Moved soaps and can't tell my coconut oil based soaps from my olive oil based soaps

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aab1

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I had made a batch of 70% oo and 30% pko soaps with ylang ylang and another batch of high coconut oil with other oils that was unscented.

Since I'm building my own soap curing rack I had to move some around and now I can't tell them apart because the olive oil ones faded to about the same color, and their scent virtually completely disappeared.

There are quite of bit and now I'm worried I won't be able to sell them if I can't tell them apart, is there any trick or am I stuck not knowing which soap is which? That's going to be a lot of soap to give and for my own use if I can't figure this out.

I really need to finish this soap rack so this won't happen again.

Thanks
 
Oh no! What a conundrum! My best advice would be to take a single bar of soap aside and use it (doesn't matter which one). It shouldn't be too very difficult to tell whether its a 70% olive oil soap or a high % coconut oil soap just by the way it lathers. Then, once you've figured out which batch that particular bar is from, closely examine it on all sides and try to find something different about it (no matter how small) that makes it stand uniquely apart from the other batch. Once you find that 'something different' that the other batch doesn't have, then you'll be better able to discern which soap belongs to which batch. It may also help to get a family member or friend to help you out. Many times others can see and/or smell differences that we ourselves can't. Hope you get things sorted out soon!

IrishLass :)
 
I did notice some have a partial gel and I know those are the coconut ones, I also noticed they have white specks probably from the palm oil. However my smaller ones don't gel anyway so those might be harder to tell apart.

I'll finish my soap curing rack before I sort them because I'll have to move the soaps again when it's done.
 
I've noticed some scents become more apparent when the soap is being used, maybe wash with a small piece and look for difference in lather as above and try to snif it out?

I keep my soap with a note by each batch, or on the paper it was lined with, with a note scribbled on it. Once they are a month old I try to get a label on at least some of them for fear of just this happening.
 
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I agree with Seawolfe.

When I thought my soap scent had completely disappeared, I was surprised to smell the scent back when in use. Since ylang ylang has a somewhat strong scent, I would think you would be able to differentiate scented & unscented ones in lather. Good luck! Let me know the result.
 
Each time I make a batch, I print out the SM3 recipe and the soapcalc page with all my notes (even if it's a recipe I do over and over and over). I write the SM3 batch number on the sheets, then rip a corner off them, write down the date, batch number, and "name" of the soap. I stick that little ripped off corner piece on to the front of the rack shelf with all the cut soaps behind it.
 
I had checked them last night under artificial light only, today in sunlight I was able to see the white specks left by the palm oil in the coconut oil based soaps, I didn't re-sort them yet as I'll need to finish building my new soap curing rack first.

How ironic that the palm oil I decided to stop using in part because of those white specks it leaves in soap is the reason I've been able to differentiate both soaps.

I also normally have each batch labeled and dated, but since I moved recently I need to build a soap curing rack and I was so focused on building the rack that I didn't keep both batches separate as I moved the soaps.

I'm not going to be making any more soaps until I have my rack built to prevent this from happening again.
 
I've finally re-built my soap rack for the 3rd time (the first time I stupidly made it at floor level so I basically had to lay down on the floor to access it, the 2nd time I cracked all the wood because I was too lazy to drill pilot holes for the screws), this time it stands and at proper height but it's built incredibly cheap and flimsy but it looks like it will hold.

I was also able to sort each soap based on if they have the white specks caused by the palm oil in my coconut oil based soaps.
 
How many bars are there? If worse comes to worse you could always try rebatching. If it's not any bulk amount worth your inventory, I would take both recipes combine then. Then grate them all up and then put then put the bits into a new batch of soap.
 
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