12 Steps to Better Hot Process Soap

posted in Hot Process Soap, Soap Tutorials by Molly @ridgewaysoapworks

For the past few months I have been focused on hot process soapmaking, and have learned
a few lessons along the way. I am still learning, and the suggestions in this post are simply
things that have worked for me in my quest to make better and better soaps!

What do I mean by a better soap? I want to be able to make swirled designs in my soap,
which requires a fluid batter. I want a hard bar of soap that lasts a long time. I want a soap
that does not crumble ever, especially when taking it out of the mold. I want a soap that
retains its scent. I want a soap with no bubbles or air pockets. I want a soap that
moisturizes my skin.

Hot process soap made with fluid batter

Why dont I make much soap via cold process like I used to? Because I really like a few
things about HP that keep me attached to my crockpot.

1. No worries about fragrance accelerating trace, or heaven forbid, ricing

2. The clean-up is 100 times faster and easier

3. Less morphing of colors and no worries about gelling / not gelling / partial gelling /
overheating during saponification

4. Soaps can sometimes be fully cured in 2-4 weeks vs. 4-6 for cold process

5. Control over what oils are the superfat in my soap

6. No ash on the top of my soap

 Hot process soap

Okay, now onto my tips (they are not in any kind of rank order). By the way, most of what I
am sharing here, I learned from other far more experienced soapers. Please do not interpret
this list as my original ideas at all. I am just trying to put together a concise list for others to
learn from. My HP experience is based on the crock pot method of making HP soap so these
suggestions for the most part apply to that technique. There are other ways to HP via
oven, microwave and even just using your stick blender with hot oils and lye water. I have
not yet tried any of those methods so I cant speak to them.

1. Dont stir.
I used to stir and I really understand how after a lifetime of cooking food, the temptation to
stir your soap is strong. The reason I dont advise stirring is that it is not necessary and you
will let a lot of moisture out which will make a fluid batter more difficult to attain. I used to
think that I had to stir for the soap to cook evenly. I dont think that anymore, and I wait to
stir until my soap is nearly done. Photos here if you want to learn more about my method
and when I stir.
I also like to cook on low. The few times I tried to rush the process and cooked on high,
things did not go well. The soap cooked too fast, volcano-ed out of the crock and made a
huge mess. I am very careful to not let my soap get over 200F and that is much more
challenging when cooking on high.

2. Make a leak-proof seal on your crock pot.

Best way to do this is to use plastic wrap. I learned this from Sharon Johnson via her method
that she calls Ditch the Lid. One advantage of this method is that you can see the soap as it
cooks without having to lift the lid. Prior to learning Sharons way, many people suggested
putting a wet towel under the lid which helps preserve moisture, however, you still need to
lift the lid to see how the cook is progressing. Because not all soaps will cook at the same
rate, being able to watch the cook is a great way to ensure that you dont overcook the
soap. You can also measure the temp using an infrared thermometer through the plastic
wrap. Another of the many great tips I learned from Sharon.

Checking the temp of the soap during the cook

Some people may make a case for adding more water to the batter to compensate for
evaporation that occurs when you lift the lid and stir. That is definitely an option, but it
would be so much harder to figure out. I have no idea how much water escapes via steam
when I open the lid.

3. Dont use liquids with sugar for your lye water unless you are OK with the
soap turning brown.
This includes goat milk (or other milks), honey, wine and beer. I make a rustic goat milk and
oatmeal soap via HP and cook the soap using only goat milk as my liquid and this is the
color (see photo below no colorant was added to this soap). It suits this soap but if
I wanted a white soap, it would be difficult using this method because the heat caramelizes
the sugar in the milk.

Goat Milk & Oatmeal Soap made via HP

With HP you can hold back some of the liquid and add it after the cook. This means that you
dont use all of the liquid in the recipe to cook the soap, and add the remaining liquid when it
is done cooking. Example recipe calls for 12 oz water. You could cook the soap with 8 oz
water and add the remaining 4 oz after the cook. I have never tested the limits, but I
believe that you should never use less liquid than lye when experimenting with this
technique (i.e. if you are using 4 oz of lye, dont use less than 4 oz of liquid to make your lye
water).

I made a soap where I added goat milk after the cook (photo below). I colored the lighter
part of this soap with TD (titanium dioxide) but it still is not white. I think I added the goat
milk when the soap was too hot and it still turned the soap a tan color. Something to think
about when adding goat milk to soap. I will be more careful about the temp next time I do
this. Also make sure you warm your milk. Cold milk could make your soap harden up and
become impossible to pour.

Soap with goat milk after the cook. TD could not lighten it up to white.

4. Run EVERY recipe you create or find online through soap calc (or another
reliable lye calculator).
Never assume that any soap recipe you find on the Internet is correct. Always run it through
a lye calculator. This applies to all soap making, not just HP. This tool will help you learn
how each oil in contributes to the qualities in a soap (hardness, lather, cleansing,
moisturizing). This tool is your friend. Do not be intimidated by it because it is a gateway to
designing your own soap recipes.

5. Find hard oils that work for you

If you want a hard bar of soap that can be unmolded fairly quickly, hard oils are the way to
go. There are a few and they all bring different things to the party. I like coconut oil, palm
oil, tallow (when I can get it), lard and palm kernel oil. Each of these have drawbacks for
some people so you need to decide for yourself what kind of soap you want to make, and if
you are selling, what is important to your market. I aim for at least 60% hard oils in my
soaps. My favorite recipe has 65% hard oils.

