Teach Soap

Hi. I'm new at soaping and I've make a few batches that I'm very happy with. I wanted to try a baby soap recipe that called for chamomile infused olive oil, which I prepared at home. The recipe called for 48.7 oz of infused olive oil, 4.3 oz of castor oil, 20 oz of distilled water and 6.6 oz of lye.

The soap looked and smeledl great when I poured into the mold, but 24 hours later, when I was to ready to unmolding, I noticed that the soap had developed a mashed potato consistency in the center of the bars. I did not color the soap, but the "mashed messed" was of dark orange/brown color. The bars look perfectly OK on top, but not on the bottom

I soaped at low temperatures. Any ideas of what this could be?

Thanks

Your recipe looks fine. It's possible that you did not reach a true trace since you used a lower temp. The mashed potato consistency in the middle could be from the soap starting to gel. If you're getting an orange/brown, that sounds like lye is seeping out. If you used an accurate scale, I would rebatch. Use gloves and a silicone or a stainless steel spoon and scoop it out into a crock pot and cook it.

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

Thanks Irene. I did reach a very noticeable trace before I poured into the mold, so I'm not sure that this could be the reason? Just guessing here. I looked at it again today, and it looks as if the brown/orange goo is turning a lighter color brown, but still very soft.

I will rebatch and see what happens. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.