Howdy... I'm new

I have some skin issues and someone mentioned that what I was using as soap may not be helping and could be causing my problems. So I started looking at real soap at their advice. Never one to sit back and simply buy, I learned what went into it and decide "I can do that" so of course spent more money to buy the supplies.

Anyway, after wanting many videos on youtube I gave it a go this evening and we will see what my results are tomorrow.

I or course had the brilliant idea to do a CPOP to start off with (yeah, ain't I a gluton for pucnishment) but I think it may have separated after I put it in the oven. It looks like the top inch is just oil right now. So I covered it and threw a towel on top and we'll see later.

Anyway, I'm Mike, or Russianwolf (my old Navy nickname).

Russianwolf said:

I have some skin issues and someone mentioned that what I was using as soap may not be helping and could be causing my problems. So I started looking at real soap at their advice. Never one to sit back and simply buy, I learned what went into it and decide "I can do that" so of course spent more money to buy the supplies.



Anyway, after wanting many videos on youtube I gave it a go this evening and we will see what my results are tomorrow.



I or course had the brilliant idea to do a CPOP to start off with (yeah, ain't I a gluton for pucnishment) but I think it may have separated after I put it in the oven. It looks like the top inch is just oil right now. So I covered it and threw a towel on top and we'll see later.



Anyway, I'm Mike, or Russianwolf (my old Navy nickname).

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Welcome to the addiction!
Did you run the recipe through a lye calculator? ( soap calc or soapee.com ) or just use someone's recipe as is? There are possibilities that typo happens. And it will mess up your soap. Or it's just a more soft /liquid oil recipe so it needs more time.
You might need to put the recipe here and better with pictures so we can help.

Welcome, Mike! :wave:

How hot was your oven temp?


IrishLass

Hey and welcome! Lots of us here trying to get rid of skin issues. It worked in my case.

If you would be so kind as to post your recipe in weights (including all additives), we will endeavor to help you troubleshoot.

I did the recipe through Soapcalc

20 ounces Olive
20 ounces Coconut
15 ounces Shea Butter
5 ounces grapeseed
5 ounces sunflower

8.55 ounces NaOH
22 ounces distilled water

no frangrance
I did add some honey and yogurt right before I poured.

Oven temp was 170 for 30 minutes.

Picture of the big mold by itself was right after removed from oven. The picture with two is this morning (small mold was me miscalculating how much the mold held).

That is a pretty big batch for playing with. I would look at making no more than 500g batches until you are happy with the recipe and processes - that much soap will take you a long time to get through, and if you want to tweak after a few weeks of using a bar then you have a lot to go through or to find some other use for.

How hot was it all when you put it in the oven? Did you check any temps as you were working?

Temps were about 150F when I put the lye in.

Yeah, I was trying to fill just half the red mold. I read that it was for 4-6 lbs, but obviously that isn't entirely correct. Live and learn.

Honestly it looks like it badly overheated to me, I would carefully pour all the liquid into a crock pot and follow it with the solid stuff and try to get it to come together over low heat.

(not the solid soap in the smaller mold, that's fine soap)

TheDragonGirl said:

Honestly it looks like it badly overheated to me, I would carefully pour all the liquid into a crock pot and follow it with the solid stuff and try to get it to come together over low heat.

(not the solid soap in the smaller mold, that's fine soap)

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don't have a crock pot I can use at the moment. But put it back in my stainless pot and set it up as a double boiler. Looks better, but I'll see again later.

And and when I was cleaning the pot afterwards..... suds... so things are looking promising.

HOWDY! and welcome aboard, Mike! Your soap is looking much better!!! Keep up the good work!

Nice! It looks like you did it!

Solid enough to cut now. looks like soap. smells like soap. suds like soap. and the PH is pretty good.

Since this is for me, I'll likely start using it for my hands now and see how it does. Have plenty for it to cure as well.

Russianwolf said:

Temps were about 150F when I put the lye in. Yeah, I was trying to fill just half the red mold. I read that it was for 4-6 lbs, but obviously that isn't entirely correct. Live and learn.

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It's unclear if 150°F is the oven temp or the oils temp.

TIP: If you mean oils temp, then I would suggest that you might be happier if you combine when the oils/lye are 100°-135° F and within 10 degrees of each other.

TIP: If you mean oven temp, preheat the oven temp as low as you can go. For me, that's 170°F. Put the soap in. Wait an hour or so, then turn the oven off and leave it overnight. (It's a good idea to protect the oven from spills with foil or a cookie sheet under the mold.

TIP: I always make a big X with electrical tape over the top of the oven door so no one (esp. ME! LOL) opens the door or turns the oven on when the soap is in there.

TIP: To calculate the amount of soap that the amount of oils will make use this formula:

1.37 X oils = amount of soap

So, 1.37 X 65 oz = 89 oz soap (5.6 lbs)

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So, now I'm wondering why you couldn't pour all your soap into the red mold. Hmmmm

:bunny:

Russianwolf said:

Temps were about 150F when I put the lye in.

Yeah, I was trying to fill just half the red mold. I read that it was for 4-6 lbs, but obviously that isn't entirely correct. Live and learn.

