Valerie, Greetings from New Mexico. I just received my soap. It smells heavenly. My daughter found the Honey honey soap and took it str8 to her bathroom. Shes 8 years old and told me to tell you she loves it. She says you are the nicest person!.haha
Hi Valerie! You know I love your skills! I used to use cardboard, but have found that it’s super easy if you buy the plastic cutting boards from the dollar store and cut them to size. They usually come in a 3pack. They’re more stable and wash right up for next time. Coming with 3 in a pack you can cut a bunch for your different molds. I hope this helps. You’re awesome and I just love watching you.
dear Lora Michael!!! that makes me sooooo happy and excited, i'm so very thankful you shared that with me! oh my, now I can hardly wait to get to the dollar store! You are so very thoughtful and kind to share that with me and truly, I appreciate you so very much! big hugs and thank you again so very kindly! (can you tell how this has made me so excited and the light bulb going off inside my head? :-) )
As usual, these are simply beautiful. You amaze me, and I always do a happy dance when I get notified of a video from you! I may attempt this when I make my Bee themed soap with pollen and honey later. :-) Thank you for your wisdom, and for sharing so freely with us!
Hey dear Valerie and thank you so very much --- okay, so this was the design you used... did you cut your soap horizontally? to get the design effect doing it with HP you have to cut it horizontally and that is a bit tricky depending on the size!
Hi Valerie, my query is not in particular to this video but in general. 1) upto how much superfat you go safely in HTHP? do u calculate initial 5% and then add superfat before gel phase? Upto what percentage 2) how much liq you add to make it fluid ? I took 1:1.5 ratio of lye and water initially and added 15% fluids later. Would like to know more about it 3) like in cp, i give colors by adding gromwell, maddar etc in the oils. How can i give lavender color if i don't want to use micas 4) i took 60:40 hard and soft oils for hthp. In cp my fav is 30:70 ( hard: soft). What would you suggest for hthp. M fairly new to this process. 5) my mulberry silk didn't get dissolve in lye water. Was wondering what u do to get it dissolved Thank you sooo much. I want you to know i have learnt so much from you.
Thank you so kindly Spoonbil Ibis -- first there are many differences of opinion on the questions you have asked and these are my humble opinions on the questions, this is how I do them now , but you can take and use what you like --- I will post these answers in 3 different replies as they are quite long.
HTHP -- high temperature hot process, HP, really doesn’t have anything to do with getting a more manageable batter, that , in my humble opinion, is a misnomer. Personal experience has taught me that you can get manageable batter by using low, medium or high temperatures and using any method of HP, i.e. in the oven, on top of the stove, in the microwave, in a crock pot (and using low - med - high temps for all of them) and of course in a bowl only using high temps or any other container that will maintain / keep heat. But I have found that you need to keep the cooked batter (Vaseline stage and no lye left, so PH tested some way) heated , kept warm, hot as it will be better to utilize for designs. If not designing it doesn’t matter. High temperature “only” enables you to cook the soap “faster” and that can be handy if you have a lot to do. HTFHP -- (high temperature fluid hot process) - Another misnomer in my humble opinion, because you can do that and get that at any temperature and method depending on your formula and what you save to add after the cook. And I could add a few more acronyms that are not applicable as well, because HP, hot process soap is “hot”, “cooked” and it can be made manageable in any method and it does not need a stick blender to do it. 1: Super fat (SF) - this is my humble opinion on SF - there are different ways to do this and the only correct way is how “you” like to do it; but the important thing about SF for me personally is that it is calculated on how drying (the cleansing number) and how conditioning your formula is. I base my SF totally on those numbers and what I’m adding. Personally I believe you should always leave a bit of SF upfront, i.e. in Soap Calc leave the SF at 3-5%, but of course you don’t have to leave anything up front and add it all at the end, or half at the end etc. So the amount that you do, whether up front or after the cook is up to you - I normally leave 5% upfront, but I think I will change that in the future to maybe 3% up front? Lol, not sure yet. I like SF at 7-8% in body soaps as long as my drying number is 12 or under and my conditioning is 58 and up. But if it is a facial soap I will SF anywhere from 8-10% and these are just examples as it totally depends on the oils/butters I’m using as some are more harsh then others, or so ive found… if you made 100% coconut oil soap, I would have to SF that at 25-35% and even then it still may be drying on my skin. The only time I make 100% coconut oil soap is for my laundry. Sometimes I will use a higher % of coconut oil (say over 15%) in a brine bar etc, but even then I don’t use a lot of it as I have found I don’t need it. And whenever I get my oils / supplies in I ALWAYS add ROE (Rosemary Oleoresin) to help to keep the shelf life of my oils longer and I’ve never had DOS since I’ve been doing that.
