Teach Soap

I'm still trying to make some goatmilk & honey soap and "still" having problems with it - thinking I'll resort to powerded honey ????

We got the oils and lye mix to 90 deg C - got to a light trace then added 2 teaspoons of honey to the 1kg batch (ha!!! not the 3/4 cup I originally used ) - mixed in very carefully with a whisk - poured into moulds and still the log came out with "honey dots" through it !!!!!! Does anyone have any suggestions please???? Instead of wrapping the PVC pipes in towels, I made "socks" from the towels and when we fill a pipe we slip on a "sock" over the pipe to keep warm - I know now perhaps not to sock a pipe with a honey ingredient - would this alone have caused the "honey spots"??

Also, when I mix the goatmilk & lye - the goatmilk is in a pyrex dish which sits in a tub of ice - I oh so carefully mix the lye in in short bursts making sure each is fully disolved before adding another burst of lye and although the mix does turn a tad orange, the log when unmoulded is a really good colour...........my question being.........could I mix the lye with a little water first (?) and take the water off the amount of goatmilk we use (?) if I can do this when would I then add the goatmilk to the lye mix when the temp has come down (?) or to the oils when the temp has come down ???

Thanks
Ness

Dissolve the honey in a little bit of water first. As far as the goat's milk, dissovle the lye in minimum water required, let cool, then add the rest of the liquid as goat's milk, either right then, or as soon as the lye water and oils are mixed. Honey tends to heat up a batch. I don't insulate mine at all.

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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.

Ok beautiful helpers.......We made a double batch of Goatmilk & Honey about 3 hours ago went down stairs about 1 hour ago to check on our tubes and both the pipes are erupting......but what we did this time was add the honey to the oils at around 92 deg. F but...........there are also still the "honey spots" so we'll try tomorrow again this time mixing the honey with a little water first - so thank you all for your suggestions, very much appreciated.

Gosh, I've never read about getting the lye mix ready beforehand and not worrying about the temperature ratio to the oils - but hey! whatever works for you is great - is this a common procedure???

Now for the lye & goatmilk mix.........................we have a very good friend who has her own goat farm with so many beautiful goats and she saves the goatmilk for us to use.......in return we make goatmilk soaps for her club to sell to generate some cash for the club................anyway, (I do ramble on sometimes....sorry) some of the goatmilk in the freezer is in small cliplock bags in around 350mls batches - what I did with this double batch was half chilled goatmilk and the other half was frozen - oh did I have a lovely yellowish goatmilk/lye mix or what!!!!! So I now know that works, it's what I'll be doing from now on.

Now I'm going to search a bit before I fall asleep and try to find out why the soap erutped in the moulds - again your hlep would be appreciated if you can tell me what we did wrong "this time"!!!!!

You know, we've made goatmilk plain, goatmilk & oatmeal, goatmilk & Chia Seeds, goatmilk & seaweed, goatmilk & aloe vera oh the list does go on but gosh we're having trouble with the honey!!!!


Cheers
Ness

Aponi, it sounds like your soap overheated and that's why it erupted. Honey can easily cause a soap to overheat. did you insulate it?

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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

Morning....well it's Sunday morning here in Australia........I'm amazed that it did erupt!!!! First time we made the G & H dopey me misread things and told hubby that it was 1/2 cup per 1kg batch so being an over doer that I am we ended up putting 3/4 cup (and a tad more) of honey into our first batch of 2kg......it sure overheated, went wild orange and had honey spots....no more like honey dollups through the soap and was a totally bad batch........so after you helpful soapers said we'd used too much honey, we did another batch but this time only used 2 teaspoons per 1kg batch.......this batch not such a wild orange...more tame but this time still the honey dots.........made another batch yesterday arvo and this time it started to erupt, in the centre of the PVC tube on top is an "X" mark that's starting to pull away with what looks like the the centre of the whole log starting to come up through......then the second log is the same only this log has the "X" wide open with the centre our of it, now set of course......question......why didn't that first batch with so much honey in it erupt and fill the garage down stairs with "soap lava"?????

