I haven’t tried this but I believe that forcing water out of soaps can cause softer, misshapen and unattractive soap. My understanding is during the beginning of the “cure” phase your soap is still going through post saponification reactions - some say this is an alignment of crystalline structure in the soap leading to a harder bar so I don’t think this is a process you can force or rush. I personally have used soaps after two weeks - but you can achieve quicker cures by using less water but this will create a faster trace and prevent you being able to do certain techniques that need a fluid batter.

@@erykaolsen7614 soap gelling happens as the soap heats up. A partial gel means the soap didn’t quite stay hot enough for long enough. You need to insulate the soap to help gel. There are a few things you can do from least to most aggressive : 1. You can pop a piece of cardboard over the soap - or pop it in a cardboard box and close the box up. 2. Same as above and wrap in a towel. 3. Pop on a heating mat and cover with a box 4. Same as above and lay a towel over the box 5. Cold Process Oven Process (CPOP) - whilst making your soap set your oven on the lowest temp available - once at temp - turn the oven off and pop your soap mould in the oven - close the door and leave over night this should force the soap to gel. The method depends on your gelled portion. The bigger the ring in the centre. The more gently you need to insulate - too much and you can cause your soap to over heat and crack.

@@QueerBullSoap thank you for the clear concise instructions on this. OK I guess I was afraid to try to force the gel phase because while I’m new to soap making, the first time I did this, I got ash and cracks ! How long would you wrap it for or cover it? I haven’t been able to find the exact answer, but why would you want to force gel ? What are the benefits of it? Does it help with the salt being harder? Softer? Or is this just for colored soaps? I’ve been told that for colored Soaps .? Is the extreme softness probably because the gel wasn’t finished ? One last question, I have a buttermilk question. I can’t find this question anywhere, but I recently made a batch that had I believe both buttermilk and castor oil and it was too conditioning. It was too soft. I just replace the buttermilk for a castor oil? Also, what properties does buttermilk give soap? I know it’s conditioning, but you know how each oil has its own property for like a hardness, a lather or clean or sometimes both .

@@erykaolsen7614 so I tend to wrap until it’s saponified so 24-48 hrs Soft soap has many causes - but gelling a soap fully should give you a harder bar. As a rule of thumb the more liquid oils used the softer the soap. As for castor oil you want o use not more than 5% - castor soap is there to support the bubble/lather the other oils provide. Coconut oil give hardness and bubble as does palm oil. Butter milk either sits as part of either water content or additive. When you use soap calc the water content is set to 38% of oil weight which is for hot process - this should be lowered to 28-32% - I’d I was adding butter milk or milk or another liquid I’d make my lye with 1:1 ratio distilled water to NaOH (this is the minimum you should ever make lye up) - then I would make up the water weight with milk/other liquid added to the oils. Too much water can make a soft soap too. Milks have sugars that help bubble and they have great label appeal - the jury’s out really to whether they add or not to the soap - if you find the soap better with the additive go for it.

@@erykaolsen7614 also salt hardens and quickens trace. If you want to aid a soap to make it easier to unmould try Sodium Lactate added to your lye solution once cooled. It shouldn’t affect trace but should help harden the soap to unmould.

@@QueerBullSoap ahhh thank you ! I always come across your short videos and love them super informative content sbd great personality . Thank you for being so supportive because there’s lots of sores out there who aren’t. Ok, so I’m so glad you said that about the soap calculator because I didn’t even know that that 38% was set for hot process. It does not explain that. And I was using the soap calc I had no idea !!! So I’ve been adding the buttermilk with the lye solution, Replacing it as the water but I think I will do 50% water and 50% buttermilk. Next time you get that I try and see how that reacts. Ok, so I don’t know what a 1:1 ratio would look like, could you give me an example? Are you explaining a water discount or something different because he said to make up the water weight with another liquid? So for example, making up the other liquid or milk to the oils, would you do that for example, adding a bit of purée fruit to the light trace or milk ?

@@michellecorey347 you can substitute clays. Bentonite will have slightly different benefits but if they work for you go for it.

​@QueerBullSoap thanks for the advice, cheers!

Any lightweight oil or even a little oil from your batch will do

Most can be found cheaply on Amazon or eBay - for example amzn.eu/d/jeerItL There are more bespoke options available but I haven’t bought a cutter in a few years so I wouldn’t know where to point you for those

@@shirleyedwards1490 because it’s a hot process recipe the finished soap is essentially usable out of the pot but I always cure for about 4 weeks as I think this helps with the final lather and longevity of the product

@@QueerBullSoap Thanks so much for your quick response. I can't wait to try this recipe

The trouble they have is soap recipes vary so wildly that they may test it in their recipe and have mild to no acceleration and yet another person may have moderate to heavy acceleration. I usually test an oil in a small batch first regardless of what kill info a supplier may have on my recipe. Perhaps you should offer fragrance suppliers my services to test oils and give soaping notes?

Thank you so much. I just try to give unbiased information and hopefully inspire others al a little. Lisa is wonderful over at “I dream in soap”

I will always maintain you need to do what works for you and, what makes you feel safest when soaping. I’d never say you had to use one thing versus another. I’d also not outrightly shame someone for their choice - but offer suitable alternatives and suggestions I have tested and tried myself - or an honest opinion on things I haven’t tried (and then test them out so I can be sure for myself if my opinion on that idea was correct or not)

5g is equivalent to a teaspoon and 15g equivalent to a tablespoon. The thing with clay and charcoal - they are very easy to add or subtract from a recipe (just be aware clay can accelerate trace) So you can add a teaspoon of each and see how that feels or add a tablespoon of each and adjust as necessary

Not at all. Zap test is a sensation not a taste. Although i would always suggest you get some ph test strips and ensure you’re is between 8-9 as this is a more accurate indication if your soap is lye heavy.

@@QueerBullSoap thank you! Thankfully I have never been zapped…but soda ash does taste yucky lol

Doesn’t all soap taste yucky?

Larry as in happy as Larry is just a very British turn of phrase.

@@QueerBullSoap TY. I've learned something new. I'll have to use that and see how my American friends respond. :)

Salt is salt - so as far as adding salt to a bar - fine salt will almost dissolve where coarse salt will show as crystals in the final soap. Keep specialty salts for decoration and for label appeal.

Salt will basically harden the bar quickly regardless of the type.

Each 1 gram of citric acid consumes 0.624g of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) So for every gram of citric acid yuu need to add 0.624g of lye. Weight of citric acid in grams x 0.624 = the amount of additional sodium hydroxide required.