2: Having a Manageable Batter (I truly do not like calling it fluid, but sometimes I get real pourable batter, sometimes a real loose batter, but a lot of times my batters are very manageable) can depend on different variables, i.e. how much liquid you use, how much hard versus soft oils, what “type” of hard / soft oils, how much “total” liquid is used, how much liquid is held back to add after the cook, if you are using Sodium Lactate (SL), If you are adding plain Yogurt, or sugar water etc. I have found using “butters” for SF after the cook have a tendency to thicken the batter, so I rarely SF with butters now, but will use higher end or lovely for the skin soft oils. I ALWAYS add my SF heated up hot to add to the hot batter, and I will add the SF as soon as there is no lye left/Vaseline stage, along with my sugar water (which consists of 1Tbsp sugar and Maple syrup (sometimes) & mixed with 1Tbsp of water/ACV/AVJ for every 1Tbsp of sugar, completely dissolve and add hot along with the SF at the same time but not mixed with the SF) and I do not discount the Tbsp’s of yogurt or the Tbsp’s of water with my sugar. I normally use 38% total lye liquid (Water as % of Oils in Soap Calc), but I’ve done it at 33% and I’m going to start doing it at 35% as I’ve found that has worked lovely as well. The thing is to save some of that total liquid to add hot after the cook, but I do not go above 2 ounces after the cook (that I can remember , and if I have I do not do that anymore)….so your formula will / may play a big part in this and of course how / what method you use to cook. So how much liquid I save will depend on what “size” batch of soap I’m making, but even so, I don’t think I would go above 2 ounces …. Unless, maybe it was a 5lb batch of soap and I may use 3 ounces of liquid after the cook. You can add whatever type of liquid you like. I do like using coconut milk, or jasmine rice milk, ACV, AVJ, a Tea blend (if ive used it in the formula as well). So, ALWAYS use AT LEAST the SAME amount of Liquid as your Lye amount. You cannot use less as the lye will not dissolve. i.e. If you have 18 ounces of Total Liquid in your formula and you have 6 ounces of lye in your formula, you “cannot use less” than 6 ounces of liquid to mix the 6 ounces of lye with and for me I always use more than that. So for example say you have 18 ounces of liquid and 6 ounces of lye you can use all 18 ounces to mix the lye with, OR you could use 10 ounces of liquid to mix the 6 ounces of lye and then you would have 8 ounces left to play with and you could add it in 2 ounces of AVJ into the cook after you add your lye liquid mixture, which leaves 6 ounces of liquid, then you could add 4 ounces of coconut milk to the cook right after you add your lye mixture, and that would leave 2 ounces of liquid, and you could add that in hot milk “after the cook” and add it hot… I always add my hot milk the very last of my things, just before I’ll add the EO/FO or just after the EO/FO…but this is up to you, for me this just works better. How I always mix my batter now “After the cook” is to add the SF and Sugar/wtr mixture and I add it hot. Then I will add my “ROOM TEMPERATURE” Yogurt, then I will add my “Warm” SL (not discounted either as it hardens the soap and can help with manageableness, but SL is awesome for the skin as well). If im adding honey and I want the properties from the honey in my soaps I will always add after the temp of the batter is 175 - 165F and I add it with a bit of water (1tbsp so it mixes well in the batter) and I add it Warmed. The I’ll add the “WARM” EO/FO and the “HOT” milk etc. I always try to keep my batter on warm “until” after the yogurt and SL is added then I will shut off the crock (but this will depend on the method being used) AND always keep the batter covered so it will be moist. If separating and mixing, ALWAYS keep your Utensils/Containers WARMED up and covered once the batter is in them and you can always heat your molds as well if you can to warm. 3: Adding Color to HP with Botanicals / Clays / Herbs etc. - this is totally up to the individual and of course what you are using and what medium you are using i.e. CP /HP… how I color my HP for lavender is by using “Alkanet” that has been soaking in oil for awhile and just mixing tsps. At a time to the batter I have out to get the desired color. If you want the whole batter colored lavender I guess you could add it up front to your heated oils, or you could save until after the cook and I would add it heated up. I’ve not used gromwell root yet. You could also mix with water and heat it up as well. Madderoot I have in oils and will add heated too. Clays can be mixed with water and add warmed up. Botanicals / herbs can be mixed with a “TINY” bit of glycerin and water and add warmed etc.
