Teach Soap

I've decided, that beginners luck... sucks!

My very first batch of CP soap turned out beautifully! Apart from the initial overheating, it was perfect in every way. Released from the mold superbly. Cut wonderfully. Each and every slice was firm, smooth, soft. I loved it. I still love it. Apart from when I compare it to every.batch.since.

My other batches haven't been failures by any means, but they also haven't been as good as (or anywhere near as good as) that first batch. And I can not figure out why!

They don't release from the molds easily. Most times I have to run a blade around the edges or it tries to crack/break away about half a cm in. I've tried leaving it for 2 days... 3 days! I've tried sticking it in the fridge, the freezer. Begging with it, threatening it. Nothing.

Cutting the slices has them sticking to my cutter so not only is it harder to cut, but I also lose that smooth edge on the soap. Again, leaving it, freezing it, nothing seems to change.

I thought it was because that first batch gelled for most of it, but trying that with other batches doesn't seem to do the trick. I thought it was that first recipe, so I went back to that and it didn't do the trick. ARG!

I want that baby smooth feel that my first batch has. What is the difference, besides, beginners luck?

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

Are you wiping the knife after every cut? Did you get the miter box and the tapping knife yet?

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

I have the miter box and the stainless steel cutting blade that matches it. Like a metal blade with a rounded black handle across the top. And yeah, wiping after each cut. (although I didn't do that with the first batch... didn't need to)



The only thing I can think of is that I might not be heating the oils as much? I know with my first batch it got to like 80 degrees Celsius because I had Water and Lye. Then after my first attempt at Goat's Milk and Lye resulted in Alien Brains *shudder*, I switched to using frozen goat's milk and lye, which means my entire batch only get's to about 40 - 50 degrees Celsius now...

Could that be it? Am I just not making it hot enough?

I've also noticed I'm starting to get Ash and like a 'washed out look' on all the bars except batch #1.

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

OMG it's going from bad to worse!! What is happening??

I've just unmolded two soaps - one I had 2 days ago, the other I made 3 days ago. After cutting they are still soft and sticky/slippery inside. Non-Gelled, but still. I had to clean my blade after every cut.

And to make it worse, they have SPOTS!

Bars uncut:




Green one isn't so bad once I cut it up... spots seem mostly allocated to the top of the soap...



Black and white one is worse - spots all the way through it looks like. Mostly on the black area though. Weird.



Close up of the green one:



I also noticed this - looks like the fragrance oil didn't mix in properly? I don't know why though, I stick blended it for a good minute!



Close up of the black and white one...

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

What kind of mold are you using? Wooden? With liner? A liner will help you release your soap from it's wooden mold (http://www.soap-making-resource.com/lin ... molds.html)

Maybe you're waiting too long to unmold your soap? Has it become to hard to cut? I don't cut my soaps anymore (I use a silicone tray of individual squares and they pop out like a dream) but when I was cutting I found that if I let the soap harden too much they were hard to cut and began to crack and the cuts just weren't as smooth.

Do you put your soap in the freezer right after you make it or do you insulate it?

_________________
Soapmaiden (Natalie)

Here's my thought: Go back to basics. Water, no goats milk; only one color, a safe scent and watch the temps closely, make sure your lye is dissolved and well mixed (this can be hard to tell if you use only goats milk), to be sure you reach trace... take it to a medium trace - since you would be doing only one color thin trace would not be critical. If you can pour into individual molds do so, if not use the mold you have... insulate and let it gel. You just need to get your mojo back. Most of us have gone through times when lots have gone wrong... but hang in there you will get a great batch!

_________________
Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Those white spots are either stearic acid (it needs a higher temp to melt) from one of your soapmaking oils or undissolved lye. Did you check for zap?

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

Tested for zap - I must have hesitated 5 times lol. No Zap. (thank god!)

I'm thinking that yes, it might need a higher temp. First time I let it go high as I mentioned, where as now I'm so cautious about the goat's milk, that I've been sticking to lower temps.

And yeah Bubbles, I was thinking last night I might clean up the kitchen today and go right back to square one and start again. My mojo is barely hanging in there at the moment. I had hoped the two batches above to be part of a Valentines pack I was going to get my testers to try. Now that 2 of the 5 bar idea are spotty, I'm all lost on what to do next. So today I will go back to that first recipe attempt and duplicate it (yay for writing everything down!). I will also try individual molds.

