Mandarin and Cream Tea Time (Hot Press Oven Process)

Hi, so it’s slowly getting warmer and the nights are getting shorter. I’m bringing summer a little closer.

This is an Hot Press Oven Process (HPOP) soap recipe which I learnt from Soap Queen. But you can use Cold Press too.

Ingredients and equipment:

• 65 g Sodium Hydroxide
• 169 g Water
• 200 g Olive Oil
• 100 g Coconut Oil
• 100 g Apricot Kernel Oil
• 50 g Castor Oil
• 3 g Mandarin and Cream Scent
• 3-6 drops red dye
• Glass bowl for lye solution
• Large saucepan (do not use for cooking after this process)
• Mould

Method:

1. Make up your lye solutions as you would normally do for a cold press by dissolving your sodium hydroxide to your water slowly. WARNING: Make sure that you do this in a well ventilated area and wear protective eye wear and gloves.
2. When the lye mixture has dissolved completed, set it to one side.
3. Set your oven to the lowest heat it will go to.
4. Melt your oils and fats in your saucepan over a low heat. Make sure your saucepan is twice as big as the amount of soap you will make.I made the mistake of not using a big enough saucepan and had a mini volcano eruption. Thankfully i was aware from reading around Hot Press that this may happen. I used a baking tray on the bottom of the oven to catch any spillages.
5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and place on a heat proof surface. Pour in the lye solution and mix the combination with a hand blender.
6. The normal cloudy mixture that you would add your colour and fragrance to for cold press now goes in the oven for 15 minutes. DO NOT ADD YOUR COLOURS OR FRAGRANCE AT THIS POINT.
7. After 15 minutes, check your soap. Mix if required or if it is happily gelling away, leave it. It should start to look like this.

8. Once the whole melted soap base looks like the clear gel, remove it from the oven. This took me 1 hour 15 minutes to complete.
9. At this stage you can add your fragrance and colour. I add the red dye to the point that it look the same colour as grapefruit.
10. At this stage you need to work fast and have the mould ready to fill. The soap will start to set as it cools.
11. The finish is not as smooth as Cold Press but it cures faster and can be used within a week. Fragrances will also be much stronger as they are not used in the saponification process.

Note: Line the mould if it is rigid like this one. It popped out eventually but I wish I had lined it with grease proof paper first as it makes it much easier to remove the soap.

The final product smells like mandarin and cream and is a beautiful pink colour. Perfect for a bath time session with a tequila sunrise cocktail in hand. Yummy 👍