4: Soft oils versus Hard oils: Everyone is different to what they like and you can have very many formulas with different ratios and of course you WILL GET many opinions on what is best --- for me personally I have a ton of formulas with different ratios of hard versus soft and a couple of very obvious ones would be - 100% Olive Oil for a Castile soap and of course can be one of the hardest bars (although I don’t base my formulas on how hard my bars are at all and never will, I would much rather have a LOW drying / skin stripping bar and HIGH conditioning bar any day over a rock hard bar, I rarely will look at that as part of my desires in a soap.) and of course in my Shaving bars I have 50% Stearic Acid , a hard oil to give the dense lather etc. And of course then there is a shampoo bar I have that has way more soft then hard oils, and of course the Non-comedogenic Facial bars I make are more soft then hard - but the rule of thumb some soapers go by are 60% hard versus 40% soft and what kind of bar that will make will TOTALLY depend on the oils / butters you use and the cleansing / drying number and conditioning number and what additives are in your soap and a real important thing is the “TYPE” of WATER you have i.e. Soft Water versus Hard Water. As you can see by the free formulas I’ve put on a lot of my videos those % will change depending on which soap im making. 5: Dissolving SILK - my Mulberry Silk always dissolves (so far) - how I do mine is by adding it chopped up or pulled apart to my lye liquid and letting it set for 5-10 minutes BEFORE adding my lye, once I add my lye I will stir until the silk is completely dissolved and my lye is completely dissolved as well - it has always worked. IF you are adding it and the lye and just stirring until the lye is dissolved and then putting it into your oils, yes, you may have issues with that….but you can still do it the way I mentioned and have extremely hot lye liquid.
I m so overwhelmed to see such beautifully described answers. Thank you soooooo much Valerie. I m speechless. I will follow your tips and share the pics soon. 😘 Tons of kisses and hugs
Hello farhat jabeen, thank you for stopping by...I have warm water in that spray bottle, and it gives an extremely fine mist of spray that can help keep things moist and help to design tops "without" adding a lot of extra water.
💞💖Beautiful colors and absolutely stunning swirls!💖💞
Hello and thank you ever so much!
OmG this loooooks aaaammmaazziinnggggg !!!!!!!!
Just gorgeous! Thanks so much!
thank you so very much Elizabeth!
Valerie, Greetings from New Mexico. I just received my soap. It smells heavenly. My daughter found the Honey honey soap and took it str8 to her bathroom. Shes 8 years old and told me to tell you she loves it. She says you are the nicest person!.haha
dear Vel Mar and little one! so very happy it is there and that everyone is happy! big hugs
Love how that turned out !
thank you so very much Cheryl!
Beautiful! Looks Fall-ish
thank you kindly Sonya!
Me encanta, felicidades ,te copiaré el diseño ,muchas gracias
muchas gracias Rita, estoy muy contenta de que te haya gustado y muy feliz de que lo pruebes. grandes abrazos
Awesome. I love this design. The colors are vibrant and this hit process soap came out soo smooth. Thank you Valerie for sharing.
