Teach Soap

Oh crappity crap. After many successes (30 batches or so), I think I have my first total flop. Not sure if I should toss this or not. Made this soap on the evening of June 2; here it is June 7 and I don't dare unmold this batch, as its got a thin layer of goop on the top. Not liquid, just soft batter. And I don't see any signs of soda ash either, which I normally see at this point.

Everything seemed perfectly normal during the soaping process - lye seemed normal, solution clear when mixed. More details:

Lye: 180 grams
Water: 420 grams (30% strength)
Superfat: 8%
ETA: I use SoapCalc.

Olive oil: 1190 grams (85%)
Coconut oil, 92 deg: 140 grams (10%)
Castor oil: 70 grams (5%)
Brambleberry Vanilla Select fragrance: 70 grams (5%)

Coconut oil melted in microwave and mixed into soft oils.
Oils and lye mixed at 100 deg F.
Stirred with a spoon mainly because 30% lye is the highest I've used. Stirred long enough to see emulsion, then checked temps to see if the batter was getting warm (it was - went up 3 degrees). Stirred a bit more - testing it by seeing how it ran off the spoon. Once thickened, poured into mold, which is made from wood.

Room temps were probably around 68 deg F or so.

Covered it with a bankers box, plus a few blankets. I do this mainly out of fear my cats will get into it. Or stray cat hairs.

What was new:

Had never used Brambleberry before, but I doubt that's it.
First time using a full tray for this particular mold - but how can that matter? I've only used half of this tray mold before.

Zap test: not really zapping; pretty bitter, alkaline taste though.

Crappity crap. I decide to make the biggest batch ever and its my first marginal soap. Not sure if I should give up on this or not. How do you even rebatch soap you can't shred?

Opinions?

AprilPrey - Check my recent post "Multiple Personality Soap." I'm SURE I did nothing wrong, was feeling GREAT yesterday, and still the gremlins visited me. RATZ!

Oh, well... Great thing about soaping is that even with mistakes there's hardly any waste and ya get a second chance.

I didn't get pics yesterday, but my really KEWL cocoa/pink/white swirl "fell in" under a lake of oil. It was saved... I remolded it after mixing it up during gel stage (it went into gel as I was scooping from the wood mold back into the pot). (Can NOT believe I was not freaking out, because that's my norm... But I was so danged cool, I was actually laughing! I figure, I sure learned a lot.

Just relax & dump it from the mold back into a stainless steel pot. Put over the very LOWEST flame you have (most folks use crockpot, but I prefer direct heat, a gas flame so small you can see only 1/8" of flame). Stir more or less constantly until it begins to loosen up & get more liquidy... Then, you can rest from stirring but watch & when it gets translucent, give another good stir, remove from heat... On the countertop, stir gently & you can add more fragrance if you like... I had done my original brown/pinkish swirl with Patchouli & Vetiver, but the soap color became a really cool rose, so on rebatch, I added some Rose Otto and Geranium (I'm putting 3 or 4 back for ME and my GFs at Xmas, but will just raise the price & put a fancy ribbon on for the pharmacy's racks... In all, I ended up with 22 bars 90g each... Not a bad save.

One of the molds I love for rebatch is a 9-cavity "production mold" in polystyrene. I cut some into individual molds for RB & just fill & "thwack" them on the counter until they're bubble-free. Then, I have just enuf time to do a swirly texture top with a skewer before they start getting hard. CP soap, on RB, never gets really fluid. Ya gotta blop it. I'll post pix in a couple days after they're outta the mold.

BTW - for really fast & fun production, you can RB all your saved scraps & mold in tiny little tart tins... Direct to the freezer, unmolded in 30 min, you can really put out a PILE of them in one afternoon! I LOVE these for events & do "mix & match" soaps, about 5 1oz tarts, in cellophane with a pretty ribbon! It's "soapy hamburger" = nearly 100% profit, except for my time...

Just throw it back in a good steel pot, low heat, patience & watchful eye. You can DO it! :thumbs up:

Worst case - RB, then pour into round mold or cookie sheet or whatever... Cut & use for imbeds on another soap!

BTW - I've been reading all of your posts since you joined & think you're really smart & love your soaps!

Thanks for the response, CabraVieja. So even after all this time, 5 days, you can plop it in a pot and heat it up? I have only done one rebatch of a soap due to the scent fading terribly, way back in the beginning.

If I understand the purpose of rebatching in cases like this, the heat prompts the saponification process to start up again? Or is it just to evaporate the extra water out?

I'll have to knuckle down and study rebatching again...been a while since I mulled those concepts over.

Thanks for the compliments on my soaps! I was originally AprilPrey but had to change emails addresses so rejoined as AprilPrey2.

The main thing is not to add too much liquid because then you'll have a mess on your hands.

