Teach Soap

Well, I tried the recipe in Ann Marie's book for the first batch of CP tutorial. I was so dissappointed. I followed the recipe word for word but I did use unrefined palm oil (orange colored). I thought it made a pretty yellow-colored batch of soap. Well, after 24 hours I took a peak at the soap and it had some very small cracks on the top. When I tried to cut it it just crumbled on me. It came out super hard.

Very sad,
nucci40

Oh, no!! Was it the unrefined palm oil that made it so hard? That has got to be very discouraging. I have yet to make my first CP soap. I've decided not to used palm oil for my first batch because of all the trouble of having to melt the entire bag of palm oil before you can use it.

I hope your next one goes better! Don't give up!

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Olivia :)

Did you mix your palm oil? because when you don't melt down the whole bucket each time you use it you can get a high amount of steric acid which could cause very hard, brittle bars

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Anna Rose @-}--
blog

My first few batches were also problematic, and I used a kit for at least one of them. Hard, crumbly soap. Keep trying and honestly, if you have a stick blender I'd try a simple 100% olive batch just to simplify and observe the process. It takes longer for Castile soap to trace and cure but it does make a very gentle bar and you don't have to worry so much about mixing and weighing.

Don't give up!

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Logansama aka Belinda
Nor Cal

That's too bad you had problems. I find palm oil needs to be melted all the way, then stirred, so the stearic acid in it is mixed throughout. You would need to do this each and every time.
Did the original recipe have palm oil in it, or did you sub the oil on your own? Anytime you change an oil or butter, you need to run it through a lye calculator.

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

Please don't give up! I'm a CP newbie too and we all have bad batches, no matter how much experience we have. Just keep practicing with small batches and you see big improvement soon. The folks on this site are so generous and helpful so keep asking questions, taking their advice and trying again. Before long, soaping will be you new obsession!!

Oh I won't give up, I am totally hooked... was just disappointed!!! My next batch I tried the ocean wave CP layers and it came out perfect except for soda ash on top

Is there a way to remove it? I thought I heard somewhere that you can actually remove the top layer with a tool. I have Ann Marie's two-way tool with a triangle cutter on one end and a sharp scooper thingy on the other end. If I can save this batch I would sure like to try!

For ash, quickly rinse the soap off or steam the ash off.

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

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Shanon
Woman, wife, mother, entrepreneur,etc, etc.
"....with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26
http://www.tousheabodyboutique.com

I spray with alcohol but still sometimes get ash. I have had it show up even a week after the soap is made. I have found that if I lay a piece of plastic wrap over my soap as soon as it has cooled after gelling and after slicing I don't get ash. I leave it on for about a week. Just lay it over the soap but not sealed. It still gets plenty of air and doesn't hurt the soap or interfere with the curing process.

MaryLou