| Most people involved in hobby soap making - and | | | | there are several other benefits with this process. |
| until recently I included myself in this group, think | | | | Many cold process soap makers have |
| that hot process soap making is a) the old | | | | experienced the frustration of having their |
| fashioned way to make soap, b) too time | | | | expensive scent completely disappear after the |
| intensive, or c) "there is obviously a reason why | | | | curing period, this is because both essential and |
| not many people do it that way any more." | | | | fragrance oils are, well, oils, which means that |
| Then due to time pressures I decided: "what the | | | | they can become part of the saponification |
| heck, I'm gonna make a batch anyway" | | | | process and when this happens the finished soap |
| You see with cold process soap making you have | | | | smells of nothing much really. |
| to make the soap, which takes an hour or two, | | | | Similarly, some dyes are affected by |
| then the following day you turn the soap out of | | | | saponification, I have heard tales of a lovely batch |
| the mold and - if you made a block, you cut it | | | | of pale blue soap becoming a dreary shade of |
| into bars. Then you have to find a cool dark place | | | | gray by the time it has fully cured. |
| to store the twenty or so bars of soap for | | | | Hot process soap making nicely side-steps both of |
| anything from two to six weeks until it has | | | | these issues, because the saponification process |
| "cured". Only then is saponification complete, | | | | has been completed by the time the dye and |
| resulting in usable soap. | | | | scent is added, so nothing is lost. |
| By contrast, with the hot process, curing is | | | | So I have made my first batch, it looks and |
| carried out by cooking the soap mixture, this is | | | | smells great and was ready the day after I made |
| great, it's almost like having a time machine. | | | | it, the time it took to make was only a little |
| Twenty to thirty minutes of extra time spent | | | | longer than I would normally spend making a cold |
| cooking the mixture and you have completely | | | | process batch, without any of the storage and |
| cured soap, once it has been placed into the mold | | | | curing afterwards. |
| and has cooled off, it is completely ready to use. | | | | I've come to the conclusion that I can stand that |
| Quite aside from the vast improvement in time, | | | | sort of old fashioned! |