Teach Soap

This is my first post since I am usually able to find others who have had the same troubles! I made a CP loaf 2 days ago. It was too soft to unmold and cut yesterday but today it seemed perfect. Well, I unmolded today and half of my soap is crumbly. Its a beautiful funnel pour and I was able to throw it back in the mold the way it came out. Was it unmolded too soon? Will it get better if I leave it for a while?

Thanks for any suggestions! Denise

What was your recipe? How much did you superfat? Did you reach true trace? Did it gel?

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

Here's my recipe

Coconut oil 170g
Olive Oil 450g
Palm Oil 170g
Shea Butter 85g
Lye 117g
water 280g
Super fat 5%
Coconut Line Verbena f/o 2 1/2 oz

I have made this recipe before and it comes out fine. I am wondering if my soap cracked/crumbled because I did not fully melt the palm oil before mixing it with the other oils. Now that I think of it, the oils did seem somewhat "grainy" before pouring in the lye water. Usually
I melt the oils until they're no longer opaque before I add the lye. The oils were the right temp so I didn't even think twice.

Denise

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Denise

Oh I forgot, yes it traced and gelled!

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Denise

Did you melt your entire batch of palm and mix it together really really well to disperse the sterate?

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Looking back I think that's what I did wrong! I have been experimenting with different techniques and because I'm fairly new to soaping I forgot to pay attention to some things. I think when I melted my bag of palm oil, it was still opaque and slushy instead of clear when I measured it, even though I shook and squished the bag really well to mix it before measuring.

Could that be the culprit?

Denise

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Denise

I bet it was the palm oil, since stearic is heavier then the rest of the oil and will settle.

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

Yes that seems to be it.

I went ahead and cut up the loaf (gosh it's purty!) and was able to salvage the majority of it. It's not dry at all. It actually has the look and texture of blue cheese but instead of blue-green veins it has pink layers from my funnel pour.
It seemed to fall apart mostly at the top, which is the bottom while in the mold. I think the palm oil did not incorporate enough and ended up sinking to the bottom.
Thank You Irena and Heather for your quick responses. I have learned so much from this forum. It's comforting to know that there are others out there who have gone and are going through, similar soaping trials!

This pour is so pretty that I will do it again and now I am armed with better info!

Thanks again Ladies,
Denise

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Denise

Oh, do post pics! If it's that beautiful, we all want to see it!

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

I would love to but my pictures are to big! I see that people have posted pictures on this forum. 25KB seems kind of small.

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Denise

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

Glad I could be of help! Its nice to pass on stuff I learned here!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist