Teach Soap

Yesterday I made a batch of goat milk soap and it hardened before I could get it into the mold. This has happened to me before and I am not sure why - any answers would be greatly appreciated. Now I have this big hard blob of soap in a bowl and not sure it there is anything I can do with it? I have already added essential oils if that makes a difference - I really hate to just throw it away if there is something I can do with. Thanks in advance!!

If you could post your recipe it would help. Did you use palm oil, what temp did you soap, did you run your recipe through a lye calc, what method did you use, etc.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Besides your recipe, what is your method and temps?

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

My recipe is:
4 lbs of lard and 64 oz of olive oil heated to 85 degrees
44 oz goat milk and 24 oz lye at 83 degrees
I actually doubled this recipe and then split in half and mixed together and fragranced with different EO's. The first mix is the one that didn't come out well - it hardened before I could get it into the molds - I did get to fill a few molds but they came out terrible and that was a big mess as well. The other half came out fairly well but definitely not one of my best batches.
The hardest part about making soap for me is finding the trace - I am thinking that I might have mixed to long but I am never really sure.
I did not use a lye calculator - this is the recipe I have been using and sometimes it makes a wonderful batch and sometimes not.
Thanks for your help - I really appreciate it.

If you change a recipe at all, like doubling it, you really need to run it through a lye calculator! Double the fats may not be double the lye!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

With those fats soap calc says 49oz liquid and 17oz lye.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

That's a pretty big batch.

Olive Oil 64ozs.
Lard 64ozs.
Total Weight 128 ozs.
For that size batch you will need 32 to 48 fluid ounces of water or milk and 16.3 ozs. of lye for a 7% superfat

Here is it halved.

Olive Oil 32ozs.
Lard 32ozs.
Total Weight 64 ozs.
For this size batch you would need 16 to 24 fluid ounces of liquid and 8.1 ozs. of lye for a 7% superfat

Always, always run any recipe through a lye calculator! You just cannot half the ingredients, including the lye. If you are not familiar with the soapmaking process, I would start with a 2 lb. batch, so you don't waste your ingredients. Here is a 2 lb. batch with the same ingredients.

Olive Oil 16ozs.
Lard 16ozs.
Total Weight 32 ozs.
8 to 12 fluid ounces of liquid and 4 ozs. of lye for a 7% superfat.

PS. I don't think you will get many bubbles with this recipe. I would recalculate and add some castor oil.

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

Thanks for all the advice. No more double batching for me. I will try again and use a lye calculator.