Teach Soap

I was wondering if someone could take a look at this recipe for a friend of mine as she's been having alot of trouble with it, any ideas? Here is the recipe and the message I recieved with it:

10 oz. safflower oil
4 oz. coconut oil
2 oz. olive oil
8 oz. goat milk
2 oz. lye
2 oz. oatmeal
1 TBS honey

I used the cold process method. The recipe called for adding the honey in with the oils and the oatmeal to be added in at "just beginning of trace". I think I mentioned that all it did was set up like extra thick applesauce. I measured/weighed out all of the ingredients and followed the directions. The recipe said to stir by hand and to not use a stick blender. So, I stirred by hand for over an hour. Then I gave up and went to bed

I just put this into the lye calculator at http://www.thesage.com and it looks like your friend used to much milk. It says to use between 4-6 oz of milk. Maybe tell them to reduce the amount of liquid and try it again. Also, if they are not adding the oatmeal until trace then why wouldn't you use a stick blender? I would and then once I got to light (very light) trace, add the honey, blend for a second or two and then switch to a whisk to incorporate the oatmeal. Just my two cents but I am still somewhat of a newbie so I could be wrong.

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Haven

"extra thick applesauce" makes me wonder if she got false trace and things got cold on her...how warm was everything to start with?

2 ozs. of honey is too much for a recipe that size.
What was the temp when the oils and lye were combined?

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

What did she do with it? I'll bet it turns to soap---- very soft soap that will have to cure at least 6wks IMO--- I agree with hvrba-- too much milk. I would also cut the oatmeal back to 1 oz --- it's not as fun to use when there's more oatmeal than soap in the final cure.

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You may be only one person to the world, but you may also be the world to one person

Thankyou everyone for your help. Sorry I havn't replied sooner i've been run off my feed with moving etc. I sent through the link to my friend to take a look at and she has joined the forum so when she has a chance to hop on she'll likely fill you in of the results. Blessings, Donna.

Thank you, Galavanting Goats for posting this question for me! Hi all, I'm Ace, the gal who made this flop of a soap It has not turned to soap as of yet.

I'll start off answering (or trying to) some of the questions. I didn't use a stick blender to mix this because the recipe I followed said that it was best stirred by hand, and boy did I, for over an hour. It was a miserable experience to say the least......The temperatures for the oils & lye mixture were about 100* for both. What did I do with this evil conconction?????? Well, it's still stitting in the milk carton mold that I poured it into And it still looks like an oily thick applesauce mess. This batch was made on Feb. 2 and I can take a table knife and slice right through it like it was ice cream being cut with a heated knife.

Any other ideas? Should I just toss this mixture and let it go as a learning lesson/batch?

I would definately atleast use a stick blender. Especially when using the honey. If it's not mixed in COMPLETELY, it will seperate out on you and turn into something quite nasty. Definately cut back on the goat's milk too......I'd only use 5oz or so.

you can always dump this into a crock pot and cook it! it wont be purty, but it'll be mighty nice!!! one of my favorite ever batches of soap.........it was an OMH batch gone bad. It seperated on me really bad so I chunked it up, put everything into the crock pot, added extra milk from the fridge because well, it was a milk soap, right? There was lots of oatmeal in it. And while the soap was cooking down, so did the oatmeal! Like it said, it sure wasn't pretty to look at, but the soap was divine!

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Steph
www.cajuncauldron.com

Thank you for the info and the reply.......so, next question, if I put it into a crock pot, do I set the temp. there on low or high and what do I do from there? Do I stir/mix it with a stick blender? I did not put a frangrance oil in this, can I still do that? Also, do I need to add more milk? Or water? Or do I just toss this glop into the pot and cook away? The small batches that we've made have only been cold process so this is really new territory for me and it sort of scares the beejeebies out of me

being that you already have so much liquid in there, I wouldnt think it would need more, although I could be wrong.

This is what I would do.....

Just dup the whole container in the pot. Start it on high just to get it good and warm. Start chunking up upir concoction with a pastry cutter or a potato masher or a spatula. You dont have to get it to be grated, just chunked up really good. Smash it all down to the bottom of the pot. Doesn't have to be perfectly smooth or anything but try to get out all of the air pockets so that you're getting some good heat in there.

After it's all good and warm, turn your crockpot down to low. What you're wanting here is to force this stuff into gel. It'll start to take on a sort of translucent type of appearance. Once you see alot (more than half of it) gelled, you can stir and re-smash to the bottom of the pot. Distibute the heat, distribute the gelled soap.....

when you think you're fully into gel, or if you think it just wont gel anymore, turn off your pot and do what you want with it! you can definately add fragrance at this point. or more oatmeal, or color, or botanicals, or whatever you like. Stir it in real good and glop it into a mold.

on the liquid part of it.......you'll know if you need to add more or not. it'll start to get dry and brittle and crumbly around the edges. I really do think you have enough in there already though. Once you have it all smashed down and cooking, just try to leave the lid on it as much as possible so that it doesn't try out too too much.

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Steph
www.cajuncauldron.com

Thanks naturescauldron I'll give it a go!