Also, we didn't insulate this last batch on your previous advise because of the sugar in the honey......could it be the different goatmilk I get perhaps.....Ann has three different breeds of goats and I remember her telling me the Anglo Nubian milk is the richest out of the three.......or.........I use anywhere from 310mls - 325mls of milk for 143gr of lye.........am I putting in too much milk - I use the MMS calculator and pH test the soap - then again I didn't pH test the "honey gone wrong" batch..........we're going to try again this morning but this time disolve the honey in a little warm water first.....it's not going to get the best of us, we'll get it right with your help so please keep thinking
Thanks
Ness

I'm wondering... are you able to stick one in a freezer to slow down the process and prevent the overheating? It would be interesting to try one frozen and one at room temp. And could you send some photos our way, it would be "educational" to see what is happening.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I've taken some photo's for you all to see - hope you can see them all your end - first time I've tried this so here goes.........I've previewed the photo's and there are some more that I can't get on so I'll do another ......OMG!!!!! this is harder than making the soaps!!!!!!
OK!!! just noticed that 3 is the maxium so I'll post the others after this one!!!

G & H_1.jpg [ 14.71 KiB | Viewed 4198 times ]

G & H_2.jpg [ 16.53 KiB | Viewed 4198 times ]

G & H_3.jpg [ 14.48 KiB | Viewed 4198 times ]


Ness

Ok people, here come the others.......... I noticed also it's hard to read the printing I put on the pics so......the first one here is the socks I made to insulate, and the PVC moulds we use. I don't have any trouble with any other goatmilk soaps...so why is the G & H soaps giving me more problems than a possum!!!

Do the photo's give anyone some hints as to what we're doing wrong????

Ness


G & H_4.jpg [ 19.75 KiB | Viewed 4198 times ]
File comment: These are the Goatmilk & Seaweed and the Goatmilk & Chia Seeds

Goatmilk_5.jpg [ 18.57 KiB | Viewed 4198 times ]
File comment: This is one of the racks we finish our soaps off drying on

Drying Racks.jpg [ 21.1 KiB | Viewed 4198 times ]

Thank you for the pics. When soap rises like that, it means that heat is trying to escape. Milk or honey is notorious for overheating. If you want to use both use less of either, soap cool and don't insulate.

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

Morning Irena - well it's 6:45am here!!!!

Ok, if I use less milk does this mean I need to compensate with water as I could mix the lye with the water, but when do I add the milk (?) before in the cooled down oils or after a light trace

Ness

Good afternoon!
I would dissolve your lye in minimum water required for your batch. Then add the rest as milk as soon as you combine your oils and lye water. You can also add the milk at a very light trace.

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

Good Afternoon,

You guys are the best, and thank you for all your help Irena. We're flying to LA in September this year, then up to San Francisco, our son-in-law is from there - then over to Chicago hoping to "bump" into Al Capone - then to Vegas (of course!!!) but I'm hoping to find lots of shops where I can get lots of great scents 'n' colours to post back home - we'd like some sort of soap class where we can get new idea's to keep the grey matter active - suggestions and idea's all welcomed and taken on board.

I've found a great colour supplier (All Colours Natural) but he has so many colours it's made me feel like I'm in a spiders web - I'm thinking we'll stick with the liquid colours as the soaps we make just now are totally for their properties and not looks but there are customers who love colour along with the thought of using "goatmilk" and I feel comfortable swirling/using the liquids - scents have me worried a tad (!!!!) also found a great supplier of scents (Scott Aromatics) but I know that will be trial and error.

Thank you all once again, this arvo when Bill gets home we'll made another G & H batch (it's not going to beat me ), disolve the honey first, mixing the lye with a little water, adding the goatmilk then the honey (?) to the cooled oils then tracing - .

You know, all the reading I did to get to this point and 90% of what I read just doesn't apply in a real application. What I've read from what other soapers have written, everyone has their own way of making soap - I'm so intrigued with what Luna wrote re not worrying about any heat in the lye mix - see another myth gone west!!!!!

Have a magical morning, afternoon, evening wherever you are - thank you all Ness

You might want to try a different mold. PVC pipe really traps the heat. Do you have any loaf or slab molds?

I find that if I add my honey to room temperature lye solution and then let it cool off again, I don't get overheating. I did this recently with a honey and beer soap - added lye to the beer, let it cool, then added the honey, let it cool. I actually had to nudge gel along by putting the soap in a preheated oven for a little bit.

Edited to add that my EO mix had nutmeg, cinnamon and clove, and I took a water discount. I was sure with all of those heating ingredients, I'd have trouble but no. It turned out beautifully.

Good luck with your next attempt!