soap making tricks

two things I learned along the way which make making soap easier:

influence the time it takes for the soap to trace
The closer together the temperatures of the oils/fats and liquid/lye the faster they'll trace. So if for instance you make a slow tracing milk and honey soap it's good to really cool down the oils but if making a pumpkin or cucumber puree soap, where adding the mash tends to immediately trace the soap, it's good having some extra time - thus if you keep the oils/fats about 20 degrees from the liquid/lye you buy yourself some extra time to properly mix the soap and the mash.

cooling down the melted oil/fat mixture by adding cold liquid oils at the end
Meaning you can measure out olive oil, for instance, but keep it separate and add it at the end when the solid oils/fats are melted to quickly cool down the recipe. I do take the crockpot out of the heater and place it on a cold concrete floor for a bit before adding the cold oils, otherwise it heats back up pretty fast. The crock pottery retains a lot of heat (or cold).

I tend to put the crockpot on the floor, get all my lye stuff together, depending on the temperature (< or > 140F) put it back in and add olive oil or mix my milk/lye first and then put the crockpot back in, add the olive oil and add the milk/lye (keep an eye on the lye, don't let it sit for too long). This way I can make two recipes in one toddler school day :)