HELP! separated - how to get it back together?

I made a batch on the 17th and poured it into cavity molds. It sat there like pudding and refused to become soap.

Today, after 4 days of pudding, I put in the oven thinking I could push the saponification but NoOOO, that was a bad idea. Rather than finish, it separated. I had 12 cups of pudding with oil soup surrounding them.

I toss it in the crock and turned the heat on, SB it and I've been watching it for about an hour but it keeps separating the minute I stop stirring it.

Any suggestions? I about to toss the works but hate to waste perfectly good oils. :crazy:

You should try putting them in a crock pot and cook it to see if it will come back together. Otherwise I have no advice....I personally would toss it but that's me. Sorry this happened to you!

Is the crock pot on high? If not, turn it up. I've had a couple batches separate really badly and I needed high heat with vigorous stirring
to get it back together. I like to use a sturdy wire whisk, it works better in thicker batter then a SB does.

Thanks for quick answers .. I was about to give up but I'll try some more. I had it in crock on low and was alternating SB and HS, I'll turn up and whisk

I'm wondering .. if this doesn't come together (still stirring and losing hope) .. can this be used in any other way?

It was pudding .. was some of it saponified??? and some loose oils that didn't bond? If that's the case, can I add sugar and make sugar scrubs with it? .. or can anything be done with it at all?

ETA: if I can't do anything with it .. what's the proper way to dispose of this mess?

Did it ever come back together? If not, can you drain the oil and use the left over bits for laundry detergent?

i like to use my left over bits and other not so good soaps to wash my soaping utensils. i put the scraps on a washing cloth and tied it with a rubber band. if i were you, i would do my best to get it all together so that at least it becomes soap. i'm no help, huh? lol

I would have mixed a little lye solution and added some in to see if it would come together.

It did not come back together. This morning the mess in the pot is hard soap*ish* material on top and very oily/watery liquid below. I am NOT sticking my tongue anywhere near any of it so don't even ask me if it's zappy, LOL!

Any suggestions?

You would not happen to have a pH meter, would you? I am wondering if the solid is within any safe boundary ballpark. If not, I would not try to use it. I would put it in some sort of jar or plastic container that has a secure enough lid and throw it away.

But, in the meantime, do you happen to know what went wrong? I am still learning this stuff, and I would rather learn from you than have the experience myself.

That is weird, the lump does look like soap. I'd zap test the lump but not the liquid. Wet your finger and rub across the lump to zap test, don't put your tongue directly on it.

I was going to suggest exactly what Obsidian suggested. Also try a piece and see if it lathers. I find soap that is still zappy will not lather well and leave a bit of a slick feeling to your fingers, feeling like how perm solution would destroy my finger treads (pads). Whoo hoo no finger prints!!

hmmm... that is weird, MzMolly... perhaps you can throw away the liquid and save the rest in a container, you know, to let it rot.. i mean cure for a while.

that's what i would do if i were you. i am not a fan of throwing anything to the bin. those oils were bought with my hard earned money. even my failed melt and pour projects, that look weird beyond belief, i saved them to wash my soaping utensils.

Did you use a fragrance?

Obsidian .. I could mail you a piece to zap test for me .. *shivers in the corner like a wet chicken*

Judymoody .. not an FO but I did use lemongrass and litsea EO's ..

I really think it has to do with the fact that it was only emulsified when I molded it. I had a different batch do something similar once (stay grainy pudding) and DeeAnna thought it might be because I poured it into cavities without proper trace and it couldn't generate enough heat going to finish saponifying. That batch I put straight to crock pot and HP'd .. no problem.

This batch I took a risk and put it in the oven thinking maybe the heat from the oven would push it to finish saponifying (I was hoping not to lose my swirls) .. it didn't and separated instead. Maybe it no longer had enough lye to finish the process properly??? I wonder if OP might have worked if it was fresher, rather than 4 days old.

Tomorrow I've got a day to play and I need the crock for other soaps, so maybe I'll experiment with it a little more before just tossing it.

I'd be happy to test if for you if really want. I've been zapped enough that it doesn't bother me anymore lol.

Obsidian said:

I'd be happy to test if for you if really want. I've been zapped enough that it doesn't bother me anymore lol.

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You're a brave and generous soul to even offer.

When I first started making soap I had two of my earlier batches play silly beggar with me and experienced several bad days of constant, burning hell fire zap. I think it's mentally scarred me for life. I purposely wait over a week before testing a bar that I'm confident isn't zappy and I don't want to touch anything that has the remote possibility of being zappy. :Kitten Love:

It's sweet of you to take my joke seriously but I'll just keep my zap here and muck with it until I'm confident it's not zappy .. or else I'll just toss it, LOL!

Alright .. this morning I washed off a lump of the hard bits and it lathered really nice .. so tested it and no zap. The liquidy bits are oil slippery, not lye slippery .. anyone who knows the difference will understand what I mean .. you can feel the difference in the slip. I'm sorry Obsidian I'm too scared to stick my tongue near that mess even though I think it's oil, so I'm going to guess, LOL!

*I* think .. it simply used up all the lye and then cooled too quick to finish properly and that oily business left behind might very well be my super fat or whatever oil the lye didn't grab onto before cooling too much to work.

The plan of attack .. heat the whole business back up to a working temperature and throw a small batch of new, working muck into it. I'm treating it like sourdough where you need some active dough to make the bread. I think the new mix will be the active dough that will set the rest.

Because I think the liquid in the pot is oil and not lye .. I lowered my superfat on the active mix to 2%, hoping the lye will be able to grab onto the old oil. Final superfat will be unknown then??

*IF* it works and if the resulting soap is lye heavy I can always salvage that. If on the other hand I end up with more oily mess .. well .. let's talk about that if it happens.

this batch continues to astound me ..

I started up the crock and was busy weighing out oils for the adding batch .. as it warmed up I poked at the lumps to break them up, then took a potato masher to them and finally the SB. Walked away and did a few other things, came back and SB some more to break up lumps. A few more times of that and I'm starting to realize the oil is all mixed in .. the stuff is all light and fluffy like a HP mashed potato stage BUT this can't be HP mashed potato because it's all saponified and this is more like a rebatch ..

I left it for a bit to see if it would separate or harden .. it did neither. Light and fluffy happy soap! I molded it without adding in anything at all and it looks brilliant .. I think I made whipped soap but I have no idea what just happened or why.

Maybe leaving it sit next to the trash can all night scared it into submission.

It looks a lot like the original grainy pudding - pic below of original - but the texture is all different. The first was all soft and easily broke when you touched it .. this is very sticky and fluffy, exactly like thick mashed potatoes.