Greasy soap problem

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M-Rabie

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Sep 14, 2017
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Hello,
I made a few batches with this formula:
water 190 g
lye 70 g
Olive oil 300 g (60%)
Coconut Oil 150 g (30%)
Castor Oil 50 g (10%)
I use empty milk cartons as molds, room temperature is about 95 F. I take the log out of the mold after 24 hours.
The problem is that: I always get a very greasy log, very soft that I can dip my finger in it, with a lot of excess oil surrounding the surfaces of the log. this makes it very tricky to hold while cutting, and it looks different from the logs I see on the internet.
I tried to add a teaspoon of salt to my lye water, but it didn't harden the log, I made another batch today and I added 15 grams of beewax, I got trace very fast, and I will take it out of the mold tomorrow, may be this might help me to get more firm log.

Is it normal to have greasy and soft soap logs?
Is this something temporary? will it harden enough to use after 6 weeks?
Is there anything else I can do to get a harder mold?
 
I checked your recipe with a soap calc and everything checks out okay there.

How old is your lye and where did you get it from? Is it clumpy at all?

Are you using a stickblender? Do you pour your soap at thin or thick trace?

Do you insulate or cover your soap after pouring?

Using any essential or fragrance oils? How much and where did you buy?


Assuming everything I asked above checks out okay, it could just be that it's a high olive oil recipe so it will stay soft for a while. I'd personally leave a recipe like that in the mold for at least 3-4 days until it was firm enough to remove. You don't NEED to remove your soap from the mold after 24 hours - give it all the time it needs to harden up in there. Castille soap (100% OO) can take a week to harden up enough to unmold!
 
Are you using sodium hydroxide, NaOH?

Make sure you are not using sodium carbonate or potassium hydroxide or other chemical.
 
I get my lye from a local store (I live in Egypt, it quite difficult to get fine ingredients here), it's not reliable, but judging the color of lye I think its OK.
I use stick blender, pour in thin trace, cover it, I did some batches without any essential oils, and I got the same results.
Maybe it's because of olive oil as you said.
Thanks a lot!
 
Are you stirring your batch by hand?
Are you certain you scale is accurate?
Can we see some pictures?

It is not normal for the log to be so slimy you cannot hold it. A high Olive Oil recipe will take a bit longer to harden. Is it still oily after 3 days in the mold?
 
Are you stirring your batch by hand?
Are you certain you scale is accurate?
Can we see some pictures?

It is not normal for the log to be so slimy you cannot hold it. A high Olive Oil recipe will take a bit longer to harden. Is it still oily after 3 days in the mold?
I can hold it, but it is so slippery, I use stick blender, the scale is OK.
here is two photos, I made this batch 3 days ago, took it out of the mold after 24 hours and cut it. its now still oily, I pressed one of the pieces with my finger, and you can see the effect on the second photo.

IMG_20170915_151339.jpg


IMG_20170915_151355.jpg
 
Soft is one thing. A soap with 60% olive oil is going to be soft for a while.

What concerns me is that you say "a lot of excess oil surrounding the surfaces of the log" To me that sounds like separation, possibly due to not having enough lye. If, for example, your caustic powder is only 50% NaOH because it's unreliable.

Why is it orange?
 
Soft is one thing. A soap with 60% olive oil is going to be soft for a while.

What concerns me is that you say "a lot of excess oil surrounding the surfaces of the log" To me that sounds like separation, possibly due to not having enough lye. If, for example, your caustic powder is only 50% NaOH because it's unreliable.

Why is it orange?
You are making a good point there, I should find another lye supplier.
I added a few drops of saffron liquid.
 
Assuming the lye is okay (I think probably is not), you may not be stirring enough. I may have missed it - are you hand stirring or using a stick blender? If hand stirring, you may need an hour or more with high olive oil soap.

Also, what is saffron liquid? Is it dissolved in mineral oil or alcohol?
 
Assuming the lye is okay (I think probably is not), you may not be stirring enough. I may have missed it - are you hand stirring or using a stick blender? If hand stirring, you may need an hour or more with high olive oil soap.

Also, what is saffron liquid? Is it dissolved in mineral oil or alcohol?
I use a stick blender to stir the batch.
Saffron liquid is basically saffron powder with water.
 
I used to make a formula very similar to yours quite often in my first years of soaping:

60% Olive oil
10% castor oil
20% coconut oil
10% palm kernel oil

It would unmold perfectly fine for me within 12 to 18 hours just so long as I used a 33% lye concentration with it and made sure it went through the gel stage.

It looks like you used a 'full-water' amount with yours, which normally requires a longer waiting time to be able to unmold half way decently, especially if it did not go through the gel stage. If I had made your recipe, I would have used 143 grams of water instead (a 33% lye concentration).

Normally (based on my own experience), for a 60% OO recipe that uses full-water and that goes through the gel stage, I would count on having to wait 24 to 36 hours before unmolding /cutting.

And if you use full water and it doesn't go through the gel stage, I would plan on having to wait at least 48 hours (or more) before unmolding/cutting. In my experience, although ungelled soap is usually firm enough to take to being (gently) unmolded/cut at 48 hours or so, it's not unusual for the bars to remain soft and easily dentable for up to a week or more after that.

From the sound of what you are experiencing with the oiliness, it's very possible that either your lye is not strong enough, or maybe things just need to be given more time. For example- I've had soft, oily soap before that cured out just fine. The oil absorbed back into the soap and it eventually cured out good and hard.

If it were me, I would take a 'wait and see' attitude before calling it a total loss. I would set the soap on a rack and check on it periodically over the next 4 weeks to monitor things. If you decide to do that, let us know how it went!

Edited to add- it also won't hurt to determine the strength of your lye.


IrishLass :)
 

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