Hello Carol and thank you so very kindly!
Hello Valerie, You’re amazing with hot process the design is very pretty great colour choices for the swirls it’s very pretty. Thank you. 💐💐
thank you ever so much Eve, big hugs
Beautiful !!! Thank you Valerie
Ellen, thank you ever so much, big hugs
I love your video's! Amazing soap!
dear Ellen you are so very kind, thank you
Hi Valerie! You know I love your skills! I used to use cardboard, but have found that it’s super easy if you buy the plastic cutting boards from the dollar store and cut them to size. They usually come in a 3pack. They’re more stable and wash right up for next time. Coming with 3 in a pack you can cut a bunch for your different molds. I hope this helps. You’re awesome and I just love watching you.
dear Lora Michael!!! that makes me sooooo happy and excited, i'm so very thankful you shared that with me! oh my, now I can hardly wait to get to the dollar store! You are so very thoughtful and kind to share that with me and truly, I appreciate you so very much! big hugs and thank you again so very kindly! (can you tell how this has made me so excited and the light bulb going off inside my head? :-) )
Shalebrook Handcrafted Soap that makes me happy! So glad I could help. God Bless and keep on soaping 😁
@@loramichael5788 much love across the miles and the Lord bless you as well dear friend!
Woow I really love it
Amazing talent
I was hoping you will do a video when i saw the soap picture on Facebook
thank you so kindly Dina! I appreciate it
Shalebrook Handcrafted Soap thank you for taking the time to make the video🌷
@@Misssha123 you are very welcome!
As usual, these are simply beautiful. You amaze me, and I always do a happy dance when I get notified of a video from you! I may attempt this when I make my Bee themed soap with pollen and honey later. :-) Thank you for your wisdom, and for sharing so freely with us!
Valerie Holdren me too
👯♀️👯♀️👯♀️
Hey dear Valerie and thank you so very much --- okay, so this was the design you used... did you cut your soap horizontally? to get the design effect doing it with HP you have to cut it horizontally and that is a bit tricky depending on the size!
Hi Valerie, my query is not in particular to this video but in general.
1) upto how much superfat you go safely in HTHP? do u calculate initial 5% and then add superfat before gel phase? Upto what percentage
2) how much liq you add to make it fluid ? I took 1:1.5 ratio of lye and water initially and added 15% fluids later. Would like to know more about it
3) like in cp, i give colors by adding gromwell, maddar etc in the oils. How can i give lavender color if i don't want to use micas
4) i took 60:40 hard and soft oils for hthp. In cp my fav is 30:70 ( hard: soft). What would you suggest for hthp. M fairly new to this process.
5) my mulberry silk didn't get dissolve in lye water. Was wondering what u do to get it dissolved
Thank you sooo much. I want you to know i have learnt so much from you.
Thank you so kindly Spoonbil Ibis -- first there are many differences of opinion on the questions you have asked and these are my humble opinions on the questions, this is how I do them now , but you can take and use what you like --- I will post these answers in 3 different replies as they are quite long.
HTHP -- high temperature hot process, HP, really doesn’t have anything to do with getting a more manageable batter, that , in my humble opinion, is a misnomer. Personal experience has taught me that you can get manageable batter by using low, medium or high temperatures and using any method of HP, i.e. in the oven, on top of the stove, in the microwave, in a crock pot (and using low - med - high temps for all of them) and of course in a bowl only using high temps or any other container that will maintain / keep heat. But I have found that you need to keep the cooked batter (Vaseline stage and no lye left, so PH tested some way) heated , kept warm, hot as it will be better to utilize for designs. If not designing it doesn’t matter. High temperature “only” enables you to cook the soap “faster” and that can be handy if you have a lot to do.
HTFHP -- (high temperature fluid hot process) - Another misnomer in my humble opinion, because you can do that and get that at any temperature and method depending on your formula and what you save to add after the cook. And I could add a few more acronyms that are not applicable as well, because HP, hot process soap is “hot”, “cooked” and it can be made manageable in any method and it does not need a stick blender to do it.
