Teach Soap

I am a newbie at cold process soap, and I made my first batch (major fail), and my second one turned out, but has a weird unpleasant smell to it. I followed a recipe I found on the internet that was a company's "best seller" soap and it does not smell good. It was unfragranced, but had spices in it to give it an aroma. It just smells... weird. I can't even explain it. So I made another batch of a different soap that included coffee mixed with lye, and the coffee started smelling burnt. Now that the soap is done, it also smells unpleasant. Just has a very distinct smell, and both soaps do smell similar with this strange aroma. Will the scent go away after the soap has cured? I wish I could explain the smell. Anybody else experience this?

Sometimes spices will give off a "different" sort of smell. Most don't hold up well in CP. Coffee mixed with lye will also do this, but the smell should go away as the soap cures. Soaps made with milk can also have an ammonia type smell at first, but it's usually gone in about a week or so.

Did you run the recipes through a lye calculator before using them to be sure you had the correct amount of lye?

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

I agree ljm. Also, it could be your oils that you're using. Do they smell before you use them in you batch?

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Genny

How big of a batch and how much did you superfat? Some recipes that are floating on the net are serioiusly lye heavy. That might account for the smell if your oils were fresh. Did you use milk?

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

I did use a lye calculator. I kind of just followed of the recipe, but made a few adjustments. I think it might have been the lye/coffee combo. It's a little better today, but last night it was just a sickening weird smell! Hopefully it goes away. :/ Does anyone have any easy beginners cold process soap recipes? :p

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

I highly recommend Soapqueens youtube clips for newbies

She has a great easy beginners recipe & its a hard bar with good lather.
Great place to start

My very second batch of soap I made with green tea instead of water for the lye solution. I cooled it down, but not fully to ice cubes before adding the lye to it. At first the lye solution turned black and smelled really horrible - like 'something' burnt. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to use it, but went ahead with it for the learning curve and experience merit badges to pin on my soapmaking sash.

After gelling and cutting it smelled somewhat less than horrible, and after it cured, the smell was completely gone and all you could smell was the peppermint oil that I had added. It was an off brown color though which I didnt like, but the people who tested it liked the color just fine.

You could try a recipe of 48% crisco, 28% coconut oil, and 24% olive oil. This is the "basic" recipe I started with and it makes pretty good soap on its own. It is a fairly economical recipe, so if you mess up something, you are not out a lot of money for exotic or higher priced oils. I feel that its a good recipe to experiment with. I superfat 5-7%. Make sure that you run this recipe through your lye calculator for accurate measurements. And - GOOD LUCK!!

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Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com

My first two batches were terrible. I used kelp in one and cinnamon in the other. The cinnamon has mellowed (and it has been over 2 years) the kelp one will not. Then I did a no fragrance and no color batch.... better. I have learnt sooooo much since then! If there is no fragrance in the soap I make my DH swears it smells like play dough, I'm not sure I agree with him. My sister thinks it just smells like a clean soap scent. I do agree that it has a scent that is pleasant. So go back to square one like I had to do and you will find your mojo.

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