New Soap Recipe Went Wrong

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soapdope33

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Hi fellow soapers! I just tried a new recipe with a couple of ingredients that I have never used before. I used a orange juice container as a mold which I insulated with a towel. When I went to unmold, there was a small pool of oil on top. Once cut, the soap had a horizontal crack running through the middle and leaked more oil. Heres the recipe

Olive 40% 12.8
Canola 20% 6.4
Coconut 23% 7.36
Castor 7% 2.24
Avocado 10% 3.2

Distilled water 10.56
Lye (5% discount) 4.368
baking soda 4
Bentonite clay 1

EO's oz
cedarwood 1
rosemary .5
neroli .25
bergamot .25

The baking soda, clay, and all of the EO's are new to me.

I'm pretty sure that it either overheated or was under-insulated. Any ideas?
 
Sounds like it over heated and separated. You can try and cook it back together in a crock pot.
 
I agree that it sounds like it overheated. I would try to cook it back together. Just out of curiosity, did you use 4 oz of baking soda? I'm wondering if that much might have caused the problem as well. It seems like a lot of soda. I've never used it in my soap so can't speak first hand experience.
 
Yeah I think if I make it again I will stick it in the freezer to prevent gel. I did use 4 oz of soda. Never used it before but could probably scale down. I cooked in in a crock pot but I think I added to much water(first rebatch) because it is still pretty soft and its been 2 days. Maybe laundry soap which is a shame because the smell is pretty rad. Thanks everybody
 
Yes, give it more time. Amazing how many times I thought I had a flop and didn't rebatch right away that ended up working out.
 
OK, I have never used baking soda in soap, but it is an additional alkali. It will further raise the pH, so I am not sure you can be completely certain that it will still have 5% superfat. I am sure DeeAnna or one of the other scientist types can give you the proper information.

As for the crack and the liquid that is leaking. Yes, it sounds like overheating. If the liquid is water that still contains lye or oil, you are going to need to rebatch. If it is just water or glycerin, you can just let it set and wait. HTH
 
Susie is right. You added two alkali chemicals to a CP soap batter -- sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and baking soda -- and this was the reason your soap did not go well.

Weak alkalis such as sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, NaHCO3) or sodium carbonate (soda ash, washing soda, Na2CO3) can be used to make soap without using NaOH, although it is a more difficult process and not something I recommend. So when you mix NaOH (a strong alkali) with either of the other alkalis, I'd say something is bound to go awry.

Soap Queen did a soap with baking soda earlier this year (and I'm pretty sure they did a similar soap a few years ago with similar results). The bottom line: An HP soap or rebatch with baking soda added after the cook went okay. A CP soap version with baking soda added to the batter failed miserably. I'm not sure I would have used their method to make the CP version, but there ya go.

More: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/soothing-oatmeal-bath-bar/
 
Wanted to add -- I'm not saying you couldn't get away with adding a small amount of baking soda to CP soap and end up with a bar soap that looks and works okay. Just that adding baking soda to the tune of 12-13% of your oil weight was too much of a good thing.

One person on Etsy has a baking soda soap that looks to be CP and her ingredients list is this: Olive oil, deionized water, sodium hydroxide, palm oil, castor oil, baking soda, sugar, salt.

Castor is often used in soap at about 5% of the total oil weight. Sugar is usually added at a fraction of a percent of total oil weight. Going by these rules of thumb, the ingredients list is telling me that the baking soda in this soap is somewhere between 1% and 5% by weight of oils.
 
Thank you all that was very informative. If I try the recipe again I will use less soda and probably super fat closer to 8%
 

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