If it's still soft, you can probably do it without adding anything. Just get a strong spatula and scrape it out into your pot (at least double the size of your soap batch or 3x if you get distracted). Put it on the lowest setting you have on the stove, and work out the lumps until you have a uniform consistency. Be SURE not to overcook it or use too high a heat. Overcooked soap is dry and will not stick together in the mold...

Then, dump it back into your log or slab mold, whack the air bubbles out of it, and you can unmold it as soon as it's good & firm like cheese. There's normally plenty of time to do a top with a spoon, just don't let it get too cold.

With individual molds, you can put them in the freezer a couple hours, just enough to contract them a little, then gently unmold.

If it's any consolation, today's batch with a different recipe (an old one) did the same thing as yesterday's... Really weird. Must solve this mystery.

Good luck with your RB & post pix!

Here's a thought. You need a stick blender instead of a spoon to truly emulsify the oils with the lye. So what might have looked like trace, possibly wasn't. Or your mixture got too cool and the oil(s) started to solidify.

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

Oh, for sure, the SB!

Irena, I never used one back in the "old days," but my hands would kill me now without one... They are miracles, for sure.

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

Well, the deed is done. Didn't add any water - might have cooked it a tad too long but its in the mold. Instead of looking like a tray of caramel, it now looks like a tray of apple crisp! Thanks for all your help, both of you!

Well, it might be funky looking in the end but at least it won't be wasted. If it does turn out its too dry and crumbly...I'll just grate it, spray a touch of water on it, and make soap balls. Third time's the charm, they say.

Yeah, for sure, Irena! I used to use her paddle when I got old enough to assume the "chore." In the 3 or so hours it would take to cook it outside (low fire = constant work), that paddle would finish up about 30% smaller! The soap was usually a barf color & you couldn't see the splinters, altho they must have been there.

Good for you, AprilPrey! HP will NEVER "pour" into a mold. Hehheh. Learning CP is the first time in my life I've ever "poured" a soap... and I'm loving it!

If you get overdry soap that refuses to stick together, you can save the bits & mix in with the next batch of soap of an appropriate color... Today's patchouli batch will probably go that way - caramel brown. I'm gonna wait a bit before unmolding, as that could've been part of my issue with the RB of yesterday's batch. It's a super sudsy formula, so might be nice to use "cookie cutter imbeds" of it in a white or ivory colored soap, methinx...

Glad to hear you're an official Hot Process Hero now! Funny, I learned HP first & am now branching into CP kinda bass-ackward style...

Well this has turned out to be the most butt ugly soap I have ever made. Between smelling like Play Doh (thank you SoapBuddy, I will never erase that association from my mind) and looking like compressed oatmeal, and not in a good way - BLECH.

Guess I learned my lesson regarding vanilla scents (never again), and soaping way too low + not enough stirring.

Oddly, The Boyfriend likes the scent. Good, then he can use them. Maybe I'll stash them somewhere out of sight and they can be used as "emergency" soap if society falls apart and we have to live in a post-apocalyptic world. In that case, I won't care what my soap looks like.

April - One of the BEST soaps I ever made was butt-ugly! It was a different recipe for me. Came out looking rather greasy and after 3 weeks curing was still a bit "slimey" to the touch. It left oil circles on the cardboard sheets where it was drying. I was totally disgusted with it, so stuck it off to the side to shred up to use in rebatch.

Six months later, as I was shredding (and getting tired of it), I decided to actually "try" it... Into the bathroom for a handwashing & the lather was so wonderful... I instantly regretted shredding more than 9 bars of a 12-bar batch... I still have one by the sink & use for my face every day when it feels dry...

A good soap can't always be judged by appearance.

That said, I've made some really pretty ones that, while not awful, weren't as good as they looked...

Keep tweaking the recipe & don't give up!

I will consider changing my mind after use. And...I'll bet I could show this soap to 10 people and at least one will say: "How wonderfully rustic - I love it".

I do like to shred and mix different soaps in soap balls. The Boyfriend has even offered to design and build a little press in order to compress shredded soap into nice tight bars. Its a fun way to mix different scents.

Have a nice day on the beach.

Oooh! Awesome! A soap press... (Oh, poor hubs!)

My DH could not believe it when I found some old photos of when I had made soap at age 13... It was a gloppy tan stuff in a recycled Blue Bunny ice cream tub. We used it for washing cars & floors & all kinds of things, but I liked scented soaps at that age...

Making "pretty" soap with aromatherapy blends is new for me & I'm loving it. Hubs is pretty impressed with the appearance my "now" bars, compared to the glop in the tub. Just wish he'd be more opinionated on color, scent, lather, etc... His favorite is the plain old white 60% lard bar... unscented. He uses it for everything. I've even named it the "Wayne Bar."

I wish I'd hung onto the first real "bar" soap I made about 20 years ago. It was incredibly ugly but smelled great & was just YUMMY in the shower. It'd be cool just to have it around to show folks one I made "back when."