Teach Soap

I made my first batch of soap and after waiting the time period given in the instruction I cut the soap......to my surpise the soap crumble(what happen?) I followed the recipe.

The recipe was: 6 oz Coconut Oil
6 oz Palm Oil
9 oz Olive Oil.....1 oz Castor Oil...7 oz Water 3.0 oz Lye

I used the 2 pound mailer mold...(also my soap didn't fill the whole mold)

I am about ready to give up only after my first try..........Help!!!


Lovealways!

The recipe looks ok to me. 3 ozs. of lye would make it about 9% superfat. Do you have an accurate scale? Electric or batteries? If batteries, how old are they? Where did your lye come from and your olive oil? At what temp did you combine the oils and lye water? Did the soap gel?
I would convert your recipe into grams for better accuracy.

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

I cam out with a 7% super fat with this recipe as is and see no problem with it. It shouldn't crumble and it should be hard enough to be unmolded within 24 hrs or so.
I would start looking at all the questions Irena asked and make sure those things are as they should be. Then review your process and decide if you may have made a measuring error. Did the soap gel or not? When you say "crumbled", do you mean a little bit around the edges or do you mean a lot, as in the bar is not holding together? What type of mold did you use? Did you either use homogenized palm or mix your palm well? Did you achieve a good trace? There are a lot of factors that can influence whether or not the recipe sets up as it should, but this recipe should set up and in no way should it take 3 days to be able to cut, unless something was done improperly. If it is truly crumbling, it sounds like it is extra hard.

That being said, don't even think about giving up! It is just your first batch and you didn't blow anything up, burn yourself, Polk your eye out, catch the dog on fire, or feed your kid a lye sandwich, so take a chill pill and pat yourself on the back for having made it through a batch without a major issue! Believe me, no matter how many years you have been soaping, things sometimes happen you may not know why! Live and learn! Have patience grasshopper! Run through the checklist and see if you can figure out what the issue was caused by. Chalk it up to experience and plan your next batch.

While learning, I would cut the size of the batch to 1 lb and change the measurements to grams so that you are working with a smaller amount of soap and a more accurate unit of measure. But whatever you do, hang in there and try, try again!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

You know Tammy I just thought of something. I don't use palm at all, but if it's not homogenized the stearic acid seeps to the bottom right? So by the time you get to the bottom of the container it has a lot of stearic. Wouldn't that make the soap crumbly?

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

Yep Irena, for sure. That's why I asked if she either used homogenized or mixed it well. Even if she mixed it, left it sit a while too long and then went back to it she could get a pocket with nothing but stearic or none. You never know.
I don't use it either, but have seen it be the down fall of many experienced soapers, so a newbie may have missed that step easily.

ETA: It really is the simplest reason for her predicament that I could think of, cuz this recipe should be fine. Hard to say though since our video cam didn't record properly!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Everything I used to make the batch was purchased at Bramble Berry including the battery operated scale. When I cut the soap each piece crumbled.

I guess I will count the first batch as a lost and a learning experience.
I would like to try this recipe but add shea butter to the recipe. How do I know how much shea butter to use. Also what size mold do I use for this soap recipe.

Thanks for all your help.

6.5 oz Palm oil
6.5 oz Coconut oil
7.5 oz Olive oil
1.3 oz Castor oil
8 oz Water
3.1 oz lye

You didn't answer, did you get homogenized palm? If not, did you carefully and fully stir/mix the palm after it was heated? Did you allow it to sit for a while after you stirred/mixed it?

If so, that could be your problem, the stearic not being mixed properly. If you did that correctly, are you sure of your measurements? Did you gel your soap? Did you cover it? Was there a crack in it?

As for adjusting your recipe, you will need to recalculate it so that you can get the correct amount of lye and water. You can use a lye calculator to do the recipe. I use soap calc. Many here use the Brambleberry one, and there are others too. You generally arrange and add ingredients by percentages so that you can make any size batch you want, rather than allowing the recipe to dictate the size mold you use. If you have a recipe you are using that is written in ounces (or grams), just input that recipe into the soapcalc and it will give you the percentages. Copy those numbers, then reset the soapcals to the number of ounces/grams you want and it will give you the correct amount of each ingredient. This way you can adjust for any size mold you have.

I suggest doing a 1 pound batch and using grams for measurement so you can be accurate and not use a lot of oils until you get the hang of things.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Hello

@Tammy.....I purchased the palm oil from Bramble Berry in the starter cold processing kit.

Not sure what "gel" means......I have read books on soaping but I guess you learn things as you make soap and just learn as you go.

Still a bit confused on using the soap cal

Thank
Lovealways

Did you heat the palm oil and then stir it well before you used it? Did you leave it sit a while after your stirred it, before you poured the amount you needed into your batter?

Gel is when your soap (sitting in the mold) heats up due to chemical reaction. It alters the end color and some people do not like to gel, so they put their soap in the fridge or do not insulate it so that it won't react. Others always gel, like me. Don't worry about gel now, as I doubt that had anything to do with your issue.

The soap calc is a bit more complex than some of the other lye calculators, many people like using BB's, especially when they are new to using them. No matter which one you use, you have to use one to make sure that the recipe is correct, that the lye amount is right. Typos happen all the time, it is important to double check no matter where you got the recipe.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

As i recall maybe I didn't stir if I did maybe it wasn't long enough.(think this had something to do with it turning out the way it did?)

The recipe said melt coconut and palm oil. Add olive oil and castor oil
Slowly and carefully add the lye mixture to the oils

I am going to try the soap calu on Bramble Berry and see if I can understand this.

Sorry, for asking so many question......this is harder than I though it would be...LOL!!!

Lynn(Lovealways)

BrambleBerry Palm oil is not homogenized you have to melt the entire package stir well then measure the amount you need for your soap. If you didn't completely melt the package it would definitely create the crumbles. You need to remelt the entire package each time before you can measure out what you need. When my palm oil is gone I don't think I will reorder it for that very reason.

Lynn, please don't worry about asking questions! We don't mind answering.

There are so many things that can alter how a soap turns out so when something goes wrong, we usually start with the basics and go from there. It really helps if you take notes on everything as you're making soap so that if something happens, its easier to troubleshoot.

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

You need to get your oils and lye at about 110 degrees. If you are not familiar with the soapmaking process and you soap too cool, you can reach false trace. That could make your soap crumble (and also lye heavy with lye pockets). Do you have a thermometer? If you don't, I suggest that you get one.

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

The palm oil that I have is from Bramble Berry I melted the whole package......I probably didn"t stir once I measured it I just put it all in the bowl together.....(Do all the oils have to be heated other than the palm and coconut oil?) I didn't heat the olive and castor oil

I checked the temp and the lye mixture was about 110 and so was the other mixture.
Where can I get palm oil that is not homogenized?

I guess thats all for now

Thanks for all your help

Lynn(LoveAlways)