So, I looked back at my soap making notes and I was wondering just how much soap I have made since starting in November.  Here's the break down:
47 pounds of soap 
29 different batches
21 different fragrances

I didn't include some M&P soap that I have done here and there.  I have made nearly 50 pounds of soap.  That's a lot of soap.  Although it depends on the mold and how the soap brick is cut usually 4 bars come out of a pound.  That's about 200 bars of soap!  Wow.

On friday I made soap.  Surprise, surprise, surprise.  I tried hot process in my slow cooker.  It was interesting.  I'd do it again.  Although I can do only one batch at a time.  The swirling is not as delicate and the soap sides and top came out more rustic.  The sliced edges are clean and I trimmed some of the other edges to smooth out.  I think the slow cooker gets a little too hot because the soap on the sides started to burn.  So I had to pick out the brown bits when they got scraped off the sides.  Although it could be because I made a small batch of 1lb of oils.  Maybe it's better with larger batches.  I fragranced this one with Lavender FO and Rosemary EO and colored with violet but it came out really pale purple, next time I'll add more colorant.

I think I'll make some more soap tomorrow too. 

I think I want to try Hot Process soap and whipped soap.  These are different than the
Cold Process soaping that I do now. I do Cold Process Oven Process (CPOP).  For Cold Process I mix my warm oils/butters with warm, not hot, lye water to make soap.  I stick blend until I have trace, which is a runny pudding like texture (when you move the stick blender around you see a “trace” or trail of its movement).  The mixture produces it’s own heat during saponification; no additional heat is added to the process.  I used to insulate with towels, but I found it much easier to Oven Process it which means I warm my oven to 170 then when I put my soap in I turn off the oven.  The oven becomes the insulator rather than layers of towels.  Sometimes, if I’m making a bunch of batches like I did over the weekend I’ll leave the oven on until the last batch goes in, then turn it off.  I wait 24 hours or so until the saponification process is complete when I can unmold and cut.  The warm soap goes through a gel phase where it looks translucent, sort of like vaseline.  I know some people purposefully don’t have their soap go through the gel phase by not insulating and even putting their soap into the freezer.  I haven’t tried that yet, but I hear it’s a good way to make milk soaps because the mixture doesn’t get too hot so scorch the milk sugars and make the soap go orange.  CPOP is great for me because I have a double oven so it doesn’t interfere with regular cooking and it’s a great place to store saponifying soap away from the cats.  I don’t want the cats messing up the soap or the hot lye soaping messing up the cats.  The mixture is still really caustic as the lye is saponifying with the oils.  Any time after the soap is unmolded the soap needs to cure or dry.  This time allows for the extra water to evaporate and create a harder longer lasting bar.  You could use the soap right away since the saponification process is already complete and there shouldn’t be any lye left over, but you’d have a softer bar that will not last very long in the shower it will melt quicker maybe become gooey.  Over time the soap will become milder as well because it’s a harder bar you use less of it in the shower so therefore milder.

Hot Process is done in the oven or slow cooker or double
boiler.  I have an extra slow cooker donated by my parents who planned on never using it again.  So in Hot Process I would mix my oils/butters with the lye water which I don’t have to wait until it cools from
hot to warm.  I mix them together until I reach trace then I let the mixture cook in the slow cooker on low for about one hour.  The soap goes through the saponification with the assistance of the added heat.  I can watch it go through the gel phase.  By about an hour it’s like thick applesauce or whipped potatoes or and translucent like Vaseline; it’s gelled.   At that point the saponification is complete.  All the lye has been used up with the oils to make soap.   I would glop the mixture into a mold, then let it cool.  It can be unmolded as soon as it’s cooled down.  No need to wait 24 hours.  Soap is made even
before it hits the mold.  It produces a more rustic looking bar.  Swirling of colors and what not can be more chunky since it’s such a thick mixture. Still needs the cure/dry time but maybe a little less than with
CPOP because it’s already evaporated some during the cooking process.

Whipped soap is another method.  I would take softened solid oils and butters like coconut oil, palm oil, shea butter (solid at room temp) then whip them with a hand mixer, like whipping cream.  Once they are
whipped then add the liquid oils like olive oil, castor oil, avocado oil and whip again.  Then take the cooled lye water and add slowly to the whipped oils.  It should look like whipping cream or frosting.  This whipped product can be glopped into a mold or used with a piping bag to create soaps that look like
desserts.  I’ve seen people make soaps using the silicone cupcake molds then top it with whipped soap ‘frosting’.  It will complete the saponification similar to the CP method.  This whipped soap will float because it has so much air in it.

Interesting huh?
I find it all fascinating.    Yeah, I want to try these two methods of soapmaking.  I got my mom’s old
slow cooker and I just purchased an inexpensive hand mixer from Target…  I just need the time… weekend… friday…

Oh yeah, there’s also making liquid soap which is a Hot Process using Potassium Hydroxide lye rather than Sodium Hydroxide lye.

Oh, I forgot to mention…
Bramble Berry has lye that comes in flake form as opposed to granular.  Seems to be better for preventing flyaway and static cling.

I get my soaping supplies mostly online.  There isn't any place local that sells oils and butters and fragrances.  Here are the suppliers that I have purchased from online.

Wholesale Supplies Plus in Ohio
sells nice silicone molds and fragrances for free shipping!
http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/

OK, so here's how sundays soaps turned out. 

Peppermint: slid out of the Pringles mold OK with a little coaxing.  It had volcanoed a bit in the mold so was a little misshapen, but a round hockey puck shape.  The brick red oxide is so close in color to the burgandy oxide of the Sandalwood soap.  Reds are notoriously hard to get with natural colorants oxides.  If you use lab created colors like Food Drug and Cosmetic (FD&C) colorants you can get a truer red. 

Fennel: a semi nice ITP swirl, but the white could have been more intense to contrast more against the black, it did slide out of the mold a little better with the mineral oil coating that I did in the mold.  Still kind of a pain though.

Dream type: I pretty much had to tear apart the Nutter Butter cookie tray to get the soap out, not that it was difficult to unmold but because the plastic tray was so flimsy.  I don't think CP soaping is good for this type of mold.  The ridges were too detailed and my soap didn't really retain the nice ridge shapes.  Or maybe the soap was still too soft.  Also the soaps came out a little too thin in the mold.  I like my bars at least 1 inch thick and these were too thin, but OK for tester batches

Sweet Pea: the soap was a dream to unmold.  They popped out so easily and they are so cute!  Silicone molds are great.  The ultramarine pink oxide was too weak, I didn't really get a good pink color sort of a light beige with a hint of pink.

Interesting to note.  I am not a great fan of the sandalwood fragrance, but if I sniff it with the grapefruit soap its wonderful.  So next time I'll need to cut the sandalwood with a citrus or something.  I think the sandalwood alone is a bit too woodsy for me. 

As far as the qualities of the soap themselves will have to wait 4 weeks of drying/curing time until they are ready to be used.