I’ve been asked by a few people lately how I make
my hot process soap, so I thought it might be easiest to make a video demonstrating
the process. But before I get to that, I just wanted to share a couple of notes
about hot process soap, based on my experiences:
1. While you can technically use hot process soap right away, I always let mine sit for at least a week or two, preferably even
longer, until the majority of the moisture has evaporated. The longer they sit and harden, they longer they will last.
2. You can get away with using less fragrance oil with
hot process soap, I tend to use it at a rate of 0.5 to 0.75 oz per pound of
oil, depending on the strength of the fragrance.
3. You can use any cold process recipe to make hot
process soap. I always use the full water amount suggested, but I hold back 1
ounce of liquid per pound of oils to add after the cook.
4. I always superfat my hot process soaps with 1 tbsp of
oil or butter per pound of oils. I have also added a bit of honey after the cook.
5. I always add sodium lactate to my hot process soap, at
a rate of 3% of my oils weight, to help keep the soap more fluid for pouring. http://oilandbutter.blogspot.ca/2012/07/using-sodium-lactate-in-hot-process.html
6. If you use milk as part or all of your lye solution,
it will darken as you cook it.
7. For the hot process soap in the video, I used the SeaClay Avocado Facial Bar recipe from Brambleberry, which was courtesy of Amanda
from Lovin’ Soap…I didn’t have any avocado oil, so I subbed rice bran oil (note that because
I subbed the oil, I made sure to run the recipe through a lye calculator again).
Here is the video showing how I make hot process soap...I hope
you enjoy it! :)
