Kim and I recently discovered a quicker method of making cold process soap. The added bonus about using this method is that you do not need to heat the oils to 50-60°C.
As the lye water already heats up to about 75°C because of a chemical reaction, I pondered if that was enough heat to melt any solid oils or fats and warm the oils enough for saponification to occur. I love science!
Well after a little research, I found that it was indeed possible, so with a little hesitation, I gave it a go.
To my delight, it worked perfectly the first time. The only thing to take note is that you do not need to stick blend very long to bring your soap batter to a light trace. About one minute tops.
Also, after pouring it into the mould, it goes hard within about 2 hours, so if you are poking in embeds into the surface, you have to work quickly. If layering different colours, this is the perfect method, because each layer gets firm after about 1o minutes in the mould, so you can spoon on the next layer without the new one sinking to the bottom.
Anyway, enough words. During the second try, we decided to make a video tutorial to share our new method.
We have now begun to show our students this method during our Advanced Soap Making Course, and they certainly do like the quick cold process soap making method!
Nice one Gav. It’s a bit similar to how we show the secondary students except ours is all done at room temperature and just with Olive oil (so no need to melt the solids). We have the students make just enough to fill a patty pan and we use Vanilla essence for the fragrance. You should hear the coo’s of pleasure when we crack the lid on the bottle of Vanilla essence 🙂
Equally nice one Mick! I bet they all get a thrill learning the chemistry of soap making.
I’ve seen goats milk soap made (on youtube) using frozen goats milk with the lye added on top. The lye melted the goats milk and prevented the milk from boiling if it had been added to the milk straight. A little different but the same clever use of the heat from the lye. 🙂
How solid were your oils at the time Gav? I wonder if it would work with VERY solid oils like when olive oil is nearly solid etc on those freezing cold days like Sunday and Monday this week. This would be a great way to make soap in summer too – no added heat source either inside or out or would it make the oils too hot would you think?
Fairly solid Jessie. The coconut oil was rock hard, and the olive oil was very gluggy due to the cold weather. We had the oils stored in the shed outside.
It don’t think they would get too hot in summer, because the alternative method that I previously used required the oils to be heated to 50-60C anyway. Both methods will work well.
I add lye to just the solid fats first and when they have melted I add the liquid oils after that. Even quicker as the heat works directly on the solids first.
Great tip. Thanks Phil, I’ll have to try that out next time
Saw this method on Soap Making Essentials blog a couple of years ago. She calls it the room temperature method. Tried it a couple of times and still trying to decide if I like it better than cold process
Many videos I’ve watched say you need to put it in the oven at 170F for an hour. Do you do that and what might ne the purpose? Is it a way of speeding up the process as they do in hot process? I tried this process only once and really liked that it cut out a ton of time. I noticed that it was all the same when I poured it so I don’t understand the need to put it in the oven. Thank you fir your input!!!