Teach Soap

After a few successful trials of making cp soap, I got different type of palm oil (it's kinda thicker,looks like lard), I ended up with this:

( I'm not sure if I uploaded the pic)

I didn't use stick blender, as I'd read on this forum some advices for preventing soap go set up due to f.o. I assumed my soap had set up quickly for that reason (since I've been using new palm oil). So,this time I poured f.o.into liquid oils, then mix them with melted solids and afterwards added water-lye solution at 104-105 degrees F (both). After 10th sec.mixture began to get thicker, and to look like in this pic. You don't want to see the outcome.
After 24h hours,soap was greasy with oil all around. Didn't unmould it,and it's still uncut. I'll check it out tomorrow again.

Well,I was wondering if anyone had am idea of what was happening here!?
Do you think it could turn out right? What I'm worry about is that had (and still has) strange consistency I've never seen before.
If anyone is interested, i'll post pictures when unmould and cut it.

Thanks in advance and sorry for my non-native English.

The picture was too big, let me try again.

It looks like the soap didn't reach trace - maybe because it thickened so quickly. Did you fully melt your new palm oil and mix it well before measuring it out for the recipe? It could be that your palm oil wasn't mixed before measuring and has a lot of stearic acid in it. That would cause the soap batter to thicken very rapidly. You should be able to rebatch your soap - I don't think you'll be able to do anything with it the way it is right now.

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

Thanks Linda.
Well, I didn't melt it before, just measured it and melt it with another solids. I've never melted palm oil beforehand. I didn't even know I'm suppose to.
The old one was melted (not stirred) when I got it,but not this one.
Is that standard procedure with palm oil? What about other solid oils? And if I do that,shall I let it cool and solidify again,or ... Shall I all I have melt and stir,let cool and use it when I need it,or just at the moment I make soap.
Ing,too many questions at once!

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

What you mean when say 'mix'? Mix with what? And for how long? How will I know if I got rid of bloody stearic acid? I don't use any standard recipe, I'm experimenting with many oils,butters and other ingredients and I make small batches.
Thank you so much for your replies

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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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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

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

Recipe was run through calculator, I always do that. Superfat was 5%. This was the first time I used cold pressed sunflower and canola oil. Recipe was like suggested (i'd read an article by d.fisher) : coconut,olive,palm oil ,each 25%, castor oil 5%, sunflower and canola 10% each. I made a batch of 400g
total.
I use soapcalc.net every time and never have had superfat over 6. I'm just s beginner and I still don't have guts to experiment with 'selfcalculated' recipes and high percentage of superfatting.
Thank you so much for advices.

Does 'stir well' mean, like 5min stirring? Now when i know what to do, I'll melt all of palm oil and get it ready for usage.
I know stearic acid won't disappear, I thought it might have had some volatile ingredients to come out

If you don't plan to stir the palm and separate it into smaller containers then you'll have to melt it and stir it before each use. The stearate will sink to the bottom again before the palm can solidify.

What temperature were your oils when you added the lye? I generally get my solid fats (like palm) to around 115 to melt the stearate (stearic acid), then I add my room temperature soft fats to those to cool them down. Usually I soap with my fats and lye between 100 and 110* F.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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

You really need a stick blender. Sometimes you can find them in thrift stores if you are worried about the cost.

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

I melted palm oil today,stirred it well and poured into container,but not devided into portions. Is that ok,or do I have to melt and stir it again before use?
Temps were 104-105 F,both (mixed oils and water-lye solution.

I already have stick blender, I'be been using it all the time,but didn't the last time.I thought f.o. had caused seizing,that's why I didn't. Than I realised that was not due to f.o,but was to palm oil.
Thank you all for responding!

Heather, if the stearic acid sinks again to the bottom, does it mean that I need to scoop oil vertically,from top to the bottom? I'm lucky that I have only 2kg distibuted into 2 containers.

You'll need to remelt it and stir it before each use.

I bought a 5 gallon bucket, melted & stirred. Then I divided mine into smaller, microwaveable containers to make it more manageable, but the smaller containers still need to be remelted and stirred prior to measuring for a batch of soap.

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