Teach Soap

I need a little advise. My soap seems to be pretty soft. Even after it cures 4-6wks I can bend it and break it (with a little effort) I love every thing else about it. Awesome lather, very silky. Here are the approx %.
40% Olive oil
18.5 % Palm oil
25% Coconut oil
5% Avocado oil
3% Cocoa butter
3%shea butter

Lye and goats milk

How much did you superfat?

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

I believe 5%. I just added the oils and butters I wanted into the soap cal and it came up with the wts and %

I would leave the avocado oil out for now and recalculate your formula. I would also change the coconut to 20% and add the difference to your olive oil. Which soap calc did you use?

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

Thank you for your help. Its is called The Soap Calculator by The Soap Cellar.

http://soapcalculator.com/html_main/downloads.html


Is it the avocado oil that is making it soft? I was wondering also if it had anything to do with temps when mixing and pouring.

I just put this same recipe in the Sage lye cal and came up with the same amount of of lye and milk recommended. It was 5%. If I increased it to 7% would it make it even softer? How does superfatting change the quality of the soap?

sorry I should clarify 5% superfat

Although there is 5.5% oils missing, I calculated this and put that 5.5 % into castor oil and came up with a a pretty decent hard bar. Even if that amount was add in avocado oil (making it 10.5%), it still would be a fairly hard bar, so no, I do not think that the avocado oil is making it soft. My basic recipe has avocado oil in it, and I do not have soft bars.
I dont know what your liquid content was, but that would be the first thing I would look at since what you provided here looks right. I am not familiar with the calculator you used, I did it on the soapcalc.net. At 28% liquid it says 19.6 oz and Lye is 9.852 oz for a 5% super fat. Of course the liquid could be more or less and still be fine. Just not a lot more.
How sure are you of your measurements? Did you maybe double up on an oil? Did you add oil with a colorant that was not accounted for? These are all the things I can think of at the moment.

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

Tammy

The soap calculator said Lye 13.02oz milk 32oz (low) to 34.5 oz(High) @ 5% superfat

The Sage Lye calculator said Lye 13.03 oz Milk 23oz to 34 oz.

I have always used the high amount of Millk at 34oz. Maybe I will drop it down to the lower end and see if that helps. Here is a more accurate % from the sage cal

Avocado 5.43%
Cocoa butter 3.26%
Coconut oil 26.09%
Olive oil 42.39%
Palm Oil 19.57%
Shea Butter 3.26%
total 92oz

I bet it was the milk then. You're using maximum amount of liquid, in this instance it is milk. Milk has natural superfat. So along with max liquid and extra superfat, that could be why your soap is soft.

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

Thank you for all your help. We made two batches last night, really watched the heat, poured at 110, used the low end recommended for milk and the 1st batch turned out awesome...well still in the mold but looked great.

2nd batch same thing but due to the FO the batch seized. I think we would have been ok if we had mixed the milk and lye together but we chose to add the milk at light trace. Not much of a light trace, when it was time to add the milk....too late. Mixed as well as I could then threw it in to the oven, then scooped it into the mold.... hoping for the best

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

Glad you retried the batch, and that at least one went well for you! I hope the second comes out in the end, they often do. Assuming all your oils were correct, I'd have to say that the only thing left to blame is the amount of the liquid, and it being milk, I agree w/ SB that it would make the difference. If you give it a long cure, even with a high sf, it will probably get to hardness that you like better.

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

Tammy

thank you both so much! I will let you know how they did. I had a lot of large white clumps that I tried to smash but didn't get all.

Just getting back to you on the two batches. The first one did great. The second one had lots of large white clumps with in the soap. I think those are what they tell you to mash with the potato masher. I tried as much as possible. I think it should still be fine, no zap!