Teach Soap

I made Goatmilk & Honey and Goatmilk, Honey & Lavender logs yesterday from my own recipe which I use as a reliable base for goatmilk soaps, but the honey in the logs look like tiny brown specks (?) everything went well, for the Goatmilk & Honey log I added the honey at a light trace and stired it in with a s/s whisk poured it into the pipes (no specks at this stage) put my towling socks I made over the pipes and put up - I then made the Goatmilk, Honey & Lavender getting to a light trace again, poured 1/4 of the mix into a smaller bucket and mixed in the honey, lavender oil and violet colour with a whisk drizzled the coloured mix around into the plain goatmilk mix to get the swirl - once again all looked great but taking a peek this morning both the G & H and G,H & Lav (swirls are there) logs have these tiny specks!!!! For the G & H I made a 2kg batch so put 3/4 cup of pure organic honey and for the G,H & Lav only a 1/4 and a "bit" as that batch was only 1kg. I'm thinking perhaps too much honey (?) - could anyone help please??

Oh heavens to betsy!!!!! I just read a post from the 10th January about Honey Soap and Ssoapbuddy suggested to JGLMom to only put 1 teaspoon of honey in a 4lb batch - oops!!!!, with 4 lbs being about 1.8 kg I guess I did over do it a tad with 3/4 of a cup of honey for a 2kg batch.

If anyone has any hints about honey in Goatmilk Soaps I'd appreciate it.

Cheers
Ness

That sounds like too much to me. Those spots could be from overheating or the honey recrystalized. I have seen people use as much as 1 TBS of honey per lb. of soap. With that much, my soaps will overheat.

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

I made mine earlier this week - 2tsp for 4 lbs of soap. I was nervous to do anymore than that. Hope you can salvage it!

OK!!!! Please don't anyone have heart failure on me!!!!! I got a little confused with Celsius and Fahrenheit.........I bring all the oils and lye mix down to 90deg. F......not 90deg.C - sorry about that.

I remember the first time we made soap.....we had the temp on Fahrenheit and the soap came out this wild orange/mustard colour - scratched our heads on that one until we realized what was happening!!!!!

But thanks to Soapbuddy it seems I was a tad heavy handed on the honey - only 2 teaspoons next 2kg batch and not 3/4 of a cup!!!!

Have a magical day people
Ness

I hope those of you who read my post will come back and re-read it again..............we just un-moulded the logs of G & H and G,H & Lav, the "specks" have gone and the log is a rich golden honey colour and smells sooooooo good!!!!! I'll leave it for a couple of days before we cut the logs - I'm going to have to call this one "Goatmilk & Golden Honey"

The specks have also gone from the G, H & Lav but the violet colour has faded to a dull matt mauve colour but you can smell the honey and lavender oil.

Cheers
Ness

Sounds like it worked out for you Ness.

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

Thanks Irena - it really is all trial and error and when a mistake is made like that I sure won't make it again!!!!! I have to work on colours now - a wholesaler here is Australia (All Colour Supplies) is sending me samples (for free ) of Water Soluble food colours, Cake food colour, Cosmetic Pigments and some dispersions to try in the goatmilk soaps which is good of him - it's taken me 2 years on and off of researching soap making before we finally felt confident enough to try it and boy it was really worth the time and effort for us - our first batch turned out....well it didn't really turn out all that good - but until this honey episode all out soaps - goatmilk and emu oil - have been great. I formulated a recipe which we stick to for a goatmilk base, same as the emu oil recipe, basic swirling is easy so I'll try column next but colours make me stop and doubt myself - ha!!! only hope that doesn't take 2 years.

Talk soon & thanks for your comments
Ness