Crumbly soap(help me rebatch)

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charm

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I'm a completely newbie and I made my first batch yesterday. It was a disaster! I didn't line my mould properly so lost of paper is stuck in my soap lol!
Anyway the main problem was that the soap crumbled away a lot when being cut. I've read online that it's due to being lye heavy, I could be wrong though. How can I fix it?

33.3 oz x water
159g of lye
22 oz x olive oil
12.31 oz x coconut oil

Oh to note. When cooling my lye I placed the container in a ice/salt/water bath to help cool it, my oils ended up warmer than the lye, could this also have been the problem?

Thanks in advance
 
Did you mean to swap units? First of all, it makes it much harder to work when you do. Pick a unit and stick to it and things will always be easier.

That aside, with those amounts of oil, that amount of lye is a NEGATIVE 7.5% superfat. Your soap is very lye heavy.

Where did you check this recipe? Which calc?

Put it in a slow cooker with another 3 oz olive and 1.7oz CO with some water and cook it down. That will get it to around a 4 or 5% superfat as I can figure it, based on the lye used.
 
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I agree with effy....you need to measure in all the same unit. I pretty much do grams as it's much more accurate. Also using a good calculator (soapcalc.com) or some other one. You so soap is extremely lye heavy I would either rebatch or discard it if need be. Since you are so new I would stick with 2lb batches until you get the hang of it. There is certainly a learning curve. Welcome to the board and the hobby/addiction.
 
I have no idea how to work soap calc, tried to use it and got no where, I got the recipe from the 'soap lab'

The recipe was in mls but I converted to oz because I thought it would be the same/easier
 
If a recipe is not in a weight unit, run for the hills!

Soap Calc looks worse than it is. Mainly I just choose the units to what I want to work in, put in the oils, amounts and away I go. I sometimes need to change the superfat and water options, but not always. I also use the % option which is handy, too.

Spend a good 30 minutes when you are not actually in a hurry to get a recipe to just sit down with it and look at the help text for each section. Go through it methodically and if there is anything at the end that you can't work out, as on here. To get anywhere with soap making, knowing one of the soap calcs is fairly key.
 
Charm, when using Soapcalc you will see that each section is numbered. If you click on those numbers, a dropdown will appear and tell you about that particular section. Leave most of the upper sections as is until you get to know the calculator a little better and just play with different types of oils and percentages. When you get a little more comfortable with it, you can start playing with the upper sections. (sections 1-4)

This really is the most valuable tool you will use in soapmaking so it is important that you learn to use it. There are alot of Youtube videos on it and there are alot of generous people here who can answer questions for you. Welcome to the forum and good luck with your new hobby. :)
 
I used a double boiler until the soap was like mash potatos and added the co and olive oil that someone up there had suggested, when washing out my pot the soap hardened but was soft so hopefully that fixes it! I will let you guys know how it goes!

Thanks for the help guys! Now excuse me while I go study soap calc
 
Hi, and Welcome!

Two big rules for newbies!

1. Always, always, always run every recipe through a reliable lye calculator for yourself. Pick one and stick with it. Many of us use Soapcalc because you can sort of get a picture of how the soap is going to turn out by looking at the numbers.

2. Never toss a batch of soap until you have asked here. Most can be saved, and you learn lots from the process.

Welcome to the addiction!
 
Update, so I re batches and added the CO and Olive oil, it set and I cut today

I'm guessing all of it didn't melt down properly (the majority of it did) when I cut there were some small lighter spots in the soap that had a zap to it but the rest of it is fine,

Is it a Ross or will it neutralise over time?

That should say toss, not Ross lol
 
When a batch of mine goes bad, I either rebatch (like you just did) or turn it into liquid soap.

Liquid soap is easy to neutralize with citric acid. I don't have any ph strips so I do this:

Once your soap is a free flowing liquid, dilute 5g in as little water as possible, add it and stir for a while. Check zap. Repeat until no zap remains.
 
Do not throw it away. It the spots still zap after a week or so just rebatch again, and you could add in a little oil or goats milk to take up the superfat more. Grate up your soap, the finer the better melt, and put it in a stainless steel pot into the oven at 200 degrees. You can always use the double boiler again to melt it down, but I get a much better melt with the oven. Sprinkle a bit of liquid over teh soap to get it to start melting. Sorry I do not measure how much additional I use when rebatching, I just tend to wing it.
 
Adding enough liquid to make liquid soap will give you a "snot" like consistency that will have to be mixed back together each time you want to use it. If that is something you are ok with, then go for it.

Give the zappy soap time to neutralize. A week, as Carolyn said, is usually enough. Bear in mind that this will not be the most conditioning soap you have ever used, but it should be tolerable. And you have learned a LOT from this experience, so it will never be a total loss.

If it is still zappy after a week, rebatch again. I would probably use the same amounts TEG said to use originally. That should give you enough superfat to remove any possibility of zap.

Be absolutely sure to record every addition to the recipe for this soap, as well as all cooking times for rebatch and such. This could very well be the batch you love more than any other, and without good record-keeping, you will never be able to re-create it.
 

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