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Hello and Welcome! Soaping that hot you likely wouldn't have needed to CPOP it to get gel as it would have done it on it's own pretty quickly.

I highly suggest you just melt your hard oils/butter until clear on lowish heat then add your liquid oils. I use room temperature lye mixture. It really doesn't matter what temp your lye is. As long as your oils are liquid and clear.

To CPOP, just warm your oven up at the lowest temp your oven will do, in many cases it's 170. Do this while you are making your soap. Once in the mold put it in the oven and turn it off. You should be all set.

There's certainly a bit of a learning curve. Congrats on your first soap.

For your next batch, I suggest making only enough to fill half your mold. It will still be thick enough for soap cut like you cut for a slab mold. I've done that with the ED molds (that's what your red one looks like, am I right? - Essential Depot?) Have you found the formula for calculating batch sizes to fit your molds? (Try this link.)

Test batches are better as small batches. The beauty of doing small test batches, is that you can make soap more often (if you like & I do like) and try out different recipes each time and still hopefully not be buried in soap.

Also, for me, I find that much Coconut Oil to be very drying/stripping to the natural oils in my skin. But then, I am an old woman, so my skin may be more sensitive than yours. At least you have an 11% SuperFat to off-set some of the stripping tendencies of high CO soap. But that high a SF can also contribute to DOS, which is not fun when it hits a huge batch of soap.

When you were buying supplies, did you happen to buy an ROE? (Rosemary Oleo Resin). I highly recommend it as a counter-active measure against DOS (Dreaded Orange Spots) which is caused by oils going rancid in soap. Here is a good article to read if you want to know more about DOS and ways to prevent it. Just so you know, ROE is NOT the same as Rosemary Essential Oil.

I'll bet that soap is going to be super bubbly with the CO and the added honey and yogurt! And you made enough to last a pretty long time. Remember to let it cure for at least 4 weeks before you test your first soap (I'd probably not use it on my body before 3 months). I'd probably be tempted to test some on my hands sooner, but be warned, it may be very drying to your skin when it is quite young. The longer it cures, the milder it becomes. It's not just water loss that goes on during cure; there is a crystalline structure building during cure, that is explained in detail by DeeAnna in this link. Posts #51 through #55 are the meat of the scientific explanation of what soap curing is all about.

Russianwolf said:

I did the recipe through Soapcalc

20 ounces Olive
20 ounces Coconut
15 ounces Shea Butter
5 ounces grapeseed
5 ounces sunflower

8.55 ounces NaOH
22 ounces distilled water

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The recipe looks pretty good to me (my skin would love it), but grapeseed and sunflower have such similar properties that I would have used either one or the other instead of both, and I would only have used 8 oz. total (instead of the 10oz combined total that you have of them). The reason why is because of how much linoleic acid they contribute to the recipe (16% in this case). To avoid DOS (dreaded orange spots, aka rancidity) it's considered best to keep the linoleic content at 15% or lower. You can monitor how much linoleic acid is in your recipe by looking at the fatty acid profile on SoapCalc.

In conjunction with the linoleic acid %, I noticed that your lye amount gives your formula an 11% superfat, which in other formulas might be perfectly fine, but for this particular formula with a 16% linoleic acid content, it provides conditions that make it a potential breeding ground for DOS. That's not to say that developing DOS in this batch is a 100% sure thing, but just that it's a possibility you should watch out for.

Russianwolf said:

No fragrance

I did add some honey and yogurt right before I poured.

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How much honey and yogurt did you use per pound of oil (ppo)? I ask because honey and milk products need special handling in soap because of the problems they are known for causing, such as separation and/or volcanoing- depending on how much you add, and also how hot you soap your batch. As you just found out, if things get too hot during saponification separation can occur.

Russianwolf said:

Temps were about 150F when I put the lye in............Oven temp was 170 for 30 minutes.

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Does the 150F temp refer to your oils or to your lye solution, or both? For future reference, soaping @ 150F in CP is considered very hot- even in batches without honey and/or milk products.

RE: the oven temp: Oven temp for CPOP does not have to be pre-heated as high as 170F, most especially if your soaping temps are hot. For example, the very hottest I ever soap at with CP is 120F (but mostly between 110F-115F), and I CPOP it at 110F. Like most ovens, my oven does not have a specific factory setting for 110F, but I get around that by turning it on the Bake setting for only 3 minutes tops, and then immediately turn it off right before placing my soap inside. Then I shut the oven door and leave things alone for the next 18 to 24 hours. The low residual/gradually fading heat is plenty enough to encourage full gel in my soap without causing overheating issues, even with my milk/honey soaps.


IrishLass

Thanks for all the advice guys.

So I will let things cool a bit more before soaping. 150 oil/lye temp being too hot.

I'll also be cutting my recipe size by half or more. a 4-6 pound soap mold doesn't hold 4 pounds of oils+the other bits to make it soap. And the full mold wasn't my goal anyway (I only wanted about half full). And yep its an Essential Depot mold.

For CPOP I'll be using my lowest setting on the oven. If its even needed.

Oh, and Honey and Yogurt was probably 3 ounces combined.

Yay! You made soap. And then you fixed the soap you made. That's a lot for a first time, and it looks good now. Congratulations and I hope your next batch goes a bit more smoothly for you.