CROCK POT SOAP...

Well, I got brave this morning and ventured into a whole new territory... hot process soap making... but instead of an oven, I used a crock pot. I found a few sites that had tutorials that were really helpful, such as The California Soap Company's Debora Yavas with her extremely detailed photo depiction of her crock pot soap making and also gracefruits blog, and momma muse's instruction page.

My soap was a 2 lb.
experimental batch, made with my soapquick mix (from Mission Peak Soap Co. in Fremont), containing coconut oil, canola oil, olive oil, palm oil and castor oil (superfatted 5%). I scented it at trace with 2 oz. of Hydrangea fragrance oil, and colored a 1 cup portion of traced soap with green oxide and the remainder of the pot with purple oxide.
It was my first time using the oxides, too. I purchased them from Wholesale Supplies Plus, which offered the best prices for oxides and ultramarine's that I could find anywhere. I obviously need way more experience using colors!!

Anyhow, I basically made my lye water solution and set it aside to cool. While that took place, I put my 32 ounces of oils into my crock pot set on warm. About 40 minutes later when the lye pitcher was cool to the touch, I took the crock out of the cradle and poured my lye water into the oils and began mixing with the stick blender. It began thickening and reached trace quickly, about 2 or 3 minutes of mixing, and poof! it was ready. I took out 1 cup worth of batter, and added to that the green color, stirring well. Setting that aside, I added my fragrance oil and purple color to the rest of the batter in the crock, and stirred well... and it was getting stiff! I then dumped the green mixture on top, gave a quick stir, but not much, and placed the crock back on the cradle. I covered it and turned up the dial to 'low' setting. It took about 30+ minutes to gel. It was like a chunky petroleum mass... kinda difficult to describe. But if you are used to doing CP, don't expect the same texture, as it's not a 'pourable' batter. I glopped it into my prepared mold and pushed it in good, slamming it on the floor to settle it in the mold and release any trapped air bubbles. I placed a piece of plastic wrap on top, smoothing the mixture as best as I could, folded a dish towel on top, and placed into my cold oven to keep it warm. I checked it periodically and it got very hot, continued gelling and then became opaque as it cooled down. The whole thing took about 6 hours from start to finish, which was when I unmolded it and cut into bars. Amazing! Smells wonderful, looks so-so, but works great!

I will definitely be making more crock pot soap again!