Teach Soap

Here is a picture of the soap I made today. Can someone tell me why it did this? Did I cut it too early...or too late? Is it the sodium lactate?

Thanks for your help.

Knowing what your recipe was would help, but looking at it, I'd say yes.
Too much sodium lactate will certainly give you crumbly soap.

Sorry. I didn't think about giving the recipe. Here is some more info about the recipe and what I used to cut. Here is the recipe I used and I ran it through Majestic's calculator. It is just a two pound recipe I wanted to do because I hadn't done any soap with sodium lactate before.
Coconut - 9 oz
Olive - 16 oz
Palm - 7 oz
water - 10 oz
lye - 4.5 oz
sodium lactate .65 oz
Afterward I put it in the freezer for a couple of hours and then into the fridge. I'd say all in all it was in there for 6 to 7 hours. I put it in the freezer initially to keep it from warping/melting the mold I was using. I took it out of the mold and then tried to slice it up. This time I started using a large knife and when it happened I changed to a pastry scraper like this but it still crumbled:

Thanks again for y'alls help. I seem to be doing okay with making the soaps but need LOTS of help on cutting and making them look pretty.

Doesn't seem like you used TOO MUCH SL, as you are in the mid range.

How about your palm? Is the the homo/no stir palm?
If it's not, could it be that you are at the bottom of the container where the
stearic may have settled?

Also...the soap is so white...did you use titanium dioxide?

Grasping at straws here....

thanks jbren. Yeah I was kind of surprised by how white the soap turned out. The picture makes it look even whiter than it is too. It has a little more of a creamy white color and it is unscented. So no discoloring from fragrances. And I didn't use anything other than what I listed...no titanium dioxide. The palm I used is hydrogenated palm oil...looks like crisco but the label says it's palm. Thanks for grasping at straws with me...I just can't figure out what I did. When I cut it, it seemed to be about the consistency of a firm cheese. Maybe I need to invest in a good mold that has a cutter?? Maybe I need to fly out to California or Washington and take some classes from the wonderful moderators of this forum??

Well, since you prevented gel, it could be that you cut it too soon. Have you done the tongue test to see if there is any free lye? And you are sure your scale is calibrated?

Maybe it just needed more time in the mold. I usually gel my soaps, so I've not run into this problem.

Sorry I couldn't help more!

If you didn't gel, you do need to wait longer before you cut.

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

jbren and soapbuddy thank you for your replies. I truly appreciate it. This is what I like about my new little hobby here. It is a lot of trial and error but I enjoy the process so much!

Do y'all think the recipe itself looks okay?

soapbuddy since I know you are kind of the avoid gel expert, can you tell me how long should I leave it in the fridge/freezer and how long do I wait till I cut it?

Also, I did my regular soap process...I didn't try the soap cool thing. I don't even understand what that means. Any extra explanation on that would be great too. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on this. Would this recipe be okay for soaping cool?

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

I will do that next time and see how it goes. Thank you so much.

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