What are the drawbacks to hard oils? Well, some people dont want animal fat in their soap
even though it makes a hard bar, is fairly inexpensive and in some cases, uses oil that would
be discarded by meat processors. Palm oil harvesting has caused widespread damage
to the Indonesian rainforest and has had horrific consequences on the orangutan population,
however, there are sustainable palm options. Palm kernel comes from the fruit so it is more
likely to be sustainable but I have no idea if similar damage has still occurred from this hard
oil. Coconut oil is a great oil for hardness and cleansing power, but it is expensive. I have
learned that a lot of palm kernel and coconut in the same recipe may lead to a drying soap
(note the cleansing score). You will learn this type of thing for yourself once you become
friends with soap calc.

Can you make a great soap with primarily softer oils? Yes, definitely. But it will likely take
longer to harden.

6. Get all of your additives together and ready to go before the cook is done

You dont want to risk your soap getting too cold because you are mixing up micas, weightng
out your fragrance or searching your fridge for yogurt. I am also much more likely to forget
to add fragrance if it is not sitting right there with all of my other additives. This will save
time and make the molding process more efficient.

I get the following ready: colorants (I use both natural colorants such as clay and herbs as
well as micas), yogurt / coconut milk / sodium lactate (I mix these together in a slurry to
avoid clumps), fragrance and the warmed oils for my superfat

7. Add additives at the end of the cook to harden your soap, anchor your scent
and increase fluidity
Harden Soap:

Sodium lactate is an easy way to make a harder bar of soap. I add 1 teaspoon per pound of
oil. Some people add SL to their lye water. I usually forget to do this so I add it with my
yogurt slurry.

Anchor Scent:

I also use 1/2T ppo of kaolin clay to help anchor my scent. This means that is helps prevent
the scent from fading. This can be especially important with some essential oils, like citrus
eos, that fade quickly in soap.

Fluidity:

Add yogurt. This is another tip learned from Sharon Johnson. This makes the batter
considerably more creamy and fluid for pouring. Check out my post on my soaping process
for photos on the effect of adding yogurt. I add 1T per pound of oil of full fat greek yogurt. I
also add 1T of coconut milk per pound of oil too but this is not needed for the creamy batter
(aka a nice to have, not a need to have). I also whisk my additives to a very smooth
consistency because here is what happened the one time I did not. I think this happened
because the yogurt I like to use is quite thick.

note the brown specks

I add the yogurt blend to the soap, put the lid back on and wait 3-5 minutes. After that time
(which I call the second mini cook), the batter is smooth and fluid. I probably should
discounts these additives from my total liquid, but I dont. This is one of the reasons I use
38% liquid instead of the 40% that many other HP-ers use.

8. Warm your mold and mixing bowls

This helps with fluidity because if the batter gets too cold, it will thicken and be harder to
pour. I put my mold and bowls in the oven at 170F.

Note: tell other people in your family when you put soap stuff in the oven. Last week, I put
my mixing bowls and mold in the oven (it was off), left to run an errand and my
husband decided to cook a frozen pizza at 11 am. I will let you figure out the tragic death
happened to the mixing bowls. Amazingly, my silicone mold survived a visit in the 450F
oven.

9. Let the soap cool before adding fragrance

I do not know if the ideal temperature is connected to the flashpoint of the fragrance, but
some of the scents I have used burned off when the batter was very hot. I believe the ideal
temp for adding fragrance batter is somewhere around 150-160F. I think that if your house
reeks of the fragrance after you make the soap, the batter was too hot. This happened the
first time I made patchouli soap via HP and my husband made me promise to never make
patchouli soap again.

If you would like to add honey, or even goat milk, let the soap cool or the sugars in those
additives will caramelize and the soap will turn brown. Premix honey with hot water to
facilitate an even dispersal in your soap. Liz Ardlady advises to not add honey until the temp
is <180F.

Even though the soap is cooling, and when it cools, it hardens, you have time to allow the
batter to cool. I used to worry that if I did not get the soap into the mold ASAP I could not be
able to pour it or do swirls. You have time to let it cool slightly and still swirl. Dont leave
the soap to do something else though. I mix each soap to cool it down until I get to the
desired temp.

10. Premix titanium dioxide to avoid white spots

If you only have time to premix one colorant, this is the one. TD has a hard time dissolving
evenly in oil (some people use water which I have not tried but you need to be sure your TD
is water soluble). If you premix in a bottle that you can shake, you are much more likely to
avoid those dreaded white spots. Some people put marbles in the bottle. I did not have any
marbles, but I had those glass bead things that you put in the bottom of a flower vase to
help the stems stand up, so I used a few of those. This is another suggestion that applies to
all soap making and not just HP. Feel free to premix micas too this will save time and
ensure that there are no lumps or clumps.

11. Dont expect the tops to be like CP

The texture is different and that is ok. Embrace HP for its rustic awesomeness. But the cake
frosting like swirls that are on the top of CP I have yet to figure out how to get there using
HP. I learned from Jami Summer to spray the tops with rubbing alcohol and it allows for
more fluid swirling with a chopstick or wooden skewer.

12. Put the soap in the freezer before unmolding

Some soapers put their soap in the freezer right after it goes in the mold. I cant do this
because I use silicone molds that dont have a wood frame. In the past, when I put hot soap
in the freezer, it expanded on the bottom making it curved. With my molds, it is best for me
to let the soap cool and harden to room temp, and once it is a solid, put it in the freezer for
an hour or two before unmolding. For me, this leads to sharp corners on my soap. I get very
sad when the sharp corners from my soap stay in the mold after the rest of the soap has left
the mold.
 silicone mold

Please let me know if you have any tips that I can add to this list! I am trying to give back to
the incredibly generous soaping community that taught me most of what I know about HP.

Happy soaping!

xoxo

Molly