Teach Soap

I finally did it--my first soap! I thought it turned out well but after curing for a month, the bars have a slightly tacky feel on the top and you can still make an indent with your finger tip if you press hard. I know olive oil soaps are supposed to take longer to cure but I thought the coconut oil would help make up for that. I ran everything through Soap Calc and the number seemed good as far as I could tell. I added no fragrance to either batch.

Batch One: recipe was Basic soap from Alicia Grosso; olive oil and coconut oil with a small amount of castor oil, 5% super fat.

Batch Two: recipe was the same as #1 with the addition of shea and cocoa butter, avocado and sunflower oil, 8% super fat.

They looked fine when I poured them into the mold, there were a few drops of oil on the surface the next morning but I did not unmold and cut them until that evening and by then they looked fine. I thought both batches smelled like olive oil that's been cooked with but it was not unpleasant. I put the cut bars in the basement and turned them every few days. After about a week, I could faintly smell the cocoa butter in batch two which pleased me. I made the soap on 7/30 so it has been slightly over a month and I figured it was time to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

I can no longer smell the cocoa butter scent, which is a bummer, but neither batch has a strong smell. They are both a light green (batch one is a little darker, but so was the EVOO) and look sort of creamy. They lather nice and make my skin feel nice, there is no problem there. What I'm curious about is this: I gave a bar of each to a friend to test for me and she commented on the sticky/tacky feel of the tops--I had not noticed it. So I looked them over and they do have sort of a soda ash look on the top but when you press your finger to it, it feels kind of tacky and sticky although the bar itself is not really soft. I can press my finger into it but I have to use a fair amount of pressure so I figured that would just get better as they age. I don't think they felt like that at first, I know they didn't have the frosted look because I remember thinking that I was pleased I didn't have any ash on them.

Does anyone have any idea what would cause the stickiness or do you think that will go away as they cure? The soap seems to be fine, I like the way it feels when I use it, so I certainly hope this is no big deal, but I'm really curious about it.

What is the humidity like where you are?

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

I live in western Michigan, humidity is not bad. I brought the bars upstairs and set them out on a rack under a ceiling fan, it hasn't made a difference. And today I cut some of the bars from each batch in half and they are still kind of soft and have a slightly tacky feel in the center, too.

It's possible that the soap did not gel. If that's the case, that could be why they are sticky. Are you sure your olive oil is 100% olive and not a blend of other oils?

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

It's Pompeian, I did a little research and according to the report put out by UC Davis, that's one of the companies that doesn't meet the standards for EVOO. Unfortunately, I'm unlikely to discover exactly what they used. I was so excited when I walked into Meijer and they had this huge jug of it for half price. As I said, it lathers up nice and leaves my skin feeling nice so I'm not going to throw them out or anything. And since I still have a fair amount of the oil, I'd like to use the rest of it, is there some other oil I could use to help compensate for the softness?

Oh, wait. I forgot to mention that I heated the oven up to about 200, put the filled molds in and then turned it off so they would have a warmish place to sit overnight. And batch one did develop a small crack down the middle of the top. They both have kind of a creamy, opaque look although it's more pronounced in the case of batch 2 (the one with the additional oils and butters.) I'm not sure I understand the pro's and con's of the gel phase, doesn't that mostly affect their appearance? Why would not going through gel make them sticky?

Soaps that don't gel take longer to saponify. It can take up to three days before they no longer zap. Ungelled soaps can start out sticky and soft. Gelling speeds up the saponification, or the chemical reaction between the oils and lye. Both work best when they cure for 4-6 weeks. I prefer not to gel as the soaps come out lighter in color and I can use less fragrance.

It's possible that your olive oil is adulterated with liquid soybean oil, as it's a less expensive filler for unethical companies. I would forget about this soap for a while. It can still cure out hard and without stickyness. If one of your soaps developed a crack, that means your soap was trying to overheat. That can happen with milk, sugar ie: honey and some fragrances.

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

Thanks for the advice. It seems like I read somewhere that soybean oil makes a soft soap, and since this was one of the brands mentioned in that report, I wouldn't be surprised if that is exactly what the issue is. I've got enough to let them age, I'll just set them aside and try one every once in a while to see how they change over time, I may even attempt to re-batch a couple of them and add a fragrance. My plan was to find a good basic recipe and do a small batch every so often so I'd have them to give as gifts but it seems like everyone I know likes a different fragrance!
Maybe I should test out some different recipes by doing very small batches; I'd like to try tallow and lard in a soap. And beer. Oh, and I saw somewhere that someone used wine, I find that idea intriguing.

Get your basic recipe(s) down and have a few batches under your belt before you attempt beer or wine soaps.
Those are not easy for beginners and many things can go wrong.

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

Will do. Thanks for being here.