Teach Soap

My batch of goats milk soap looked great at trace. I poured it yesterday about 8pm. Now about noon it looks really really oily and very soft. What went wrong. I have been making goats milk soap for about 6 months and never had it look like this. I insulated it only with saran wrap. I heard that with goats milk you don't have to insulate that much so I have been trying less insulation. Can anyone help me out? Is this still the gel stage?
Thanks Michelle

Did it overheat? Milk has natural sugars. If the soap looks darker than what you started with, it could be gelling.

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

I would have to say out of all my batches (about 6 months now) this is the one batch that I would say didn't over heat. However, it traced very fast. I cut it this evening. Lots of oil, and very soft. I have some of those little white dots on it and the top was very soft and squishy ?sp in the middle while still in the mold. Also I used oatmeal. There is some spots that have a white shape almost like a piece of oatmeal expanded. I have never seen this either, I'm not sure if this could be lye??? I learned about the zap test on this site. I tried it on a couple of bars and didn't feel any zap. I followed the exact same recipe two days ago, a little oily then but not like this
Olive 39 oz
Palm 18oz
coconut oil 24oz
shea butter 3oz
cocoa butter 3oz
avocado oil 5oz
stearic acid 5oz (I used this hoping for harder bars. some of my bars are not lasting long in the shower)

Lye 13.7 oz
Goats milk 36.38 oz (break down actually used 18 oz water and 18 oz canned milk) We are out of fresh.
Michelle

Sounds like the stearic acid didn't mix in completely. It has a much higher melting point than the rest of your oils. If there is no zap.
Also, what kind of oatmeal did you use?

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

I used regular quakers oatmeal (ground up). Do you think it is better to leave the stearic acid out. This is only the second batch I have made with the stearic acid. I was just hoping for a harder bar.

Thanks
Michelle

That is a LOT of stearic. I agree that it sounds like it wasn't completely melted - and just for future reference, stearic will speed your trace up quite a bit.

You might have started getting trace before some of the other oils were well mixed - the uneven mixing could account for the spongy/oily texture.

For future batches, try a good long cure - I adore avocado oil in soap, but it seems to need more time to really harden than other oils, at least for me.

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Thank you for all the help. I have decided I will omit the stearic acid for now. It sure did trace fast. I noticed it was thick at the bottom of the bowl with lots of oil on the top, so I started to hand mix the rest in. Bye Bye stearic acid.
Michelle

I think that's a wise choice.

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