out!! xo Jen

Tierra Verde Handmade Soap said...

@ Jen,it isn't a Castille,but my regular formula that does contain quite a bit of Olive Oil.I unmolded the morning after pouring,and cut probably within 30 minutes-it was that hard.