Teach Soap

Hi there,

I'm still relatively new to cold process and yesterday attempted a salt bar using a couple recipes from The Everything Soap Book and ingredients from Brambleberry (recipe below). I poured them into BBs round silicone mold, checked on them this afternoon and the was a bit of soda ash (I had sprayed liberally with alcohol after pouring) but worse, a lot of pooled liquid on several of the bars (that was clearly salt water because a cut on my finger stung like crazy). They were also quite soft still even though the recipe indicated hardness would happen quickly. Any thoughts on what went wrong? I was really excited about this one and am worried they can't be salvaged. Thanks in advance.

I actually split the recipe in half after light trace and before adding the clay and fragrance. Btw, I think the Kentish Rain soaps had more of a liquid problem.

4oz. Shea butter
8oz. Sweet almond oil
10.1 oz. Olive oil pomace
10.1 oz. Coconut oil
.96 oz. Castor oil
12.58 oz. Water (with a little tusseh silk)
4.69 oz. Lye

Half batch also had:
1/2 lb. Pink Himalayan salt
1.5ish oz. Brambleberry essential oil blend
1 tbl. Kaolin clay

Other half also had:
1/2 lb. White dead sea salt
1.5ish oz. Kentish Rain fragrance oil
1 tbl. Bentonite clay

I put all of this through soapcalc. If you want the original recipes let me know.

Dead Sea Salt. That's your biggest problem right there. It's an incredibly good humectant so it draws in moisture and then sweats like crazy.

I've never used olive oil in a salt soap, only coconut, shea, cocoa & castor, so mine only take a few hours to completely harden. I'm thinking that much olive may have slowed down your hardening a bit as well.

_________________
Genny

I've found sweet almond oil really slows down the hardening process, and I'm only used it up to 10%. Yours is a high ratio, that could be a cause for softness!

And, as my left brain (Genny) said, dead sea salt will cause the water droplets. I've had this happen with Himalayan sea salts as well, unless it is the ultra fine variety.

_________________
~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I find dead sea salt creates a salty pool on top of my soaps, even though I live in the desert.

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

Oh no!!! Thank you for your replies...but will this ever remedy itself? I totally get letting it harden for awhile (and thanks for the input about the olive oil...I'll keep that out next time, and lower the amount of sweet almond oil). Will the pooling of water ever stop or do I just have to scratch this batch?

I'll stick with a lower amount and size of salt if I do this again.

Thanks again!

You can keep wiping it off, but it might weep for a while.

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