Water Discount in Soap

I read about how you can discount the amount of water you use in a batch of soap so it will get harder, faster. I tried this for the first time a couple of days ago when I was making my chocolate mint soap (which turned about beautifully, my swirls are much nicer). I didn't really think it could make that big of a difference, but the difference was amazing.

I made a batch of my lavender chamomile soap and my chocolate mint soap on Sunday. I discounted the water for the chocolate mint, but not the lavender. Monday I unmolded and started cutting, the chocolate mint soap was already pretty hard, but the lavender soap was quite a bit softer. It was much easier to cut, but it also mushed easier so I had to be very careful about moving the bars.

I checked on the today and the chocolate mint bars are very nice, you would honestly think they have already been curing for 1-2 weeks not 2 days. They will of course sit and cure the full month, but I'm very excited by this. I worried that something horrible would happen when I mixed the lye or it would do something funny when I was mixing, but I had no problems. I love the results and think that I will start doing this with more of my batches.

By the way, my soaps look and smell AMAZING! I get so excited every time I make a new batch, even if its a recipe I've been doing for awhile.