Teach Soap

Okay - I was being bit cheap - I substituted what should have been olive oil for canola oil as the properties on soap calc didn't appear to change. Not all of it only 12%. It was a new recipe I was trying anyway so I don't know if it might have been just as soft if all of it was olive oil. After three days I still can't get the soap out of silicone molds because the underside (the side in the bottom of the mold) is very soft and gooey! No zap, though! Quite possibly it didn't gel either. I've put it in the freezer now hoping that I can get it out once frozen. I think once it is out and drying out it will be fine. Here's the recipe:
Beeswax 1%
Castor 7%
Canola 12%
Coconut 25%
Palm 25%
Olive 30%
Water 38%
This was for 46 oz of oil so 6.4 oz of Lye and 2 oz of Fragrance oil - Black Raspberry Vanilla

What do you think? Has anyone used canola oil much? Looking back at past recipes I have used canola at 15 and even 17% without a problem but that was before I ever used any olive oil. So, perhaps the two together 42% is just too high a percentage of liquid oils for unmolding easily. I still think they'll be okay once they're out - it's just so hard to wait so many days to unmold!!

Anyone else have a problem with recipes that are too soft?

Thanks!
Sherri

With more than 50% of your recipe being soft oils (olive, canola & castor) and using full water, then I could see it being soft for a while. Plus, if it didn't gel that would definitely add to the softness.

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Genny

Canola and castor are both soft oils. I would leave the canola out next time and lower your castor to maybe 5%.

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

Thank you for your replies! Next question - will this firm up over time? or is there too much soft oils to ever firm up? Is it possible to rebatch by melting this down in a crock pot and adding to that a new batch of palm and coconut oils with lye water to match their quantities (as though a new batch of soap). Can re-batches be done this way? And then cooking as a hot process soap? I'm thinking I would add the second small batch at trace into the crockpot of this failed melted soap.
-Sherri

Go hide that batch for a long while. It should get harder eventually.

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

Okay! Well, freezing them did get them out of their molds. They are Easter chicks and bunnies so they can hide on the curing rack for a while!! The others were little hearts for embeds so I can use those anytime but am not ready yet!! I'll remember to watch my soft oil percentages more closely from now on. I guess I didn't think of it because I had made a successful batch with only olive and castor which was 100% soft oils!! That'll be hidden on the cure rack 'til June!!
Thanks!!
Sherri

Olive oil shows as a soft oil on the lye calc, but it's actually a hard oil. That's the only exception.

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

Did you go to soapcalc.net to check your recipe to see what qualities your soap would have? If not you should it is pretty nifty!
Here are what the soap qualities should be;

Hardness 29-54

cleansing 12-22

Conditioning 44-69

bubbly 14-46

creamy 16-48

iodine 41-70

INS 136-165

If your recipe is not within range then you could adjust your recipe and check it again until it is. If you click on a specific oil it will tell you it's qualities in box 5 under one, all is the qualities of your whole recipe.

only thing that stood out to me, is you might be using too much water, for 75 oz of oils (my usual recipe weight) I usually don't use more than 22-24 oz of water. I us Brambleberry's lye calculator, try running your recipe through theirs to see if that gives you a different water amount.

edited to add:
ok, I have too much time on my hands, so I took the liberty of running your recipe through BB's lye calculator on my own, and since you didn't specify a superfat % I went with 5... Here's what I got, for 46 oz oil weight.

Beeswax 0.46oz 1.00%
Canola Oil 5.52oz 12.00%
Castor Oil 3.22oz 7.00%
Coconut Oil (92 Degrees) 11.50oz 25.00%
Olive Oil 13.80oz 30.00%
Palm Oil 11.50oz 25.00%
5% Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) Amount 6.410oz
Ounces of liquid recommended 15.18oz
Yields 67.59oz

Man I feel stupid now one of the first things you mention in this post is using soapcalc that is what I get for speed reading,