Spicy Carnation Hot Process Soap

Posted by Rebecca at 4/21/2008 7:16 AM and is filed under Soap Stuff,Instructions
Author unknown.

Ingredients:
11 ounces olive oil
11 ounces sunflower oil
8 ounces coconut oil
4 ounces mango butter
4 ounces palm kernel oil
10 ounces Crisco or soybean oil
1 ounces stearic acid
6.6 ounces sodium hydroxide
14.5 ounces distilled water
1.7 ounces Spicy Carnation fragrance oil or scent of your choice
1 teaspoon pink mica
1 gallon white vinegar (for clean up)

Instructions:
1. This hot process recipe calls for using a crockpot with a removable ceramic insert and a lid. Clean the kitchen countertops and bring out your materials. Turn the crockpot on "high" and measure the olive oil and 10 ounces of sunflower oil into a large Pyrex glass container. (Set the other ounce of sunflower oil aside for step 4. A digital scale comes in handy here. Add the measured oils to the crockpot. Measure all of your solid oils (coconut oil, mango butter, palm kernel oil, soybean oil, & palm stearic acid) into a second large Pyrex glass bowl. Place the bowl in the microwave for about 3 minutes on "high" to melt the solid oils. Add these melted oils to the crockpot

2. Prepare your lye-water mixture in the sink with the crockpot close by on the counter. After donning goggles and appropriate gloves, measure your cold water. Slowly add the lye to the water while stirring with a long-handled spoon. You want to stir well but not to the point where the mixture splashes about in the bowl. Once the water starts looking clear and the lye is fully dissolved, carefully pour the lye water mixture into the crockpot with the oils. Take care not to splash. Once that is done, put the spoon you stirred the mixture with and the bowl you used into the sink and immediately douse with white vinegar - this will deactivate any remaining lye. If you think you've splashed the mixture anywhere on yourself, your gloves, or your goggles, douse with vinegar.

3. Leaving your gloves on, plug in a stick blender and place it directly into the mixture all the way to the bottom - make sure the bottom of the stick blender is directly on the bottom of the crockpot. (NEVER pull the stick blender out while your finger is still on the "on" switch. Instead, to prevent splashes, turn the blender off let it stop spinning before removing it from the mixture!) Turn on and with fluid motions, stir slowly moving in clockwise and counter-clockwise movements. After about 3 to 5 minutes, your mixture should start thickening up. This is called "trace." This means all the lye is mixing with all of the oil to begin the saponification (soap making) process. A trace is reached when you take the stick blender out and touch it to the top of the mixture and it leaves a very good indentation. Unplug your stick blender and place it directly into the lye-water bowl (which should be full of vinegar).

4. Now it's time to cover and cook the soap. Cooking time differs from batch to batch - 30-50 minutes is a usual time, but I've seen it take longer than that. The soap will often rise up and start looking like ocean waves from the edge of the crockpot inward. It can sometimes rise high enough to hit the top of the lid - I usually grab a thick plastic spoon when this happens, take the lid off, and stir the soap around to pull it back down.

5. While your soap is cooking, wash everything used earlier and prepare the molds. You can use 4-pound wooden molds with lids on top to help "squish" down the hot-processed soap when it has been poured into the molds. Line the molds with freezer paper, shiny side up. Also use this time to combine the remaining ounce of sunflower oil in a zip lock bag with the mica. Place both in the zip lock bag and mix them together using your fingers on the outside of the bag. When that is finished, measure your fragrance oil or essential oil if you are using them.

6. By now, the mixture will start looking almost see-through and yellowish, like a big pot of petroleum jelly. This gives you an indicator that it is pretty close to being done. To test this, perform what is known as the "tongue test." Grab a spoon and pick up a bit of the soap mixture, blowing on it several times to cool it down. Gently rub the tip of your tongue back and forth on the soap and wait to see if it tingles. You are not eating the mixture, and expect to feel some heat because the soap is hot! If there is no tingly feeling, the soap is done. If you feel a tingle against your tongue, replace the lid, cook for another 10 minutes, and try again. The tingle means that there is still some active lye in the soap, and you want to wait until you feel absolutely no tingle before moving on to the next step. When there is no tingle, the soap is done. There is no real substitute for this tongue test, so if you feel uncomfortable doing it, DO NOT DO IT. If you do it, you do it at your own risk.

7. When your soap is done, turn off and unplug the crockpot and remove the lid. Stir the soap around a bit and then add the mixture of mica and sunflower oil, stirring well. If you don't stir until it is completely blended, you will get very neat marblized swirls in your soap. Once the color has been added, wait about 5 minutes or so before adding the fragrance or essential oil. If the scent has a low flash-point (point of evaporation), if you add it while the soap is too hot, you will not be able to smell the scent in the finished soap because the high heat evaporates some scents. After adding the scent, stir the mixture to incorporate it. Using the spoon, spoon the soap into the mold. You can use a long piece of Saran wrap and place on the top of the soap, evening it out a bit with your hand, before putting the lid on and squishing the soap down with the lid. Using potholders, pick up the ceramic insert from the crock pot and place into the sink, filling it full of hot water. You don't need to add detergent - it's just soap in there! Allow to soak before rinsing. Wait approximately 5-7 hours before removing your soap from the mold. Cut into bars. This is a hot-processed soap, making use of heat to accelerate saponification, so the soap is ready to use immediately after it cools. If you'd like, you can leave it out on wire racks for a week or so to harden. You can use Spicy Carnation fragrance oil for this recipe, You could also use whatever fragrance oil or essential oil you'd like.

For more on making hot process soap refer to this pictorial. Check out Camden-Grey for great prices on soapmaking supplies. You may also want to swing by Tennesse Candle Supply for a wide variety of skin safe fragrance oils.

Source: http://soapdelinews.com/2008/04/21/spicy-carnation-hot-process-soap.aspx