Teach Soap

Hi everyone,

My name's Leah, and I'm a relative newbie--have been making soap since June and just finished my 10th batch of CP soap. I'm generally a lurker, but a problem I experienced with my ninth batch made me break my silence.

So, the problem: I made a rather large batch and had to use two separate molds; one was an 8-pound wood mold, and one was a milk carton. The soap from the wood mold (seen in the pic on the right side) turned out fine--no zapping when my husband tested it and no high ph when strip tested. The soap in the carton, however, zapped so badly I left it in the mold an additional night, and when I took it out and cut it today, it had these yellow spots in the middle and still zaps in those spots.

I guess my question is whether it's normal to have one batch seem completely fine in one mold but unusable in the other. This is a recipe I have used before with no problems, and I did nothing unusual other than mix the oils and lye water at a slightly higher temperature than normal (usually 36 or 37 C, but more like 46 for this batch).

Can anyone venture a guess as to what happened here? I'm paranoid because of the soap in the carton and wondering if I should toss the soaps in the wood mold just in case even though it seems fine and doesn't zap at all.

Had to link to my twitter for a pic because I couldn't resize small enough. Here it is:

That's really strange! Did the soap in the carton gel? If it didn't that could be why it's still zapping. Ungelled soap can take up to 3 days to fully saponify. I'd wait another day and then check for zap. I think your large mold is fine and probably gelled.

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

It sounds to me like it wasn't thoroughly mixed. Is the soap that's in the milk carton from the bottom of your soap pot by any chance?

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

Thank you for your responses! No, the soap in the carton did not gel. I kept an eye on it, and even though it was insulated I didn't see it heat up beyond 48 C. The soap in the wood mold got as hot as 68 C, possibly hotter while I was sleeping.

And yes, the soap in the carton was actually from the bottom of the pot. Is it possible that it was unmixed? I alternately stirred and stick blended it until it reached fairly thick trace since I wasn't adding any colorant. I did have to spoon the last several bits of it into the carton.

It's possible that the raw soap in the bottom of the pot wasn't mixed all the way.

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

How big of a batch are you making? Could you use a shallower and a wider pot? It doesn't have to be stainless steel. You could use a heavy duty plastic bucket. If that's not an option, I suggest you get a stick blender with a longer stainless steel shaft like a Bamix.

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

If you're still relatively new to soapmaking, I wouldn't recommend such large batches. That is a lot of soap!! From the picture it definitely looks like it didn't mix well, like Irena said.

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Laura<3