Sunday, February 17, 2013

Whipped Soap

WHIPPED SOAP
For semi-experienced soap makers. One should have a few basic soap batches under their belt before trying this method.
http://nizzymoulds.com/Whipped/index.htm
"The caustic soda/water mix used in this whipped method should be used cold or even chilled to obtain the best results.
 Safety Tip:  Whipped soap is just Cold Process soap put together a little differently and at room temperature therefore the same respect must be given to it as you give your cold process soap. Whipped soap takes a few days or even a week to get really hard and it is still saponifying during this period. Don't wash with it until it is matured. I would say 3 to 4 weeks but its even better when left longer.
 I suggest you go and view the photos in the gallery first, I have tried to set them up in some sort of order from the mixing of the fats and oils through to showing how I achieved my final results. All the information is contained in the text below, there are no hidden secrets,  my aim is to share my methods among other soapers and to inspire you to become even more creative.
 Gelling - Saponification - Covering Whipped Soap
As there are so many different ways people can ‘soap’ (some cover and insulate, some don’t need to, some use the sun, others use towels) I’ve posted my whipped soap tutorials to show people a different method of making soap before it goes into your moulds - so if you normally have to insulate your batches for 24 hours then that’s what you should do.
 In the early days I did cover my whipped soap or placed the box in a cold oven just to keep the atmosphere off it.  In the latter years I stopped covering it altogether and found out it didn’t suffer with any ‘Ash’. So I no longer cover it, not that I make a lot of it these days.
 Covering CP (Cold Process) soap helps with keeping the warmth inside and promotes the gel process. I can’t say that I have ever seen whipped soap which appears like it is gelling as compared with CP, the dark transparent look CP has about it when its gelling. But whipped soap can warm up and I guess it does go through a gelling period, but not as CP soap does.
 I prefer my own whipped soap not to warm up. I like it to stay at room temps and slowly saponify. The caustic soda will do it's job even at room temperatures.
 So I guess you can make up your own mind if you want to cover the whipped soap or not. Maybe cover it but only to keep insects off not to insulate it to promote the gelling phase.
Best results are achieved if you can pipe the soaps with a piping bag. This results in less touching of the soap and you only have one side to peel away from the liner. Try adding two or three colours to the piping bag to get nice blended colours. Try placing the colours down the sides of the piping bag and not mixing them too much.
Next best would be using a log mould but be aware that you will need a wire cutter to slice them into bars. A knife will only split the soap.

Silicon muffin moulds or silicone log moulds work beautifully, they just pop right out no matter how long you leave them to set. Again if you use the silicone log mould you will need to slice them with a wire. Read the new edit notes at the bottom of this page. There are some new techniques for successfully cutting and unmoulding whipped soap.
With this tutorial you will begin to think ‘outside of the square’ to achieve some really attractive effects. I can show you what I have achieved so far but I’m sure you will think of other ways to utilise this method to create other artistic pieces. I love to inspire and see other soapers work, you can email me any photos of your creations if you wish.
 No heating of oils or fiddling with thermometers.
No worrying about mixing or guessing ‘trace’
You can use it with either animal fats or vegetable oils or both.
Fragrances hold up extraordinarily well.
Colours are pastel, owing to the stark white soap base.
Adding extra water will make the bar even lighter.
It floats, no more lost soap in the bath.
These 4 recipes below are in metric grams.
Recipe 1
Palm Oil         400g
Coconut Oil    200g
Olive Oil          50g
Caustic Soda    95g
Water             244g
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Recipe 2
Palm Oil         350g
Coconut Oil    200g
Lard               200g
Caustic Soda   104g
Water             260g
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Recipe 3
Palm Oil           500g
Coconut           100
Tallow             100g
Soy Bean Oil     50g
Caustic Soda    105g
Water             281g
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 Recipe 4
Tallow           500g
Coconut         200
Olive              50g
Caustic Soda  108g
Water             281g
 The set rule if your designing your own recipe is that the major part of the oils must be a 'hard' or 'solid' oils these are the oils which  set firm at room temperatures.  These can be Tallow, Lard etc or any of the hydrogenised vegetable oils. You need this firmness to allow the oil or fat to be whipped or creamed into a light fluffy texture. I have found the best one to use is Palm Oil but I have successfully used Tallow and a blend of half Coconut Oil and half Lard.  Adding the soft oils after the harder oils have been whipped light and fluffy. Just make sure you put your new recipe through a soap calculator to check that the caustic soda is balanced correctly."

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