Lumpy soap

Was making soap this afternoon and someone called as I was mixing in the additions (irritatingly it wasn't even for me) but once I'd finished taking a message and gone back to my soap I noticed it had gone lumpy. Is this simply the coconut oil solidifying while I was gone? Can it find other coconut particles and bond itself back together? Or is this something I should worry about?

It's 50% olive, 30% coconut, 10% canola and 10% rapeseed with several spices added if that makes any difference?



My soapy mess appears to be getting worse;



It was originally standing up in slightly curly peaks like you'd get with meringues and a really vibrant orange, about 2 hours later when I went to check on it, it was leaking around the edges. I'm not sure if it's oil or water but it's a bright yellow/orange colour. Could I have too much water in it? I forgot to do a water discount and then added pumpkin puree and then an extra couple of tbsp of water I'd been soaking the safflower in. It's also getting hotter than the last batch I made despite not changing any of the ingredients other than the addition of turmeric and safflower. I'm very confused.

Hmmm, interesting. Let me see if I have this right.

You melted your oils, added your lye solution, stick-blended, added your additives, THEN walked away to answer the phone? Is that correct?

If so, it'd make sense for your soap to thicken up.

If you could outline your entire process including temperatures, tools, additives, lye concentration, etc. That might help us pinpoint your issues.

Judging from the second photo, your soap is overheating.

Looks like it's gelling at the bottom right corner. Weird place for gel to start. According to the chemistry experts here, soap with a higher water content is more likely to gel than soap with a lower water content. So with the extra water + the sugar from the pumpkin puree (and also possibly the spices) your soap is heating up. I think it will be fine - keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get too hot.

toxikon said:

Hmmm, interesting. Let me see if I have this right.

You melted your oils, added your lye solution, stick-blended, added your additives, THEN walked away to answer the phone? Is that correct?

If so, it'd make sense for your soap to thicken up.

If you could outline your entire process including temperatures, tools, additives, lye concentration, etc. That might help us pinpoint your issues.

Judging from the second photo, your soap is overheating.

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Measured out the lye and water and mixed, measured out the coconut oil and melted in the microwave, measured the other oils into the melted coconut oil and set to one side while I measured out the additives.

Added the lye solution to the oils (not sure what temp either were at, I tend to work with if I can touch the jug the lye is in and it doesn't hurt my hand I'm good), stick blended until a very light trace then split into two batches, into one I added a the spices and mixed, into the other I added pumpkin puree, pumpkin powder, turmeric and a tbsp or two of water with safflower in it. Then the phone rang.

When I came back the spice batch was about the consistency of thick custard, but the pumpkin batch seemed to be ok and still at a relatively light trace but none of the additives were mixed in, so I blended it for another 30 seconds and layered the soaps in a mould, ran a spatula through it to create a bit of a swirl and left.

Mix was 500g olive oil, 300g coconut oil, 100g castor oil, 100g rapeseed oil, 140g sodium hydroxide, 380g water, 100g pumpkin puree, 35g pumpkin powder, 5g safflower in 2tbsp water, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. I think the lye concentration works out at about 37%

Equipment was pyrex bowls, glass bowls, silicone spatulas and a hand blender.

It didn't do anything for a good hour, I was making another batch of soap and it was sitting at the back of my counter while I was working. I've never used rapeseed oil, turmeric or safflower in a soap before, would any of these have caused any sort of reaction? The previous batch of pumpkin soap I made certainly got hot and gelled but it didn't leak. Even the batch of strawberry soap I made a few months back which was a complete disaster and got incredibly hot because the strawberry puree I used had extra sugar in it didn't leak?

Maybe today just wasn't a good day for soaping; I ended up having to wash my eye out at one point and then dropped a glass bowl on my foot. Next thing I know my nice stable olive oil soap will have volcanoed all over my pantry.

Izzye said:

Added the lye solution to the oils (not sure what temp either were at, I tend to work with if I can touch the jug the lye is in and it doesn't hurt my hand I'm good),

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You may be working at a fairly high-temperature then! Most around the forum like to work with melted oils that are around 100-120 degrees F, and room-temperature lye solution. If both your lye and oil containers feel hot to the touch, you're probably working somewhere in the 130-150 F range, which is quite high for cold process.

Izzye said:

stick blended until a very light trace then split into two batches, into one I added a the spices and mixed, into the other I added pumpkin puree, pumpkin powder, turmeric and a tbsp or two of water with safflower in it. Then the phone rang. When I came back the spice batch was about the consistency of thick custard, but the pumpkin batch seemed to be ok and still at a relatively light trace

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This sounds pretty normal to me. Many recipes can go from light trace to heavy trace in the span of a few minutes!

Izzye said:

cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves

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These spices - especially cloves - can accelerate batter like a MOFO. So that's definitely a contributor.

Izzye said:

Equipment was pyrex bowls, glass bowls, silicone spatulas and a hand blender.

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For future reference, Pyrex/glass is considered a big soaping no-no around here. Pyrex glass can shatter if too hot, or become etched and flake off shards when exposed to lye. Most recommend working with plastic or stainless steel. The plastic should have a #2 or #5 code on the bottom to be lye-safe.

Izzye said:

Maybe today just wasn't a good day for soaping; I ended up having to wash my eye out at one point and then dropped a glass bowl on my foot. Next thing I know my nice stable olive oil soap will have volcanoed all over my pantry.

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Happens to the best of us... we all have bad soapy days! I'd say leave the soap to reabsorb the liquid, then when hard enough, unmold and give the loaf some air-flow to dry out more. Then slice 'er up and hope for the best!

High water generates more heat which acclerates gel and makes for a quite hot gel. This can result in separation of the oils in the batter. All you can do is not insulate and see if it settles down and hopefully re-absorbs the leaking oil. (I am guessing it is leaking oil from a hot gel). Oh yes we can all have bad soaping days, I have been soaping for several years and last week during the making of several batches of soap my last batch was an epic failure. Trash can failure and I do not do that without trying to fix it. It was un-fixable. What is aggravating is the lye solution was out of the same masterbatch and the recipe for all batches was the same. Gremlins were on overtime..:-(

Izzye said:

Maybe today just wasn't a good day for soaping

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It definitely happens. Gremlins or out-of-whack planetary alignments. Maybe something in retrograde. Best thing to do is ride it out and try again~

This morning it's still a bit weird and sticky around the edges, I can't get it out of the mould. But bizarrely the olive oil one I made which usually requires several days before I can get it out, came out perfectly despite being made an hour or two after the disaster. Never mind, I'll try again, make sure the hydroxide mix is at room temp and mix the pumpkin soap up first so the spice one doesn't have time to turn into custard on me.

At full water your recipe required 380g of water.
The pumpkin purée should have been subtracted from this so: 280g water + 100g pumpkin. Then you added a further 30 g (2 TBLSP) of water.
An extra 130g of water is too much water for a soap.

Castor oil at 10% will accelerate trace. Maybe drop it to 5%.
And yes drop the temps.
Also try mixing to emulsion only before dividing it into two.
Your spices might be better infused into oils - less scratchy.