1: Super fat (SF) - this is my humble opinion on SF - there are different ways to do this and the only correct way is how “you” like to do it; but the important thing about SF for me personally is that it is calculated on how drying (the cleansing number) and how conditioning your formula is. I base my SF totally on those numbers and what I’m adding. Personally I believe you should always leave a bit of SF upfront, i.e. in Soap Calc leave the SF at 3-5%, but of course you don’t have to leave anything up front and add it all at the end, or half at the end etc. So the amount that you do, whether up front or after the cook is up to you - I normally leave 5% upfront, but I think I will change that in the future to maybe 3% up front? Lol, not sure yet. I like SF at 7-8% in body soaps as long as my drying number is 12 or under and my conditioning is 58 and up. But if it is a facial soap I will SF anywhere from 8-10% and these are just examples as it totally depends on the oils/butters I’m using as some are more harsh then others, or so ive found… if you made 100% coconut oil soap, I would have to SF that at 25-35% and even then it still may be drying on my skin. The only time I make 100% coconut oil soap is for my laundry. Sometimes I will use a higher % of coconut oil (say over 15%) in a brine bar etc, but even then I don’t use a lot of it as I have found I don’t need it. And whenever I get my oils / supplies in I ALWAYS add ROE (Rosemary Oleoresin) to help to keep the shelf life of my oils longer and I’ve never had DOS since I’ve been doing that.
2: Having a Manageable Batter (I truly do not like calling it fluid, but sometimes I get real pourable batter, sometimes a real loose batter, but a lot of times my batters are very manageable) can depend on different variables, i.e. how much liquid you use, how much hard versus soft oils, what “type” of hard / soft oils, how much “total” liquid is used, how much liquid is held back to add after the cook, if you are using Sodium Lactate (SL), If you are adding plain Yogurt, or sugar water etc. I have found using “butters” for SF after the cook have a tendency to thicken the batter, so I rarely SF with butters now, but will use higher end or lovely for the skin soft oils. I ALWAYS add my SF heated up hot to add to the hot batter, and I will add the SF as soon as there is no lye left/Vaseline stage, along with my sugar water (which consists of 1Tbsp sugar and Maple syrup (sometimes) & mixed with 1Tbsp of water/ACV/AVJ for every 1Tbsp of sugar, completely dissolve and add hot along with the SF at the same time but not mixed with the SF) and I do not discount the Tbsp’s of yogurt or the Tbsp’s of water with my sugar. I normally use 38% total lye liquid (Water as % of Oils in Soap Calc), but I’ve done it at 33% and I’m going to start doing it at 35% as I’ve found that has worked lovely as well. The thing is to save some of that total liquid to add hot after the cook, but I do not go above 2 ounces after the cook (that I can remember , and if I have I do not do that anymore)….so your formula will / may play a big part in this and of course how / what method you use to cook. So how much liquid I save will depend on what “size” batch of soap I’m making, but even so, I don’t think I would go above 2 ounces …. Unless, maybe it was a 5lb batch of soap and I may use 3 ounces of liquid after the cook. You can add whatever type of liquid you like. I do like using coconut milk, or jasmine rice milk, ACV, AVJ, a Tea blend (if ive used it in the formula as well). So, ALWAYS use AT LEAST the SAME amount of Liquid as your Lye amount. You cannot use less as the lye will not dissolve. i.e. If you have 18 ounces of Total Liquid in your formula and you have 6 ounces of lye in your formula, you “cannot use less” than 6 ounces of liquid to mix the 6 ounces of lye with and for me I always use more than that. So for example say you have 18 ounces of liquid and 6 ounces of lye you can use all 18 ounces to mix the lye with, OR you could use 10 ounces of liquid to mix the 6 ounces of lye and then you would have 8 ounces left to play with and you could add it in 2 ounces of AVJ into the cook after you add your lye liquid mixture, which leaves 6 ounces of liquid, then you could add 4 ounces of coconut milk to the cook right after you add your lye mixture, and that would leave 2 ounces of liquid, and you could add that in hot milk “after the cook” and add it hot… I always add my hot milk the very last of my things, just before I’ll add the EO/FO or just after the EO/FO…but this is up to you, for me this just works better. How I always mix my batter now “After the cook” is to add the SF and Sugar/wtr mixture and I add it hot. Then I will add my “ROOM TEMPERATURE” Yogurt, then I will add my “Warm” SL (not discounted either as it hardens the soap and can help with manageableness, but SL is awesome for the skin as well). If im adding honey and I want the properties from the honey in my soaps I will always add after the temp of the batter is 175 - 165F and I add it with a bit of water (1tbsp so it mixes well in the batter) and I add it Warmed. The I’ll add the “WARM” EO/FO and the “HOT” milk etc. I always try to keep my batter on warm “until” after the yogurt and SL is added then I will shut off the crock (but this will depend on the method being used) AND always keep the batter covered so it will be moist. If separating and mixing, ALWAYS keep your Utensils/Containers WARMED up and covered once the batter is in them and you can always heat your molds as well if you can to warm.
