Teach Soap

Hello. I have a quick question about an oatmeal n honey batch that I made. About 7 weeks ago I made a batch of exfoliating soap. I dont have my notes with me but the recipe was a tried and true recipe that had, olive, palm, and coconut oils. It was a 2lb batch and I believe I added 1/8 cup of finely ground oatmeal to it. Well after waiting about 7 weeks I've started using it and it does not last long at all. I've been getting about 3 showers out of a bar. Is this just par for the course with an exfoliating soap? I thought that maybe this is just normal because of the soap being 'opened' up by the exfoliating bits. It is a very hard bar, it just doesnt last long. Thank you so much.

My oatmeal and honey soap lasted just fine and it wasn't even done curing. I made it and then let it set for about 2 weeks. I did a 1 pound batch with 1/4 cup ground oatmeal and 1 TBSP honey. It was still soft when I decided I wanted to use it and it lasted for about 2 weeks with everyone in my house (4 of us) using it every day. So I don't know why yours is not lasting. Hope you figure it out.

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Haven

2 weeks is not long enough for the soap to last any length of time. Set it aside and try it again after 6 weeks. OR, If you can wait, even 8 weeks would be better.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Something isn't right if you are only getting 3 showers out of a 7 week old soap!
Do you put it somewhere to drain and dry out between uses?

you might want to post your recipe . somthing there is just not right. It's not sitting in water is it?

Thank you so far for all of the responses...Here is the recipe and it has been drying for 7 weeks now :

12oz distilled water
128g lye
454g olive oil
284g coconut oil
170g palm oil

added 1/8 cup ground oatmeal and 1 1/2 tsp slightly warm honey @ trace

I've used this same recipe before minus the oatmeal n honey. I'm confused. any thoughts? I dont see how this would matter but the bars do look darker in the middle like they didnt gel all the way. Other than the dark center and not lasting they seem fine. They feel very hard too. I just dont get it.

Your recipe is partially in grams and partially in ozs. That may be where your problems lye.
For that recipe, you would need 227 to 340 milliliters of liquid & 130.97 gms. of lye for a 5% superfat.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I ran your numbers also, on Soapmaker ALL IN GRAMS and this is what I got

454g olive oil
284g coconut oil
170g palm oil

8% superfat
127.7 gr lye
323.3 gr liquid (which would be 11.4 oz compared to your 12 oz)

So, it doesn't look like it's the recipe, unless there is a problem with
your scale calibration.

It certainly is better, and more accurate to run your whole recipe in
the same units of measure.

oops..i'm sorry everyone... I did not actaully mean to list the water in ounces. I was looking at my soap notes while typing. I put grams and ounces in my notes but I always use grams in my recipes. I should have wrote 344g distilled water.
I dont know what happended I guess. My scale seems fine since my other batches are ok. I must have messed something up or maybe I put to much oatmeal in or something. grrr..I dont know. I appreciate everyone's help. sorry about the confusion..

I don't think you put too much oatmeal in that recipe. Or honey for that matter ,it seemed like the right amount. I make OMH soap all the time

I agree with Linda...that's not a lot of oatmeal.
My guess is that you mis-measured somewhere along the line...happens to all of us, at least once!
Even the difference in the water amounts isn't enough to make that much of a difference.

I would make the same batch, with the same measurements again and see how it is...yes...I would be THAT curious

I agree totaly!

Thank you all so much. You are all so nice I guess I'm gonna try the same recipe again as suggested and see if I have the same problem. Thanks everyone.