Teach Soap

Ok i am new to the board and new to soaping. so please bare with me.

The first 4 batches I had the recipes in a folder to keep track and keep notes on how long it takes to cure and if it is a hard/soft bar or how well it does when trying it out etc. BUT I MISPLACED THE FOLDER...GRR!

Ok I have made 6 batches of soap:

1st Batch was a total loss. I did not superfat and it was way lye heavy, I didn't(and still don't know) how to rebatch so I just chucked it.

2nd Batch, for this loaf I just took things I had on hand and I had no colorants or FO or EO. I made tea and used that in place of water and just added some loose tea. the bar turned out super nice really good as a "get your hand clean" soap. My husband is a landscaper so it will all get used. but other than being a super hard bar, nothing special about it.

3rd Batch, Again used oils I had on hand and I split the batter and colored half with cinnamon and added ground oatmeal to the other uncolored half(came out great) didn't get hard as quick as batch #2 but 6 week cure time will bring it til mid November and I recently used a bar in the shower and the oatmeal is a great exfoliator but the bar is a bit slippery/slimy. overall cleans well and doesn't dry out our skin.

4th Batch, I had decided to order colors and some FO just to play around with so I decided to do a 2lb batch scented with Pepper berry Wreath and colored with green a purple berry color and just white( I used TD) I also used a new mold which I got to play with a design. Soap came out well with the scent so far(we are 3 weeks into the cure time) but the purple color I used turned BROWN, which, whatever...it still looks ok. but that took a bit longer than 24 hours til I could unmold.

ok so I got very ambitious this past Saturday and made 2 soaps in one day! ok....

5th Batch, I decided to try an 100% lard recipe because I had it on hand and hadn't used it yet in any recipe. So, why not?? So I read that it has a long time til it reaches trace and so I used my fruit loops scent and played around with 5 colors and still after I made up all the colors It was like so soupy like a light trace and it wouldn't budge even after all the mixing of colors. so I just did a random line pour with them all and set it aside. While this sat I started my second batch of the day. when I came back after making the 2nd batch it was still soupy like but looked like it was hardening around the edges fast forward 48 hours and I have taken the soap out of the mold(thanks to popping it in the freezer because it just would not set up) and I just checked it a while ago and it seemed hard but I picked it up and it was like picking up a stick of butter, kind of indented where my finger were. still really soft... is this batch bad? or does it just need a lot of time? the recipe was 32oz Lard, 4.25oz Lye & 12.16oz Water. I got this recipe online, somewhere...It smells so yummy I hope its not bad!

6th batch I used a combo of 13.13oz Lard, 8.75oz Olive Oil, 4.38oz Coconut oil & 1.75oz Cocoa butter . I believe I super fatted at 5 or 6% and this bar I had 3 colors and scented it with monkey farts. this bar unmolded well after 24 hrs and and the bar is already super hard. but how do I know if it gelled or not? both batch 5 and 6 sat out on the counter with nothing over it. I usually put a towel around my mold but I just left this open on top to see how it would turn out and I don't know how to tell if soap has gelled or not.

Thanks for any input
Megan

Did you run all your recipes through a lye calculator? If you didn't, you really need to as some recipes on the net are seriously lye heavy.
Are you using a scale and weighing everything? Did you use a stick blender?
When soap gels, it start to get darker in the middle and the darkness works its way toward the edges.

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

i usually run my calculations through a lye calculator because I usually have to resize them. With Batch #5 I didn't. (UGH!) which is the batch I am having the issue with. I do have a scale and I do use a stick blender. and im am gonna go on a limb and say it didn't gel, I didn't see any change in color in batch 5 and 6 which I let them both sit out uncovered...is that bad? and as of today its a bit firmer but still like the stick of butter situation. I hoping if im just patient it will eventually....the key word is patient. which that I am not, lol.

Thanks for the reply,
Megan

Whenever you resize the recipe, you need to run it though a lye calculator again. If the soap didn't gel, it starts out soft. At this point I would give it some time.

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

I do run them through a lye calculator when I resize them, that's how I resize them. i will give it a few days. thank you so much!

Megan