Charcoal Facial Bar Mush -- Can it be saved?

[QuanahRose]

The batch hasn't hardened at all since being poured into the silicon mold. I'd describe the thickness as between medium and heavy trace. Basically, a failed batch.

I reviewed my notes and discovered I'd added four (4) ounces of grapeseed oil more than called for in the recipe.

Recipe, as calculated using Soap Calc, didn't include those four ounces. Plus, I added one-half ounce jojoba and 1/4 ounce tea tree at trace.

Here's the recipe in ounces
Olive Oil -- 12
Babassu Oil -- 8
Mango Seed Butter -- 4
Castor Oil --2
Rice Bran Oil -- 2
Water -- 10.64
Lye -- 3.876

Can I scrape this back into the pan, add the missing lye, and hope to save the batch?

Any other methods for salvaging this?

All suggestions welcome.

TIA.

 

[QuanahRose]

ADDENDUM -- forgot to include 1/2 Tablespoon powdered charcoal in the recipe ingredient list.

 

[judymoody]

Hmm, I have never rebatched by adding missing lye, only adding missing oils. Maybe somebody else will chime in who has experience doing this.

You said four ounces MORE of grapeseed oil but the recipe you provided doesn't have any. Are those quantities correct?

Did your soap gel?

It may be that your soap will be fine if you wait awhile. You used full water and a relatively high % of olive oil. Even though it will be superfatted more than the norm (it's at 15-16%) it may be useable if given enough time.

 

[QuanahRose]

I had the SoapCalc print out and the original recipe sitting side by side on the counter. When I put the recipe into SoapCalc I left out the grapeseed oil so the lye calculation was based on a total of 28 ounces of oils. (The recipe listed is the one I meant to follow but mistakenly switched to the original in midstream.)

Then, when making the soap, I looked at the original recipe and added in the grapeseed oil.

So, there was insufficient lye to saponify the 32 ounces of oil that ended up in the pan.

Gelling did NOT occur.

This stuff is SOOO soft it might well still be in the pan instead of in the mold so I'd rather not wait what I expect will be a considerable length of time for it to become usable, if it ever does.

Hope this additional information helps anyone trying to advise me on a possible solution.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Well, here's what I would do:
Calculate how much lye I need to saponify 4 oz Grapeseed oil with a 5% superfat.
Put the original soap batch into the crockpot to rebatch...get it good and "melty" (very scientific term)
While that's melting, I would soap my Grapeseed oil with the appropriate lye amount.
Once at thick trace, I would ADD it to the crockpot with my rebatch, (add your charcoal if you still want to) stick blend if possible, and continue to HP as usual.

I'm not guaranteeing miracles, but its certainly possible to save this!

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Nix that first part...I just realized you already added the Grapeseed oil ...so let me try this again:

Calculate how much lye you would need to saponify 4oz of Grapeseed oil with a 5% superfat.
Put the original soap batch into the crockpot to rebatch...get it good and "melty" (very scientific term)
While that's melting, I would make my lye solution with the proper lye amount and let it cool.
I would ADD it to the crockpot with my melted rebatch, (add your charcoal if you still want to) and stick blend and continue to HP it.

 

[sabon]

I think you can save the batch as you know exactly how much is in excess, don't worry. I did the same mistake once with a layered swirl(my first swirl), and a few minutes after I poured, realised had added excess oil for all the time spent on carefully layering and swirling)
so I know exactly what it looks and feels like. :shock: :? :!: :idea: Here is what I did

Calculated the amount of lye and water required to saponify excess oil ( put in the right super fat values or any adjustment you made for the recipe)

Since the lye I left out was very little compared to the batch of soap, I quartered items in the basic recipe, measured all items, prepared lye solution (with the extra lye and water) added the oils and added the partially saponified layered mixture into this batch. Stick blended well, had a medium trace and poured. Though the layering and swirl was lost I had a beautiful uniformly coloured soap and managed to save the entire batch . Didn't have to cook.

In your case, you could simply mix the extra water and lye, wait till lye is completely dissolved and solution clear, add the partially saponified paste, stickblend till trace, pour.

You could also rebatch by cooking the paste with lye solution but do not add lye crystals directly into the paste.

Hope this helps.

 

[QuanahRose]

Thank you, Sabon. I will try your suggestion this morning and post the results.

 

[QuanahRose]

Follow up --

ARRGH! Couldn't implement your solution, Sabon, as couldn't get back to the soap until just now and it has hardened beyond mush/paste. The solution now is the passage of time or cooking it and since I've never cooked, I'm going with the passage of time. Downside is it ties up two of my favorite molds.

I've printed out your suggestion and put it in my soap making notebook so next time something like this happens a solution will be at hand.

Thanks again, Sabon, and all who offered help. Much appreciated.

 

[sabon]

Follow up --

ARRGH! Couldn't implement your solution, Sabon, as couldn't get back to the soap until just now and it has hardened beyond mush/paste. The solution now is the passage of time or cooking it and since I've never cooked, I'm going with the passage of time. Downside is it ties up two of my favorite molds.

I've printed out your suggestion and put it in my soap making notebook so next time something like this happens a solution will be at hand.

Thanks again, Sabon, and all who offered help. Much appreciated.

Personally, I feel this is a good opportunity for you to get over the apprehension of cooking soap. Try it, initially I too hesitated to cook. But once I did that, could identify the different stages during the cook process and became extremely confident wrt soapmaking. If you have a crockpot, its really really very easy. One other advantage of learning to cook soap is that in future if you want to make liquid soaps or transparent soaps, you will know exactly what people are referring to in their description of recipe.

Happy soaping!