Teach Soap

Help. I got a soap recipe on the internet that called for 16 oz Hemp Seed Oil, 6 oz. Distilled Water and 2.1 oz. lye. I let te lye mix and oils cool to 110 degrees. I added some grapefruit seed oil and dried eucalyptus leaves for some texture. I weighed everything exactly. Added the lye mixture to the oil and mixed and mixed and mixed...with a stick blender for about 20 minutes to the point I thought it was going to blow a fuse. It didn't trace and while it thickened a bit, I gave up and poured it into the mold with the hopes that a miracle would happen. Today I opened the mold hoping for the best and it is thickened but soft.....I'm not hopeful....at least it is only a pound...but I'd like to not make the same mistake again. Any analysis on what I've done wrong?

So this was a 100% hempseed recipe?

Hemp oil is not hard enough to be the only oil in soap. I usually use it at about 5-10% of the total recipe. Adding other oils like coconut, palm, palm kernal or even olive oil will create a harder bar.

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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spotted-H ... l&filter=2
http://spottedhipposoap.blogspot.com/

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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spotted-H ... l&filter=2
http://spottedhipposoap.blogspot.com/

Hempseed is a soft oil. You need other harder oils like coconut, lard, tallow, palm or palm kernel. Butters would help too. No need for grapefruit seed oil. Lye will just eat it up.

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

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

I have enough soap to last me a lifetime - ha ha. I used the GSE and it was a little expensive.

I have not made a purely hemp soap, but if A-M gave the recipe and you followed it, I would say that you just didn't get to trace, you gave up too soon. Some complete olive oil recipes take 30 min or more to trace. I bet you just gave up a tad too soon. There is another one pound recipe that is part olive and part hemp I think. If you make that or do another hemp, just keep going. She would not offer a recipe that she did not try and have success with, of this I am positive!
Sorry bout your experience, but hang in there!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

I just pulled 16 ozs. of all hemp soap through soapmaker as I was curious what kind of a soap it would make. It says that the soap will be extremely soft with very little fluffy lather. On a scale of 1 being the softest and 10 being extremely hard soap, this soap gets a mark of 1.2

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

Yep, I am sure it would be soft. The next recipe is half olive oil and half hemp, so I see a progression. As I said, I don't think she would have listed the recipe without trying it first. She also lists a "break all the rules" soap recipe, so I think that maybe these recipes are set up as lessons. To give confidence and allow you to see all kinds of soaps. I could be wrong....but that's my take anyway.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

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

I guess it could have been a typo too, but I guess we won't know unless she chimes in here or we ask her. If it's not a typo though, I would think she made it. I am all for asking her, so I will pm her and do just that! I'll let you all know what she says.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy