Teach Soap

Tried a new recipe:
32% Olive Oil
23% Coconut Oil
25% Palm Oil
10% Castor Oil
10% Shea Butter
Water discount 33%
3lb silicone mold so I added 3 tsp of Sodium Lactate - is that the right amount? It said to add to lye/water mixture after it had cooled.
Also tried the CPOP method - set oven at 170 then put the soaps in for an hour, shut off oven and took them out the next day.


Batch #1 Tea Tree EO & Activated Charcoal
Batch #2 Chocolate Drizzle FO & Fresh Picked Strawberry FO (omg SMELLS SO GOOD) and micas.

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Batch #1 Before & After. I was only doing 1 color and 1 scent so light to medium trace and poured it in - everything looked nice - then the next day the top looks kinda icky. Very grainy



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Batch #2 same thing, looked nice and smooth going in - kinda grainy on the top - though not as bad as the black one



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Top Left - close up of batch 1, it's soft but dry to the touch, just looks bumpy - it's been in the mold for two days and still soft and stuck.
Top Right - batch two loaf cut - looks fine inside
Bottom Left - I poured the excess soap into a bar mold and left it out, no gelling or covering, it got soda ash bad, but still had a grainy texture
Bottom Right - pulled the bar out of the mold - the bottom is still damp with a "paste" like texture.



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Any tips on getting soap out of the silicone molds? (the 10" from BB) Worried about squishing it. #2 came out fine after working the edges and pushing from the bottom, but #1 is firmly "stuck" to the bottom and if I push it's just making indents in the soap. After seeing the smaller bars still "wet" on the bottom, I'm guessing the loaf is still wet too... but it's been in there for 2 days and fully gelled.


Sooo - I thought maybe they overheated, but the ones I left out on the counter have the same grainy texture.
It didn't "seize" but it was getting pretty thick and gloppy - did I over-trace it?
Or is it something in the base ingredients?
And why is batch 1 still paste-like and damp after 2 days? Never had that happen with old recipe.

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~*~ Jennifer ~*~

The bubbles in the black one look like overheating. Your temperature and time are correct, so I wonder if either the e.o. or charcoal caused it to overheat. The pink soap is so pretty!

If you had overused the sodium lactate, your soap would be crumbly, so the amount you used appears to have been okay.

You might find that reducing the castor might help with the softness of the soap.

To take the soaps out of the molds easier, try putting it in the freezer for a couple of hours before removing it.

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Soap Blog:

I would say it's either your stick blender introducing bubles which rise to the top as the soap gels, or it's overheating. The gray on top could also be soda ash.

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

Oh yeah the grey on square bars is definitely ash - just wondering why after two days the bottom of it still feels paste-like and wet.

I thought it was over-heating, but then why did the ones I left out on the counter without insulation of any type end up that way too?

Oh boy - that strawberry & chocolate combination is HEAVEN! And it feels really good on my skin.


Going to try a coffee type soap tonight - I'll leave it on the counter instead of doing the oven this time and see if that makes a difference.

_________________
~*~ Jennifer ~*~

Did you spritz the tops with alcohol? I've had a couple of my soaps look like that when I tried to prevent ash with the alcohol spritz. I'd rather have the ash!

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

Nope, no rubbing alcohol - I forgot about it! I spritz MP for the bubbles, but I always forget about the CP - maybe it's better than I do forget lol

_________________
~*~ Jennifer ~*~

Soaps that do not gel start out softer then soaps that do.

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

I believe Irena guessed correctly on the bubbles! Wow, I thought I tapped the stick blender to get the air out - but I must have done some serious air whipping - here's the bottom after I FINALLY got it out of the mold.




So mystery solved on Problem #1

Now onto the issue I had with the soft soap/stuck in silicone mold - I changed my recipe

32% Light Olive Oil
29% Palm Oil
22% Coconut Oil 76
12% Shea Butter
5% Castor Oil
3tsp Sodium Lactate

Superfat 7%
water discount 33%


I let the soap sit in the mold for OVER 48 hours and it's still stuck, soft and mushy. I tried pulling out one of the small bars (I poured from left over batter) and it's the same prob I had in last batch, bottom is still wet/paste-y and very squishy. I can't take it out without damaging it at this point.
I'm playing with oils that I've never used before -- but I didn't have this problem with my old recipe (though I love the feel of this one MUCH more) so any guess as to why it's not hard? Should I go back down to 5% superfat? I didn't CPOP this one, but I did insulate it - I can't get it out of the mold to see if it gelled or not, lol.

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~*~ Jennifer ~*~

The words "light olive" might be your culprit. I used light olive oil once that I normally use for cooking and the batch was soft and didn't harden up. It was "light" all right; it was a blend of olive oil and something else. It was adultarated. I don't remember what else was in it now, but I will never used that type of olive oil for soap again.

The bottom of your first soap looks like a sea sponge.

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

_________________
~*~ Jennifer ~*~

That olive oil looks like 100% olive oil so I don't think that's the problem. It could be that your soap just didn't gel at all. I've had that happen quite a bit with that same mold - it's very hard to get a full gel unless I CPOP or put it on a heating pad. I've had a couple of batches that ended up sitting in the mold for 3 days before it was hard enough to unmold.

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

Definitely going to put everything in the oven from now on D: I don't mind soap sitting on the shelf for a month, but I want it out of the mold to use them for something else!

Can I CPOP CP cupcakes? Or does it make the "icing" tops melt?


Also - what if I want to do M&P soap embeds on the top of the CP soap - I wouldn't be able to CPOP that or they'd melt at 170?

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~*~ Jennifer ~*~

I've never done cupcakes, but if the frosting is CP you should be fine.
MP would probably melt with CPOP, but you could always add them to the top of the soap after it gels while it's still warm. I would think they'd stick OK.

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

I've had an overheated batch look like that on the bottom. I use a light olive oil in all of my recipes and have never had an issue, but I usually leave ungelled soaps for 3 days before I unmold too.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist