Teach Soap

HI EVERYONE ,
I am new to the site but think this is a great place to be after reading lots of the post here and trying to learn more and experiment.
I need help! I have only been soapen since about thanksgiving and have had good batches and some really bad. Yesterday I made a batch of Gm soap and used canned GM and I put 2 tsp. liquid sodium lactate into it with lye and I thought I would make it a pretty ultra marine blue color and Sea island cotton Fo and this batch is butt ugly and stinky like a 70,s perm that fried your hair omg the color is a yucky putty color like a painted basement floor .And I cut it this morning and it is sooooooooooo soft. I have been having trouble with all my recipes being to soft.
? Can someone tell me why they think my soap is so soft. I thought the SL would make the soap harder.
So I will have to throw out this batch I guess. I can,t get past the smell.(I know I burnt the milk with the lye)

Deb

Oh I HP this batch in crock pot

What was your recipe and how much did you superfat? The color change could be from the fragrance oil or from the soapmaking oils that you used.

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

The recipe was one that I got off a site by AL Bullington an its suppose to be a proven recipe. I followed it excatly,I did supperfat with 1 Tlb. of sweet almond oil after the cook. I have done this same recipe with CP and it was perfect.
Do you think theres a art to HP? How do you get the soap to be harder?
Thank you soapbuddy for responding! Here is the recipe
11.3 coconut oil
11.7 palm oil
14.5 OO
3.9 almond oil
1 castor oil
6.1 lye
15.5 GM
1 FO Then I added 1 TLB. sweet almond oil after the cook

Deb

This recipe will be soft, due to the large amount of almond oil. Strange total weight too.

Almond Oil, Sweet 3.9oz. 12.54%
Castor Oil 1oz. 3.22%
Olive Oil 14.5oz. 46.62%
Palm Oil 11.7oz. 37.62%
Total Weight 31.1

For that size batch, you would need 8 to 12 ozs. of liquid and 4.08oz. of lye. Do you have an accurate scale that measures at least to 0.1 oz. ?

Teaspoons are not an accurate measurement. I would weigh out all your oils on a scale.
This is not such a great recipe. I would back off on the almond and add the difference to the olive and palm. Do you have any coconut?

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

I am useing a postal scale for my weights. I was thinking that was maybe to much liquid. I think if I can remember I got the recipe off millers site.
I do have coconut oil. There is 11.3 in there. Do you think I could just cut the almond oil to 1 oz and make the difference up in coconut oil to make my bar get hard?
I could just chuck the recipe and try and find a good GM recipe that would be good for HP.
Soapbuddy I have done this recipe 4 times with CP it and it turns out beautiful and I am happy with it. I just don,t want to wait 4 to 6 weeks for it to cure. I don,t have that kind of time(hum, maybe patiences)lol. I just don,t know why it won,t HP ok. Weird.
I will have another go at it and try what you said and let me know if the coconut oil sub would work ok in place of the almond oil.
Thank you soapbuddy!

When I calculated your recipe, I missed the coconut oil; sorry!

Here is the corrected recipe:

Almond Oil, 3.9oz. 9.20%
Castor Oil 1oz. 2.36%
Coconut Oil 11.3oz. 26.65%
Olive Oil 14.5oz. 34.20%
Palm Oil 11.7oz. 27.59%
Total Weight 42.4

I would dissolve 6 ozs. of lye to 11 oz. of liquid (like water). After the lye water and oils are mixed, add the milk at 5 ozs.

I would change the almond to 1.5 ozs., then add the difference between the olive and the palm. Don't forget to recalculate your recipe if you change any of the ingredients.
If you have any sodium lactate, you could add it to your lye water at 0.5 oz. which is about 1.5%.

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

Thank you soapbuddy, I will give that a go next week.
Also, I have noticed in some of the post that You put your soap in the freezer, I have never read are heard of this before.maybe that will work for me. Please explain this to me and is this only with CP and does it cut cure time ect. also the oven method, Do I mix just as CP and pop in oven in my wooden mold ? Can U use the soap in a week are sooner?

I want so bad to have good soap made up for our local farmers market but need it to turn out and be good batches all the time.It seams like everyone of my batches turn out different every time.
If I go back to CP, I would have time before may for my batches to cure.I,am just so darn impatience.

I prefer to make ungelled soaps. So after I mix the lye and my oils and pour into the mold, I put it in the fridge or the freezer to prevent gel. It doesn't speed up the process. the soap still need to cure for 4 to 6 weeks.

You can also make CPOP. Mix your oils and lye to trace, pour into your oven safe mold, then pop it in the oven at 170 degrees til it goes to full gel. Turn the oven off after 30 to 45 minutes (depending on size of the batch) and leave it in there overnight. Next day cut and let cure.

Technically, you can use the soap after one week, but at this point it won't last long and will dissolve fairly quickly in the shower. The complete cure time makes sure that the water has evaporated and the soap is nice and hard.

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

Thank you ! I,am going to try the OP today and PRAY this will work.
I will use the oil recipe you revised for me. No more GM for awhile.
I need to get where my batches are consistant and not different every time. That stinks.
I got the soap makers companion book by susan miller cavitch and also the book, The everything soapmaking book by Alicia Grosso.
Funny how different these authors do things.
Thanks Deb

You're welcome.
When you do OP, make sure that you bang the mold well after you put the soap in there, to minimize any air bubbles.

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