Teach Soap

I made goat milk soap 2 weeks ago and it's still soft like cheese. I ran everything through a lye calculator and took the total amount of water and halved it -- so if it called for 6 oz. of water I did 3 oz. of water and 3 oz. of evaporated goat milk (frozen/slushy BTW). It seems like there is too much water in the recipe but I don't understand how than can be since I was so careful. What could the problem be? Will it ever harden?

Also, I think it's starting to smell worse. I know GM soap can smell bad to begin with especially if the milk scorches (but like I said, I used frozen milk to prevent that). Could the smell come from the fact that it's not curing and the liquid isn't evaporating fast enough? Help! Is there any way to salvage it?

Thanks!

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Soapmaiden (Natalie)

Was there any other ingredient in the goat milk listed? Do you have an accurate scale? Evap goat milk is a liquid, correct? Did you use all soft oils or a balanced recipe? Oils like almond, canola or avocado can make your soap soft.

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

The recipe was olive (8.6 oz), palm (7.6 oz), and coconut oil (5.5 oz) with a few ounces of jojoba oil. It MAY be that my scale was off. I just got a new scale and haven't had problems so that may be the difference. Yes, evaporated goat milk is liquid. It's like whole goat milk with half the water removed from it. So adding half water back into it makes it back into whole goat milk. It's Meyenberg brand (what other soapers regularly use as I understand) and the ingredients are: goat milk, disodium phosphate, vitamin D3, and folic acid.

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Soapmaiden (Natalie)

Maybe Irena can speak to this but what % did you superfat at? I've often wondered if going too high on that can make some soap recipes soft ... just a thought. I am not really sure why your soap might be soft other than maybe not enough lye (i.e. too much unsaponified fats). Just an idea?

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

You need to calculate the jojoba into your total. Jojoba is a soft oil. Here is your recipe with the jojoba added with a 7% superfat.

Coconut Oil 5.5ozs. 23.21%
Jojoba Oil 2oz. 8.44%
Olive Oil 8.6oz. 36.29%
Palm Oil 7.6oz. 32.07%

Use between 6 to 9 fluid ounces of liquid (water, milk) and 3.15oz. of lye for a 7% superfat. Since this is a pretty small recipe, you might want to convert it to grams.

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

I calculated only the jojoba at 6% for superfat. I thought I could just use that oil for superfatting instead of increasing every oil in the recipe if that makes sense. I guess I thought wrong? So the bars will probably never harden, right?

That's good -- I can start using grams. I'm doing 2 lb batches so that's probably a more accurate measurement. Thanks!

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Soapmaiden (Natalie)

Hey Natalie - you can't really decide which oil will be the superfat because the lye continues to be active long after you mix and pour the batter and will incorporate/saponify all the fats somewhat evenly if that makes sense. It's not "choosey." So you generally have to incorporate ALL your fats into your lye calculator.

I don't think you mentioned how much lye you used? I'm thinking there simply wasn't enough lye in that recipe and so there is just too much free oil sitting in the soap now. Because if you say entered 6% superfat into your lye calculator AND you also added that extra jojoba to your batter (without adding it to your lye calculations) you actually have a way higher SF now than just 6%.

That said maybe it will harden up over time?

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

Well I actually did my lye calculation with 0% superfat and did the math separately to make the jojoba superfat at 6%... But I guess this was wrong!

Sorry, here I will post the entire recipe:

Coconut Oil -- 5.5 oz -- 25.3%
Olive Oil -- 8.6 oz -- 39.6%
Palm Oil -- 7.6 oz -- 35%
Jojoba Oil (for superfatting) -- 1.3 oz. -- about 6%
3.25 oz. lye
7.2 oz. liquid (halved: 3.6 water and 3.6 evaporated goat milk)

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Soapmaiden (Natalie)

Darn, there goes my theory. LOL! And jojoba has a pretty low SAP value too so it wouldn't take all that much lye to saponify it. And the recipe does seem okay even in the lye calculator with the jojoba added in/set to 0% sf.

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

Haha. Darn! Yea, it seems strange, doesn't it? The only thing I can think is that my old scale was off (I just got a new one) -- and I should be measuring in grams instead of ounces for smaller batches. I will wait to see if it hardens... but if it doesn't I will just try again with my new scale. Thanks so much for your help!

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Soapmaiden (Natalie)