Teach Soap

Hello. A few days ago I made my first attempt at making a shampoo bar. It has been sitting out on the counter. I managed to cut it into bars okay, but it is still quite soft and a bit 'spongy'. It actually feels as though it has a little spring to it, like a sponge. Also, when I was pouring the soap into the mold, It quickly became very thick and it had several thicker consistency 'lumps' in it. It went in the mold okay though. Well, I didn't think too much about the lumps, but when I went back and reviewed the recipe directions it said that "if you see lumps stop pouring". It did not however say what this means or why to stop pouring. I had completely missed that part of the directions before.
Does anyone know why my soap is still soft and is spongy after 3 days? Also, why would there be lumps and what could this mean?
Here is the recipe that I used:
347g (12oz) distilled water
126g lye
255g Castor oil
347g Olive oil
57g jojoba oil
255g coconut oil
1/2 TBSP melted shea butter + 1/2 TBSP avocado oil (both added at light trace)
1oz of Prelude to Love FO at trace
I used a stick blender and poured mixture into wooden loaf mold. When cutting the soap it seemed to have an even consistency (no noticeable lumps)
I was going for a 3% superfat for this shampoo bar.

I'm not surprised that the soap is a little spongy right now. Castor Oil tends to stay a little softer, jojoba is a liquid wax and the amount of water you used is the highest you'd want to use. Give it another two weeks and it should get less spongy for you.

Also, the lumps you got couple be from not stirring in the fragrance oil very well or that the fragrance oil was starting to seize. As long as your soap is not weeping oil, does not burn your tongue on the lye test and is evenly hard through the batch, it should be fine.

_________________
Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

Thank you That puts my mind at ease a bit..and it does finally seem to be hardening up a little bit..