Help with what I screwed up please

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dillsandwitch

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Okay so I attempted my 4th batch of soap yesterday. This one had both colours and flavours, whereas my previous had only fragrance.
I'm pretty sure where it went wrong but asking to confirm never hurt anyone.

Recipe was:
25 olive
20 coconut
20 palm
10 grape seed
10 castor
green oxide and titanium oxide (from aussie soap supplies)
20ml of Lilly of the valley FO (bought from eBay so don’t know brand)
goats milk instead of water

everything was going good until I mixed in the FO. I had just gotten to light trace and was going to do a spool swirly thingy so I dumped in the FO and poured into 2 cups for colouring. It started to seize big-time and by the time I had added the 2 colours it was like this big glob of stuff stuck to my spoon. Freaking out I dumped them into bigger bowls and grabbed the electric mixer and added a bit of water and mixed again thinking a little water will make it runnier. Works for pancake so why not soap? Anyhow I managed to get it into the mould and it actually came out a lot better than I anticipated.

So I’m guessing it was the FO that caused the issue. Also will it just be my cure time that will take longer cause of the extra water I added? I mean it was maybe a100ml more than the 190grs of water the recipe called for

TIA


Ps I'll take a pic later after the battery in my camera is charged
 
Floral FO's are famous for seizing. Some call a total seizure soap-on-a-stick. If your soap set up and can be unmolded it will just take some extra months of curing to help with the large amount of extra liquid. I am basing it on the possibility of you having used soap calc or some other soap calc and used what is considered full water which is around 38% water to oil. If you did, then adding in almost 1/2 the amount of additional liquid it is quite a bit. Next time it happens cover the pot and let the soap start to gel which will thin it out enough to stir and pour into the mold. It will result in a soap that looks more like hp than cp, other options is smoosh it into the mold which does not always work with a total seizure.
Floral fo's are best purchased from suppliers such as Natures Garden or Brambleberry where you can read reviews. They are by no means the only suppliers. I personally do not trust fo's purchased on ebay unless they are from a known supplier. Hopefully you know for sure it was a body safe fo
 
Floral FO's are famous for seizing. Some call a total seizure soap-on-a-stick. If your soap set up and can be unmolded it will just take some extra months of curing to help with the large amount of extra liquid. I am basing it on the possibility of you having used soap calc or some other soap calc and used what is considered full water which is around 38% water to oil. If you did, then adding in almost 1/2 the amount of additional liquid it is quite a bit. Next time it happens cover the pot and let the soap start to gel which will thin it out enough to stir and pour into the mold. It will result in a soap that looks more like hp than cp, other options is smoosh it into the mold which does not always work with a total seizure.
Floral fo's are best purchased from suppliers such as Natures Garden or Brambleberry where you can read reviews. They are by no means the only suppliers. I personally do not trust fo's purchased on ebay unless they are from a known supplier. Hopefully you know for sure it was a body safe fo

I'm a newbie and haven't had a batch seize on me yet, but when it does, what I'm taking away from your response is that I should toss the batch in the crock pot and put it on some heat. Is that right? Does this usually help, or always fix it? I'm just trying to prepare for the eventual! :)
 
You can put the batch in a crock pot. In my experience, the soap will usually gel on its own right in the pot. You could put the pot back on the stove on LOW heat. I have a gas stove, so I will put the soap back on the stove, turn the stove on at the lowest setting for a minute, stirring constantly, and then turn it off. then I will stir for about a minute, and turn it back on. If the soap batter gets too hot, you could have a volcano.

Often, when the soap gels in the pot, it will try to seperate. I like to gently stir it for a while. The soap will reach a stage where it looks like Vaseline. Google hot process soap and you will see lots of pictures.
 
Heres a pic of the soap after its cut. Its still really soft but I think it turned out pretty well considering




g1yUePo.jpg
 
I was at a course this weekend and remember the teacher saying that some FO's will quicken when used with Palm oil. If you want more time for adding colors, try soybean oil instead
 

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