Teach Soap

I've had a bad week, yesterday I made a batch of coconut milk soap that traced so quickly it took me by surprise and I had to jam it into the mould. I can see through the walls of the silicon mould that there are air pockets all through it, it's a mess. Does milk soap rebatch okay? I haven't had to rebatch anything yet but don't really want to waste it. Any advice? Will it look awful?

I rebatched a milk soap the next day because of a really REALLY stupid mistake. Somehow my superfat got set to ZERO in soapcalc. I shredded/chunked it up easily since it was still really soft, tossed it into a crock pot, added a tablespoon more of milk and the missing superfat oils. Expect your soap to turn a lovely shade of cat vomit and your fragrance will cook off too. You can add more colorant and fragrance when the soap cools below your FOs flashpoint. Glop into your mold, slam it around several times, cover with plastic wrap to smooth the top or give it a more rustic, textured top. Sorry the gremlins got you too!

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Jennifer
Doing my best to blow up my kitchen. In style!

This is a timely post, since I probably messed up the goat milk soap I made today. The gremlins paid me a visit for sure. I also dropped my bottle of rice bran oil spilling it across my wood floor. Even though I've cleaned it several times it remains slippery. I put signs all around to warn others and myself lest I forget the slippage and go running for the phone or to check the oven.

I put. Know in the fridge because it looked so bad I thought it might actually explode on me - and there it remains. I'll take it out today and see what I can do. Bad news about the fo - I don't buy fragrance in large amounts and I probably used up all I had of that particular one in this batch. Maybe I can use it to make laundry detergent..... That's interesting about the superfatting. How did you know it had happened? Does it just not set up?

Don't feel too bad ladies. The gremlins clipped me today too, but not the point of a flaming oven this time. Just a very nasty accelerating goat milk soap. I think it was a combination of the milk, kaolin clay, and one or both of the BB Carnation FO sample and the BB Rosehip Jasmine. The batter turned into spackle with two pulses of the stick blender, and when the evil eye didn't bring it into submission, the beat-down began. While beating in the colorants and smacking it into the mold, I yelled, "It's either you, or me, and it ain't gonna be me!" It's currently sulking in the clear silicone mold and doing its best to heat up in the fridge right now, and it would have been deep-sixed in the freezer if I had any room. Very glad it was just a two-pound test batch. How can something that smells so good be so ill-behaved?

goodcleanfun - I cringed when I read about the rice bran oil on your wood floor! Did you put down kitty litter to soak the worst of it up first? That may be worth a call to a flooring company for advice.

sherwoor - don't give up on your soap yet. It may not look the way you envisioned, but you might have something you'll like once it's unmolded and cut. I had a batch accelerate on me a few weeks ago that dashed my grand design plans, but I really liked the result. It would just be nice to skip the excitement of unexpected acceleration to get the same result.

As for my rebatch, I discovered the superfat error right after I made the soap and started writing my notes. With 0 superfat, it was going to be some strong stuff. I think I actually moaned out loud when I saw that number on the recipe. I'll never understand how that happened either. I could have either had really pretty and fragrant floor soap or rebatched it into something more suited to human skin. I opted for rebatch practice and although it's butt-ugly, it's the best soap I ever used in my life. Really, it looks like something my old cat choked up every morning. Go figure, huh?

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Jennifer
Doing my best to blow up my kitchen. In style!

I think I'm going to have a matching cat-vomit-esque looking soap when and if mine sets. I'm so disappointed too, I had a beautiful pink peacock swirl, of course the best one I ever managed to make, and now it's gone. All I have left to show are the 2 small soaps that I didn't put in the oven to CPOP. That'll teach me to leave well enough alone.

Being my usual impatient self, I pulled the mould out of the fridge right after I posted and sliced it up. Some very strange swirls inside where I didn't mix some of colours completely - too frantic to get it into the mould by the time I added the colours - and a couple of little air holes but nothing too awful. I've sliced the edges off, because it didn't all make it to the edges of the mould, and ended up with square-ish rather than oblong shapes, but I think it'll do, for personal use maybe . I don't want to rebatch it, all that talk of cat vomit......I have two cats and clean up enough of that stuff!
To add to this week's woes (really, enough is enough!) I made a small batch of confetti soap in a milk carton day before yesterday, with grated up leftovers in it. The soap is white and the grated bits are blue violet and pink so I threw in some lavender oil and thought it would look pretty. BUT it's really soft and sticky. This is a recipe I've used several times with no issues, and I didn't think the grated bits would hurt it. I haven't sliced it, it's too soft.
Maybe I'll go and do some gardening instead.........

The grated bits shouldn't affect the main batch. I do confetti soap all the time and have never had an issue. Hoping it turns out for you! Sending soap hardening juju!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

If the soap does not gel, it can start out soft or a little sticky.

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

Thanks Heather,the juju worked, when I sliced the soap it was fine. Not as pretty as I thought it would be, a little bit muddy, but it looks okay . Gelling confuses me. Unless the recipe says not to, I cover and wrap everything for at least a day. I peek all the time, and sometimes I can see a soap is gelling, sometimes not. I made a squirty patterned soap in a silicon loaf mould yesterday and I swear it didn't gell although it could just have been hard to tell because of the splatters on the top.