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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

What did I do wrong? Hot Process Edition

I wanted to try a crock pot Hot Process soap, since I received this lovely beauty from my friend Andrea:


 It's a well-loved crock pot, and it came at a great price - free! 

Hobbes always needs to be involved in my photos.  He's a very curious dog...

Last Wednesday, I did some research online, read the chapter on Hot Process a number of times in my The Everything Soapmaking Book, and decided to have a go.  I tried the recipe on page 149 fr dry skin, since I had all of the ingredients for the soap itself.  I colored it with ultramarine blue and ultramarine purple and scented it with Lavendar and Bergamot EO.

I probably should have tried this when I was less pressed for time - I had to run to a volleyball game and had just enough time for the soap to cook and to get it in a mold.  Since I was running late, I didn't think to take photos of the soap while cooking, but I did stir it a few times as it cooked.

Here's what it looked like when I glopped it in the molds:




Love how it smells, but the color is a little too blue.  I also think it looks a little grainy.  It tested as neutral, I got it pressed down and went to my game (which we ended up losing.  Tough night!).

Today, nearly a week later, the soap is still really soft and I can sculpt it and mold it around.  It won't come out of the molds, so I took a knife to try to loosen the edges.  I can scoop the soap out in scoops:



It still smells great, and I still think it's too blue, but I have no idea what happened...  Did I not wait long enough to unmold?  Does it need to set for longer than a week?  I measured everything in ounces as per the recipe, so I'm sure it wasn't as precise as if the recipe was in grams.

I've never made hot process before, so any thoughts would be appreciated! 

~Chrissy

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