Teach Soap

I am having the worst time making soap lately. It's a recipe I have used many, many times, but the last two times, it will not cooperate with me. I recently posted about curdling when I poured Fresh Bamboo FO in. This time, my soap is separating in the molds. There are dark oil drops on the top of my soap bars. Dark, because I used Oatmeal Stout FO.

I did reduce the amount of lye back down to 2.25 oz, as I was told 2.5 oz was too much for the amount of oils I was using. I also used a little over .5 oz shea butter, as I was using up the last of what was left. So I think the amount of shea butter was about .75 oz.

Other than that, and that I've started using sodium lactate in my recipes (incorporated into the water/lye mixture), I cannot think of a reason why my recipe is suddenly not working. I'm getting really bummed. I just ordered a bunch of handmade shaving mugs and want to have all these shaving soaps done when the bowls get here in a month. Sigh.

I don't know how many batches you have under your belt, but you just can't go from 0.5 to 0.75 oz. of shea unless you recalculate your recipe. If you don't have enough of a particluar oils or butter, wait til you get more or recalculate your recipe. Go back to basics. Get familiar with your soapmaking oils and what they do or don't do.

Those dark spots could be anything from old lye, not correctly incorporating the fragrance oil, soaping too hot, not boiling off all the alcohol from beer. From what I'm seeing you are pretty new to soapmaking and are not ready to give out or to sell your soaps. I hope you are not selling, because you're not ready to sell.

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

For a small batch, I would trash it and start over. The smaller the recipe, the more accurate you need to be.
Do the spots zap? Where did this recipe come from? If it came from the net, did you run it through a lye calc to make sure it's accurate? How much do you normally superfat (or lye discount)? Do you have a thermometer to check the temp of your oils and lye water? Are you using a stainless steel pot? If it's aluminum, that reacts with lye and should never be used. Are you using a stick blender?

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

There is no way to know how much more oil (or butter) to add at this point if it zaps. Don't waste more of your ingredients on something that might still not come out right. Use the oils for you next batch instead. Is your scale accurate? Are you reaching a true trace with your stick blender? Which lye calculator did you use?

Here's a thought....weigh your nickel (US) on your scale. It should weigh 5 grams. If it doesn't, your scale could be off.

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

How / when did you add the FO? I find that if I add the FO at trace like some suggest, there is a likelihood that what you described will happen. I always add the FO to the melted fats and oils and mix really well before I combine with the lye. Much more controllable.

I would toss it in the bin. You can't be 100% sure that the rebatch won't still be lye heavy

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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

Thank you for all your help!

http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showt ... oap-recipe

Check this out and start creating what you want then go to soap calc.com and put in your recipes with a 7-8% superfat.
You will get to where you want to be with a little effort. Once you decide on a recipe you could post it and get feedback from the great soaper that lurk here!

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