Teach Soap

I am trying a new recipe. It stirred nicely, poured nicely, released from the mold nicely, great white color. But, it didn't cut nicely, it's crumbly partcularly on the edges. I did wash my hands with the residue I had on my hands from cutting (no I didn't wear gloves) and it feels gentle and lathered nicely for only being 24 hours old. It is not sparkly, I don't think it's lye heavy, I did run it through a lye calc before I made it and I made it in grams. I attempted to make it harder by reducing water by 10% and adding 1 1/2 tsp of salt. Any thoughts on why I have a case of the crumbles? I may make it again with no water discount and no salt to see if that helps. Here's my recipe...

24 ounces of oil.
50% Olive oil (340 g)
30% coconut oil (204 g)
10% Shea butter oil (68 g)
10% Sunflower oil (68 g)

Lye (94g)
H2O (202 g)

Thoughts?

I checked it again with a lye calculator for you, it looks fine. What % superfat did you use? Did you force gel? Did you use any titanium dioxide?

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I superfatted at 6%. I didn't use any titanium. I am wondering if it should have stayed in the mold a little longer? I checked for zap and it's fine.

Oh, and I have to be honest. I am not sure what you mean by forcing gel. I insulated it.

It could be that the outside edges didn't reach full gel and stayed softer than the reast of the soap. If it doesn't zap, it may harden as it cures.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

If you weighed everything correctly, have a good scale and the soap didn't gel it's possible that's why it's crumbly.

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

Ahhhh-haaaaa....I do soap in my basement where it's a cool 61 degrees. I did insulated, but only with a couple of towels and mixed at 95 degrees so it probably didn't the heat it wanted. Does that sound about right? I also snapped one of my bars in half and there are alot of airbubbles in it, could that affect it? It seems no matter how careful I am with the stick blender with these batches, because they are so small (shallow in the bowl) I end up inadvertently whipping air in. hmmmm.. I think I will try again tomorrow and bundle it up nice and cozy then see what happens.

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

OK, round two came out better, but still a slight crumble on the edges. I mixed the lye and oils at 105 for lye, 113 for oils (wanted it to be a little higher, but I couldn't get the salt to dissolve in my lye mixture and all my stirring cause the mixture to cool down more than I intended). I wrapped it nice and cozy and didn't touch it for 24 hours. I can visibly see where the edges are a different color than the center, but only a thin layer. That is the part that sort of breaks off rather than cuts smooth, mainly when I get to the bottom when I am cutting. I think maybe it's just a wee bit too cool in the basement right now, because I definately saw improvement with the higher temperatures. It's still a nice soap, just not as smooth as my previous ones.

The lighter crumbly part is ungelled. I've found ungelled soap is quite often a little crumbly around the edges, I haven't yet figured out how to fix this though. And I can never get all of my salt to dissolve in my lye! Even while waiting for an almost 100* F temperature drop and frequent stirring I still find a wee bit of salt in the bottom of the lye container. I just pour it slowly and carefully so the undissolved salt stays in the container.

_________________
~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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

What does the salt do for your soap?

You haven't mentioned fragrance and some fragrances do odd things, accelerate trace, rice, slow trace and some cause crumbling, velvet thick heavy ash and distort color. Just an idea if you haven't used the fragrances in test batches.

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

Salt adds some hardness mella.

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

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

So, would popping it in the oven as I have heard of some people doing in order to force gel be the right answer? If so, how do I do that regarding temps and length of time?
I was hoping to create a palm free recipe, I haven't had this trouble at all with my OO/CO/PO recipes they were so easy (well, with some exceptions, but really, they were very compliant compared to this one).

I was having the same trouble with the salt, Hestey and poured slowly etc...I will try melting it in a little water, great idea!! Thanks Soapbuddy!

mella, this recipe was for a basic bar, no color or scent so I knew it was a fairly controlled study.

If you are in the US, see if your oven can go as low as 170 degrees. If it does and your mold is oven safe, put the soap in the oven. When the soap gels, it usually starts in the middle (the soap gets darker) and works its way toward the edges. As soon as the edges are in gel, take the soap out. The reason why I said a cookie sheet is because it's easier to get a small mold out of the oven without spilling.

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