Teach Soap

So, I've made several batches of cold process soap successfully now (yay!). Usually it's castile soap because, well, long story short, that is more fitting for my hobby. I did make a batch of beer and bacon (grease) soap last month too (and it came out fabulously!!!!).

So this month I made a new batch of castile (success). And, another batch of beer and bacon. I swear I thought I did everything right and the same but well, you know, stuff happens and it was not right. Now that I've been reading I think the best thing to try would have been heating it! But I didn't have time so I attempted to improvise. Here's the predicament I'm here to seek input on:

It wasn't coming to trace after a half hour. My stick mixer blew out (thank goodness, only a couple of bucks from the thrift store, but I absolutely worked it too hard. Another lesson learned!). It started to look like oil on top and gravy on bottom. I realized it was too cool and heated up the pot just a bit and started stirring with the wooden stirrer. Well, it just wouldn't stick together so I started scooping the liquid off the top and stirred, stirred, stirred. It started sticking together! It looked a bit rough, but it finally had that pudding texture, so just to see what would happen (since I wasn't using the molds anyway) I poured it up to see if it would dry into something. It definitely wasn't smooth, but it DOES seem to be drying into little bars. It may look a bit rough though. Can't think how to explain. I'll attach a photo after posting.
PS, that was really hard to make so tiny but still viewable!

So it seems to be drying but is whatever comes out of this usable, or did I just create some freakish Frankenstein soap I'd be better off tossing out?
What exactly was the liquid I removed and threw out?

Thanks in advance for any input from those more experienced than I, haha. I am one to learn things the hard way, in order to understand. So somehow I couldn't just throw it out without trying to figure it out. (And the answer may well just be -- just give it up and throw it out, if so I'm OK with that LOL.)
--Tina

I think you may have thrown out some of your oil. Oil rises to the top of aqueous solutions. So what you have created is probably a lye heavy soap. Let it cure and then ph test it before you use it for anything. You can always use it in a re-batch if you find it too hot.

Thanks for the advice! In particular, since what is presumably the oils rose up to the top when heat was added, this makes perfect sense, of course. I'll give it a test in the near future to see what the outcome is.

As a follow-up, I unmolded the soaps tonight. Sure enough, these were sharp to the hand (whereas my other batch wasn't so bad to handle long enough to unmold). Whew. It's good to understand the process, through learning the hard way. *lol*

Which oils/butters did you use? Do you have an accurate scale and always go by weight? Did you run the recipe through a lye calculator? How much did you superfat? At what temps did you combine the oils and lye? Did you use a fragrance? If so, which one and where did it come from?

For future soaps, do not use a wooden spoon to mix raw soap batter. Over time, that wood can deteriorate and splinter. You would not want to end up with splinters in your soap. Get yourself one of the silicone spoons or spatulas. Most can be found at the Dollar Store.

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