Teach Soap

Hi All,
I am not having any success making honey almond oatmeal soap and was hoping for some advice. I used the recipe at and it just was too soft and crumbly. I failed twice. For the third batch, I decided to harden it up with palm oil. Here is the latest 5 lb recipe I tried, which I ran through the soapcalc.net calculator:

Olive oil 32%
coconut oil 20%
palm oil 20%
avocado 10%
almond oil 10%
castor 8%

I substituted some of the water with 6 ounces almond milk that I made by blending almonds and water and straining it. I added it to the oils immediately after adding my lye/water mixture.

I added about 2.5 ounces honey to my oils. I added 2 ounces finely ground oatmeal at thin trace.

The recipe overheated a little and I got the stalagmite cave effect, but only close to the top. It was quite oily when unmolded. The soap has been curing for about a week and while it is not oily anymore, it is still fairly soft--as in, I could break the bars in half. Will this get any harder? I'm also worried that the oatmeal may make it crumbly?

Thanks.

How much lye & total water did you use?

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Genny

I used 12.10 ounces of water because I subtracted the 6 ounces almond milk. I used 7 ounces lye. This was for 50.4 ounces oils.

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Genny

That's right.

The recipe's good. At full water the soap will be a little soft at first. But with curing it should get harder.

5 lbs is a lot for trying out a recipe though. Whenever I try out a recipe I never go above 2 lbs because it can be such a waste of money when the recipe doesn't turn out right

I know, I was totally no help LOL I wish I could give you a definitive answer and say "Yes, the soap absolutely will harden up & the oatmeal will be just fine"

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Genny

Thanks for replying. It could be that I'm being overly worrisome and just need to let time take its course...

At full water it will take longer to harden up but it still will. That seems like alot of honey, which would make your soap overheat. Milks also make it hotter. Try decreasing the honey.

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!