Waiting is one of the hardest parts of soapmaking. Cutting it into bars and seeing the design for the first time is such an amazing feeling. However, cutting too early can lead to dents and drag marks.

Patience is best when it comes to unmolding soap. But if you want to speed the process up a few days, we’ve got you covered.

Choosing the right mold
Wood molds tend to be the fastest option. That’s because they have good airflow and they insulate soap well, which causes it to heat up. Higher temperatures can help you unmold your batch more quickly.

Silicone molds are another good option – they’re sturdy, flexible, and easy to use. They don’t have as much airflow as wood, so unmolding can take longer. You can speed the process up with single cavity silicone molds.

Plastic molds take the longest. You can unmold the bars cleanly with a few tricks, but if you’re in a hurry we recommend wood or silicone. Learn more about choosing molds in this blog.

Formulating a hard recipe
When it comes to unmolding, hard oils are your friend. Oils like coconut and palm are solid at room temperature and help firm the recipe. Learn more about common oils and how to work with them here.

A good place to start is around 70% hard oils. That creates a firm bar that unmolds quickly. The rest of the recipe can be moisturizing options like olive and sweet almond oil. Learn more about formulating cold process recipes in this post.

We unmolded the Pink Salt and Gold Soap after just a few days. It has 71% hard oils, as well as soft oils like rice bran that feel silky on the skin.

Another option is decreasing the superfat level. We typically use around 5%, but you can drop that to 2-4%. The less free-floating oil in the recipe, the faster it will unmold.

Using a water discount
This technique is simple – adding less water to your recipe means it won’t take as long to evaporate. The soap will unmold and cure more quickly. Water discounts also help prevent soda ash and glycerin rivers.

We usually discount around 5-10%. Higher amounts can accelerate trace and make the soap a bit trickier to work with. Learn how to get started in this post.

Using sodium lactate
You’ve probably heard us mention sodium lactate a time or two. It’s a liquid salt that helps harden cold process soap. Simply adding 1 teaspoon per pound of oils to your cooled lye water helps the soap release 1-2 days earlier.

Sodium lactate can also be used in hot process soap to make it smooth and in lotion to draw moisture to the skin. We definitely recommend having it on hand.

Using higher temperatures and forcing gel phase
Gel phase is a part of the saponification process where the batch gets hot and gelatinous. It doesn’t affect the quality of the bars, but it does help the colors pop. Gel phase also helps the soap harden more quickly.

To force gel phase, we recommend having your lye and oils around 120-130°F. Then, cover the mold with a piece of cardboard and a blanket. You can also place it on a heating pad. Learn more about how to insulate soap here.

How to unmold soap
You can typically unmold soap in 2-3 days using the tips above. Once it’s firm to the touch, gently pull on one side of the mold or liner. If it releases without sticking, pull on the other sides of the mold to release the airlock. Flip the mold over and gently push the soap out.

If you still end up with drag marks, don’t worry – it happens to the best of us. We have tools that can help. The Soap Shaver removes dents, drag marks, and soda ash. If the bars are dented on the corner, try the Soap Beveller. It removes imperfections and gives the soap a polished look.

If the dents are pretty deep, you can shred or cut the soap up and use it in a variety of ways. It may not be what you originally planned, but it will still feel amazing on the skin.

The post 5 Tips for Unmolding Cold Process Soap appeared first on Soap Queen.

First and foremost, patience is key. While soap in silicone or wood molds is ready to unmold as early as 3-4 days, cold process soap in plastic molds can take up to 2 weeks. If your soap is still soft when you try to unmold it, it can leave drag marks or holes. Some of the details may be left in the mold as well. So, if your soap doesn’t want to come out of the mold, let it sit for another day or two.

The recipe you use plays a huge role in determining how long the soap needs to stay in the plastic mold. Soap with a lot soft oils – oils that are liquid at room temperature – takes longer to harden. Soap with mostly soft oils, like olive oil and sweet almond oil, can take even longer than 2 weeks to unmold. Also, some of the details may not be as clear. Recipes with a lot of hard oils – oils that are solid at room temperature – will pop out of the molds faster. Hard oils include coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter and shea butter. Read more about hard and soft oils in the Formulating Cold Process Recipes post.

