Recipe for room temperature CP

by Jane
(London, England)

I would like to try room temperature CP.

I currently soap at 120f to avoid stearic spots as when I have soaped below 120f I get stearic spots.

I would like to soap much cooler (room temperature) but at the same time avoid stearic spots. I realise that a good recipe is key for this to work.

I usually superfat 8% and use 38% water.

I have the following ingredients:-

olive oil
coconut oil
palm oil
rice bran oil
lard
castor oil

Please could you help me with a recipe from the above ingredients which I can soap at room temperature and not get stearic spots and still have time to do swirls/marbling.

Also, perhaps I'm asking too much, that the hardness on soapcalc.net be 38 or above?

Thanks so much

Jane

Answer:

If you are getting stearic spots in your soap bars I don't think it would be from the recipe, method or temperature you are using to make the soap. More likely it would be that the palm oil you are using hasn't been homogenized.

You can tell if it hasn't been homogenized by the look of the oil. It will be both liquidy in spots and harder in others. It will also have little round pearl like white spots in it. These lumps need to be incorporated back into the oil or they will still be present in the final soap. This may be why you have been having to heat the oil so hot when making the soap.

Melt the oil down completely and stir it gently. As it cools and becomes creamy those lumps of stearic/palmitic oil will disappear into the oil. You must periodically stir the oil as it cools in order to ensure that the lumps do not seperate out again. The cooled oil should be smooth and creamy without any lumps.

Good luck,
Cathy