At the moment I'm using Crafter's Choice Silicone Mold 1501 (just the load mold). I would love to try a wooden mold, but out of my budget at the moment. I've started leaving it longer in the mold because anything from 12 hours to 24 made those cracks along the edges appear. Hard to describe, but instead of the edge coming away on it's own, it's like it tries to hang onto the mold, so when I stretch the sides out to help get air down, it cracks and comes away about .5cm in from the edge instead. So I started leaving it longer.

Not hard to cut - if anything it's still quite soft and easy to cut. When I feel the inside edges of the soap, the still feel somewhat damp and I leave finger prints if I push hard. They are not hard or smooth.

I would LOVE one of those silicone tray inserts with a wooden mold!! One day.... one day.

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

If the edges that come in contact with the sides of the mold crack, that could be because the soap recipe is soft, it hasn't gelled, or it needs to cool down completely (if it has gelled).

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

No Gelling (intentional). Definitely cooled. So perhaps too soft a recipe?

Coconut: 100g
Caster: 25g
Olive: 250g
Lard: 125g

Lye: 68g
Goat's Milk: 125g

I've been making smaller batches to test some new fragrances...
I've also been trying to use Palm free recipe's as I am not sure if my Palm oil is Orangatan friendly.

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

According to the soap calc at The Sage, you would need 125 to 188 milliliters of liquid. Since goat's milk has natural fats, you could lower the lye discount from 68 grams to 69.

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

Yeah I worked off the calc at The Sage.

Course, it's only after reading your post that it's hit me I was doing 125 GRAMS of goat's milk... not 125 milliliters. I use it frozen, so it's a solid substance when I measure it out. How much difference would there be though? Could that be my problem?

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I actually made that same mistake once with the millimeters to grams conversion thing. 125 millimeters is 119.82 grams. If you want to find this out for yourself in the future go to Google. Type "XXX ml to ounces" and it will give you the conversion at the top of the page. Then copy then entire ounces it gives you and paste it into the search bar again "XXX oz. to grams" and it will give you the conversion.

Millimeters to ounces to grams. That's my super cool way of converting it.

Honestly, if it were me I would cut out all of the goats milk, FO's, EO's, and color and just do a basic soap. I know it's tempting to do fancy things but if you don't go back to the basics you'll never know what's wrong. Also, you'll lose confidence in your abilities because you're juggling too many balls right now trying to get too many things right. Get a basic recipe down. When you are satisfied add some FO or EO to a batch. Then make another batch with FO and EO and add some color. That way you will know what step in the process has gone wonky. Oh and I would stay away from goat milk for a while. LOL. It's been very difficult for me to get the temperatures right without scorching the milk. It's definitely something I will tackle once I'm more experienced.

Also, if you're soaping at too low of a temp you may have a problem. I do 100° for my lye and oils each. You may already be doing this. But thought I'd add it.

_________________
Soapmaiden (Natalie)

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

The reason I've starting with Goat's Milk is it's the reason I started soaping in the first place. I got into soaping because my little man (almost 18 months) has my super sensitive skin and even worse, he has eczema. So I started researching how to help him - found goat's milk soap - found soaping - got addicted faster than crack!

So far I've just been using the MP Goat's Milk and it's been great, and some close friends and family have been buying it off me. When I looked into selling it at markets and such though, there was no profit. So I started looking into CP and not only was the cost better, but I LOVE doing it. I read somewhere that 'calling MP soap home made is like trying to pass a microwave dinner off as a thanksgiving feast'. Didn't really get it till I started doing CP and now that just makes sense hehe.

What I'm thinking now however, after seeing that CP isn't as easy as my first batch mislead me to believe, is going back to using and passing on MP soap WHILE going back to step one with CP and learning a little more slowly I think. That first batch tricked me into jumping ahead too many steps.

Two factors I think are causing me problems at the moment:
1. The milliliters to grams thing. Thank you for that info! I will start watching that from now on.
2. Heat. Being too scared of more alien brains, I think I've now dropped my heat levels too low. So I might switch to hand mixing and slowly raising my heat at the same time. See if that helps.

This forum/group have been an absolute godsend to my soaping path. I would be SO lost without you guys. /worship

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!