Paprika Hot Process Soap Recipe

This is my first hot process soap recipe. It uses paprika-infused liquid oils that gives a beautiful, vibrant orange color to the soap. The oils mixture is a rich one: olive oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil, sweet almond oil, castor oil and shea butter. The scent is given by an orange fragrance, since I am not afraid of trace acceleration: the soap batter is going to be over heat, and cooked during the process.

I have used no other addictives, not even sodium lactate, to get to know how to work with hot process soap. But I've used a low lye concentration (23.5%) compared with what I used normally (30%). Hot process soap requires water to work well. The soap making experience went quite well. Still, this is a soap recipe/method meant for soap makers with experience.

Difficulty: Advanced

Weight: 455g (16 oz or 1lb)

Superfat: 5%

Lye Concentration: 23.5%

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Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 1

Total Time: 1 30

Method: Hot Process

Cosmetic: Soap Bar

Servings: soap bars

Author: Sofia Matias

Cost: $5 - $10,20 / 4€ - 10€

Equipment

Ingredients

Lye Water

211 g distilled water
65 g lye (100% sodium hydroxide)

Oils/Fat

After Trace Ingredients

16 ml orange fragrance oil

Instructions

Get Ready!

Wear goggles and gloves! Look at “Safety Precautions” in the video above or in Soap Making Safety Precautions
Watch the video above about "Hot Process Soap Making Tutorial" or read the post for instructions on hot process soap making before starting. These are generic but important steps for all recipes.
Prepare the paprika infused oils in advance: use the paprika quantity with around 300g or 10 oz of liquid oils. Infused them in heat for some hours or at room temperature for some weeks. Learn how to make infused oils in How To Make Infused Oil With Dried Herbs.
Your oils should get an orange color. Strain the oils from the paprika powder before using them in the soap. The soap color will be given by these infused oils.
Measure precisely 255 g or 8.99 oz of these oils for the recipe (from 300g some will be absorbed by paprika). If you are missing some oil (no more than 5g or 0.17 oz[/adjustable) you can add olive oil to make 255 g/8.99 oz.
Assemble everything: ingredients, equipment, safety equipment. Prepare your workstations. Measure all the ingredients. Don’t start the recipe without having everything ready!

Heat the Oils

Heat all your oils in the slow cooker until the solid oils melt. Use MEDIUM or HIGH heat.
50 g sweet almond oil

Make the Lye Water

Make the lye solution according to How To Make Lye Water. Mix it well until the vapors start to dissipate.
211 g distilled water, 65 g lye (100% sodium hydroxide)

Make the Soap Batter

You don't need to worry very much about temperatures. Just make sure the oils are fully melted. Still, I've made sure that the oils and lye water didn't have a difference of more than 10ºC/ºF between them, just as a precaution.
Pour the lye water into the oils carefully, using a spatula or the stick blender shaft.

Reaching trace

Set the slow cooker to HIGH.
Mix oils and lye with the immersion blender. Use short pulses alternated with manual mixing (like a spoon). See how the soap is getting a beautiful orange color just from the infused oils.
Reach medium trace with the immersion blender. The soap will look like pudding and although remaining fluid, it will leave marks on its surface. This is exactly like in cold process.

Cook The Soap Batter

Turn the heat to LOW. With a spatula, make sure you scrape the soap residue from the walls of the slow cooker, and mix the soap batter a bit. Otherwise you will have crusted soap bits in your soap bars.
Cover the slow cooker and let the soap batter cook for 30 mins. It's important to not take the lid off for this time, or it will release moisture. The soap needs all the water to remain fluid enough.
The soap will look like it's going to separate. You will see what it looks like oils floating around. Don't worry, this is normal. Don't do anything.
After some minutes, the soap will start to puff up in the edges. With time it will also change its texture, looking more vaseline-like: translucid and a little bit darker.
After 30 minutes, check if the center of the soap is opaque or more vaseline-like. This is going to be hard to see in this soap, as it's orange and will look very uniform.
What did I do? I've waited for more 15 minutes, then I've opened the lid and mixed well with a spatula. I could see that the soap batter had a sort of translucid texture. That's the vaseline look you need for your soap.

Add After Trace Ingredients

Add the fragrance oil. Mix well with a spoon or spatula. Do not turn the heat off or your soap will start to harden immediately. Just check if the temperature
16 ml orange fragrance oil

Molding and Curing

Pour the soap batter into the large soap mold. Most likely you will spoon it to the soap mold as the crock pot pan is really heavy, and it's not handy to pour the soap. Shake and beat the soap mold to release any air bubbles.
Let the soap set and harden for 24 hours.
Learn how to clean all equipment with How to Clean Soap Making Equipment.

Cutting and Curing the Soap Bars

After 24 hours, unmold the bulk soap bar from the large mold and cut the soap into small bars. See How To Cure Soap: Unmold, Cut And Cure Bars.
Let the bars cure for 2 to 4 weeks in a ventilated place. They need to dry completely its water content. See How To Cure Soap: Unmold, Cut And Cure Bars. and also How Do You Store Homemade Soap?
Enjoy your soaps!!

Video

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