Teach Soap

Okay. Here are my experiments so far. It kind of makes me laugh. A. Crisco, sunflower oil, and plain strong coffee. With grounds mixed in for scrubbing.

That worked out so well I decided to try the same thing with green tea. B. This came out very brittle and full of what I assume are tiny air bubbles? I'm afraid to use it, the book I'm using says it may be lye heavy.

Then I ordered some real fragrance oil, green pigment color and a mold the other week. I got overly excited and didn't exactly thing the whole thing through when I decided to make a bigger batch. I ran out of cheap olive oil and had to substitute with my good cooking EVOO.(that's the part that makes me not laugh so much. )

The soap, a coconut, olive oil, and castor came out looking pretty nice but the FO green tea and lavender, I thought was WAY to strong, also thought I'd messed up the recipe since the soap was very hard. And panicked again, I've since read that scents fade over time. I chopped it up to see if I could re-batch. Plus since all I could smell was lavender that green color didn't make me happy. (C.) But THEN I came up with a solution. Make purple to go around the green that would be pretty and maybe dilute the smell? And got example D.

Turns out my MP blue soap color from hobby lobby doesn't mix with the pink and make purple. Now. I've ordered some more pigment colors and fragrance. Live and learn right? keep it simple stupid, hurry up and wait, FOLLOW THE RECIPE all come to mind. For now. It seems that the soap I chopped up with my good olive oil in it was right all along.



Please feel free to critique what you're seeing. Like those dark patches in the middle of bars A and C. What is that?

I'm sorry the person before me replied within the quote- that can be hard to read (if you do that people, please change your text color. Otherwise, put your reply OUTSIDE the quote).

I agree, though, those darker spots are probably partial gel. Not a biggie, other than aesthetically. It can be hard to prevent something like that from happening in soaps with certain things in them, such as goat milk or anything with sugar. Even if you get the soap RIGHT into the freezer it can start to gel in the center and darken before it has time to cool off.

I had one batch that turned out like you described with your green tea soap- brittle and hard, and I couldn't get it to cut. But I think it was only because I didn't let it gel- it was a soap with no milk/sugar in it (I usually make goat milk soap) AND I put it right in the freezer. Then I think I tried to cut it too early. I think, if your soap doesn't gel or you actively prevent gel, it helps to keep the soap in the mold longer to let it do its thing. But I did post that soap on here and never was 100% sure that was the problem. I had no issues with the FO I used. My only other thought was that I used too much colorant (I was using oxides) and that somehow made the soap brittle, but IDK. I haven't been brave enough to try that particular recipe again since.

I LOVE the colors, esp the color of the green one. What green colorant did you use? And have you seen BB's fragrance oil calculator? It has been a lifesaver for me so many times. I also like that bar with the coffee grounds- I've been meaning to do one like that. Maybe that's what I'll do today- I keep telling myself "get off the computer and make soap," but I have a bunch of half baked ideas, just nothing that is so much like "OMG I MUST MAKE THIS NOW." You know, like when you get a great idea and you know EXACTLY what you want to do, from oils to color to fragrance. But that's not even 100% true- I know I want to do the squirty swirls soap from Anne Marie's Soap Crafting book (but with a different scent- the second I saw a pic of that soap I KNEW what scent it had to be, and I'll give you a hint- it was not even close to what she picked...). AND a funnel pour avocado soap. I'm just tired and being a bum:)

What was your recipe? How much did you superfat? At what temp did you combine the oils and lye? Did you use a stick blender and reach a true trace? MP colors from the craft store are not meant for CP soap.

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

_________________
~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Sorry for so long in answering. All of the recipes I've used so far have been from the Everything Soapmaking book. Only on first one I substituted the olive oil with sunflower, after doing the calculation on paper. Yes to the stick blender and as to the temperature. The first few I didn't bother.My old thermometer's battery was dead and I was too cheap to buy a new one. I realize now this was an error and have since gotten one. And a digital scale, before I was using an analog kitchen scale. Trace. I'm not sure how exactly I even managed to not make a huge horrible mess. Finally discovered what true trace is and that I wasn't getting it before. :O Anyhow, I took all of your questions as advice and am being much more careful nao. Thanks again for the feed back.

They aren't perfect yet but I'm still proud. Front and back on the right I used BB almond biscotti, the one in the back is about a week old and the one in the foreground is about a month. I actually LOVE watching it changed, and would like to use scents that do this more. The one left front I used honeysuckle, doesn't smell like the real thing but still sweet smelling and fairly strong after about a month of curing. Finally the pink and green one in the back. MORE learning curve. I used Baby Rose and learned what trace acceleration means. It still turned into soap though and smells just loverly. Will still definitely use it because roses are my thing. But be more aware next time.

The recipe, no matter where you got if from, can be wrong. Typos happen all the time, sometimes we make a mistake we don't see until we go to repeat the recipe, and sometimes the recipe is just wrong to begin with. When you ask questions in the future it is helpful to add in the recipe percentages and the lye amounts, as well as the temp you mixed in, as these make a huge difference in the outcome. Glad you got a good scale and now know what real trace is. That is a large portion of the battle for sure! Sounds like you have this all under control now, so much luck in your future batches!

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

Tammy