Sodium lactate is incredibly helpful when unmolding cold process soap from plastic molds. Sodium lactate is the sodium salt of lactic acid. Adding 1 tsp. of sodium lactate per pound of oils to your cooled lye water speeds up the unmolding process. It also produces harder, longer-lasting bars of soap. I use it every time I make cold process soap in plastic molds. To learn more, click through the Sunday Night Spotlight: Sodium Lactate.

You’ve made a recipe with mostly hard oils. It’s been in the mold for at least a week, and it has sodium lactate. What now? To unmold, pull on the sides of the mold. This breaks the airlock. Then, flip the soap mold over and press gently on the back of the cavities with your thumb or the heel of your hand. If the soap doesn’t want to come out, pop it in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes. Don’t leave it in there too long, or the plastic can crack. If the soap still isn’t budging, let it sit in the mold another couple of days. Remember, patience is key!

To demonstrate how different recipes perform, two cold process recipes were made in the Sand Dollar Mold. One of the recipes consisted of 70% soft oils, and the other recipe consisted of 70% hard oils. We then tested the same two recipes, but the second time we added 1/4 tsp. of sodium lactate to the lye water.

Soft Oils Recipe 
.5 oz. Coconut Oil (15%)
2.5 oz. Olive Oil (70%)
.5 oz. Palm Oil (15%)
.5 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
1.2 oz. distilled water
Optional: 1/4 tsp. Sodium Lactate

Hard Oils Recipe
1 oz. Coconut Oil (30%)
1 oz. Olive Oil (30%)
1.4 oz. Palm Oil (40%)
.5 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
1.2 oz. distilled water
Optional: 1/4 tsp. Sodium Lactate

Soft Oil Recipe
When unmolding the soap made with sodium lactate (shown on the left), they actually fell out of the mold! The soap is nice and firm, and all the details stayed on the soap. The soap on the right, without sodium lactate, didn’t fare as well. As you can see, several of the details are missing from the soap. There are also drag marks and holes.

Hard Oil Recipe
Again, the soap made with sodium lactate (shown on the left) fell out of the mold. It is firm and beautifully detailed. While the soap without sodium lactate did a little better than the recipe with mostly soft oils, there are still holes. One of the soaps is also missing a part of the sand dollar.

Experiment Results
The main takeaway from this experiment is sodium lactate is your friend when it comes to making soap in the plastic molds. With sodium lactate, both the hard and soft recipes came out of the mold easily after one week. The soft oil recipe without sodium lactate performed the worst – the most soap stuck to the mold and the design was extremely damaged. Soap made with hard oils and no sodium lactate did a little better, but the design was still damaged. If you choose not to use sodium lactate and want to use a plastic mold, be prepared to wait more than one week to successfully unmold your soap.

If you don’t have sodium lactate, you can use a salt water solution to harden your soap. To make the solution, mix 1 teaspoon of regular table salt into 1 ounce (by weight) of warm distilled water. Stir until the salt is fully dissolved. We recommend 1 teaspoon of salt in 1 ounce of water per pound of soap. Make sure to discount the salt water solution from your liquid amount. Then, add the solution at trace. The salt water solution was used in the Palm Free Vertical Twist Tutorial with great results.

We don’t recommend using any of our clear plastic molds for hot process soap. They can only withstand temperatures up to 145° F. Hotter temperatures can morph the plastic. The heavy duty molds can withstand temperatures up to 165° F, but may warp in the oven. The heavy duty molds work for rebatch, as seen in the How to Make Rebatch Soap video on Soap Queen TV. Because the molds are heat sensitive, we do not recommend gelling cold process soap in them. Instead, you can let your soap dry at room temperature.

Don’t feel like waiting? Melt and pour soap is a great option! It is ready to unmold a couple hours in the mold, or up to 12 hours. Check out these melt and pour recipes made with plastic molds:

Top row, left to right: Mermaid Shell Melt and Pour, Movember Mustache Melt and Pour
Bottom row, left to right: Painting Soap with Mica Powder on Soap Queen TV, Rainbow Unicorn Melt and Pour

Do you use plastic molds for cold process soap? Do you have any tips for unmolding? I’d love to hear them!

The post Unmolding Cold Process Soap from Plastic Molds appeared first on Soap Queen.