Why oh WHY?! I should kill myself for this I'm sure!
I usually buy homogenized palm oil for my cold process soap because it's easier to just scoop and melt instead of melting and mixing the whole container then measure out the amount I need. For those who don't know what homogenized palm oil means, it is a process of constant stirring and mixing melted palm oil while it cools down to room temperature solid stage. Palm oil contains a lot of saturated fat and stearic acid. If it does not go through homogenization, all stearic acid would sink down to the bottom. Stearic acid is the main ingredient in palm oil that contributes to the mild but hard bar of soap. If the non-homogenized palm oil is used to make soap, the beginning batches would be soft while the later batches would trace too fast and produce a rock hard soap which might not be desirable.
Ok, back to my yikes story where I feel like to kill myself. You probably can guess by now that I bought non-homogenized palm oil... sigh. Yes I did! You know why?! Because it's cheap and it's on-sale!
It came in 35 lb huge bucket! It says nothing online about whether or not it's homogenized. Only indicates scoop and use. First of all, it took me forever to open the bucket. I had to beg my husband to open it. Then I dug into the bucket just to find out that it looked like stearic acid had been separated. I quickly went online asking the supplier to give me an answer whether the palm oil is homogenized. The customer service obviously didn't know palm oil needs to be homogenized either so that didn't help. Anyway, took them a couple days to find out the answer and it is exactly what I didn't want to hear. This is when I feel like to shoot myself... How am I going to melt this whole 35 lb of palm oil all at once?! I don't even own a pot that big! Don't ask me how I did it last night, or I might feel like to kill myself again. But here's what I ended up with:
My goodness!!!!
ReplyDeleteOH my gosh Em! Sorry I wasn't around to help! I've only done 7 lbs to melt. You are a wonder! But hey when life gives lemons make lemonaide! You got it done good for you! Lessons learned whew.
ReplyDeleteSame problem here! I normally don't get palm from WSP but I couldn't pass up that sweet sale last month either.
ReplyDeleteOh lord, what a nightmare. Hugs x
ReplyDeleteThis is precisely why I use palm kernel instead of palm. So sorry - what a big job!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for writing about this. I just recently purchased a 35lb pail of palm and hadn't even considered the possiblity that I would need to melt the whole thing. I always melt my 7lb boil bag but for some reason I didn't think about it when I purchased the pail. I have a call out to my vendor and may find myself with a similar problem but at least I can prepare myself. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteTraci
Bathtubs are useful if your hot water heater is set pretty high =) I'm glad you got it all to work out though!
ReplyDeleteIs it safe to ask now how you managed this job? I think I may need the technique soon!
ReplyDeletewow! sorry you had to go through this, and thanks for edumacating us ;-)
ReplyDelete