3: Adding Color to HP with Botanicals / Clays / Herbs etc. - this is totally up to the individual and of course what you are using and what medium you are using i.e. CP /HP… how I color my HP for lavender is by using “Alkanet” that has been soaking in oil for awhile and just mixing tsps. At a time to the batter I have out to get the desired color. If you want the whole batter colored lavender I guess you could add it up front to your heated oils, or you could save until after the cook and I would add it heated up. I’ve not used gromwell root yet. You could also mix with water and heat it up as well. Madderoot I have in oils and will add heated too. Clays can be mixed with water and add warmed up. Botanicals / herbs can be mixed with a “TINY” bit of glycerin and water and add warmed etc.
4: Soft oils versus Hard oils: Everyone is different to what they like and you can have very many formulas with different ratios and of course you WILL GET many opinions on what is best --- for me personally I have a ton of formulas with different ratios of hard versus soft and a couple of very obvious ones would be - 100% Olive Oil for a Castile soap and of course can be one of the hardest bars (although I don’t base my formulas on how hard my bars are at all and never will, I would much rather have a LOW drying / skin stripping bar and HIGH conditioning bar any day over a rock hard bar, I rarely will look at that as part of my desires in a soap.) and of course in my Shaving bars I have 50% Stearic Acid , a hard oil to give the dense lather etc. And of course then there is a shampoo bar I have that has way more soft then hard oils, and of course the Non-comedogenic Facial bars I make are more soft then hard - but the rule of thumb some soapers go by are 60% hard versus 40% soft and what kind of bar that will make will TOTALLY depend on the oils / butters you use and the cleansing / drying number and conditioning number and what additives are in your soap and a real important thing is the “TYPE” of WATER you have i.e. Soft Water versus Hard Water. As you can see by the free formulas I’ve put on a lot of my videos those % will change depending on which soap im making.
5: Dissolving SILK - my Mulberry Silk always dissolves (so far) - how I do mine is by adding it chopped up or pulled apart to my lye liquid and letting it set for 5-10 minutes BEFORE adding my lye, once I add my lye I will stir until the silk is completely dissolved and my lye is completely dissolved as well - it has always worked. IF you are adding it and the lye and just stirring until the lye is dissolved and then putting it into your oils, yes, you may have issues with that….but you can still do it the way I mentioned and have extremely hot lye liquid.
I m so overwhelmed to see such beautifully described answers. Thank you soooooo much Valerie. I m speechless. I will follow your tips and share the pics soon. 😘 Tons of kisses and hugs
Love your video whats in the spray bottle?
Hello farhat jabeen, thank you for stopping by...I have warm water in that spray bottle, and it gives an extremely fine mist of spray that can help keep things moist and help to design tops "without" adding a lot of extra water.
@@shalebrookhandcraftedsoap7907 thank you for your help
@@Sfs1965 you are very welcome!