Sunday, January 20, 2008
Calling all Cold Process Soapmakers
I am new to cold process process soapmaking. And I wanted to ask some of the experienced CP Soapmakers out there this question - Cooling down the lye mixture can often take a long time. So, I was wondering is there anyway to excelerate this process? I have heard that some will add ice to the lye and water or adding the lye/water mixture container into a ice water bath. Please your experiences in the comment section. I would be interested in hearing from you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
If I'm soaping in the winter, I will literally stick it on my back deck.
Otherwise what I normally do, is plan it out the night before, mix my lye, melt my oils and let them all cool over night. I soap at room temps to ensure no flashing of some of the EO's I use.
You have to watch it when cooling down too quickly as the lye will reform crystals, which you don't want.
I'm technically a newbie so from my short experience this is what I do:
I usually freeze my water, juice, and/or milk (whatever I am using at the time) in my stainless steel pot and when it is frozen, I then sprinkle my lye on it. You will find that there is less lye fumes and the temps do not go as high as they would if you just used cold water, juice and/or milk.
I do use the ice bath, but after I made sure that the lye is dissolved.
Hope this helps.
Steph
Post a Comment