First Failed Batch - what went wrong?

[kommon_sense]

Ok, so tried to improve on a previous recipe, and it appears as though it separated a bit. I have about a good teaspoon of oil that came out of the soap and is sitting on the lip of the mold. Aside from that soap looks good, & smells good, but I haven't cut into it yet. The soap turned reddish-brown with slight brown crust on the corners (looks like the tasty bits on a muffin crust).

The new things that I tried were :

- smaller batch (30oz of oil)
- Added fragrance to batch (oatmeal milk & honey)
- Used honey (2 large tablespoons)
- Used powdered goats milk (chilled thoroughly)
- Filled mold completely up. Soap appears to have risen some in oven.

I believe that I did a good job with mixing the goats milk/lye. I kept temps around 100deg. Milk turned yellow-ish orange. Oils were about 100-110 when I combined everything.

I added the honey/fragrance at a light trace.

I normally stick blend to a thick trace. It was taking longer than usual to trace, so I decided to pour with a light/medium trace.

Everything looked good. Poured into silicone mold, put it oven for cpop. Oven was preheated to 170. Turned the oven off after 30mins & opened door to let the heat out and closed door. After 1hr, soap appeared to turn red. Stayed in oven for the next 18hrs. Oven temp never got hot.

 

[kommon_sense]

If the soap looks good after cutting and passes the zap test is it reasonable to use it? I wouldn't give this soap out to anyone.

I plan to make a fresh batch tonight with these changes. Does this sound reasonable :

- I won't preheat the oven.
- Mix honey with oils (Any scientific reason to wait until trace?).
- Don't fill mold. Leave 1/4" space.

I did 1 tblspn honey PPO, should I do 1 tspn ppo instead?

 

[agriffin]

If the soap looks good after cutting and passes the zap test is it reasonable to use it? I wouldn't give this soap out to anyone.

I plan to make a fresh batch tonight with these changes. Does this sound reasonable :

- I won't preheat the oven.
- Mix honey with oils (Any scientific reason to wait until trace?).
- Don't fill mold. Leave 1/4" space.

I did 1 tblspn honey PPO, should I do 1 tspn ppo instead?

Hmmmm..I would think that honey in the oven is a bad idea? It heats up really well on it's own. I would just let the soap gel on it's own and check on it along the way to make sure it's not over heating. I also use 1 tblspn ppo added at a light trace.

But it probably got too hot in the oven.

And yes you can use it as long as it passes the zap test.

 

[carebear]

don't turn on the oven at all (honey, milk, or any sugar tends to heat things up). you probably don't even need to wrap your soap if you leave it on the counter
honey isn't oil soluble, so add it to your mix after you have added in your lye solution - at very light trace. I use about 1 Tbsp per pound of oils but you can use any amount you want.
do leave room for expansion, just in case, but that's something that you don't want to see

it turned red/orange/brown from the milk and honey

overheating isn't an issue in and of itself, and often results only in cosmetic issues (alligator skin, oozing, cracking, etc.) but sometimes can cause lye solution to sweat out leaving a caustic residue on the surface (you can usually rinse that off and still have good soap) or worse - cause pockets of lye solution to form so it's something you want to avoid.

 

[kommon_sense]

Thanks for the feedback.! I'll snap some pics of the soap in the mold and after cutting when I get home.

don't turn on the oven at all (honey, milk, or any sugar tends to heat things up). you probably don't even need to wrap your soap if you leave it on the counter

So, is it possible to CPOP honey/milk soap? Do I have to do CP?

honey isn't oil soluble, so add it to your mix after you have added in your lye solution - at very light trace. I use about 1 Tbsp per pound of oils but you can use any amount you want.

So, the honey isn't oil soluble part makes good sense. I'm not expecting better integration/dissolving/etc. by adding the honey into the oils. My only goal would be to simplify the process.

Since honey can handle the heat of the oil, and saponification is still going on at light trace, is there any real benefit of waiting until trace to add the honey? If I were stirring with a whisk, then I can see some difference, but I'm stick blending it.

 

[ewenique]

I add honey with the oils. I've CPOPed honey soaps, but they do tend to overheat and turn dark. There are many soapers who like to keep the soap light in color, so instead of letting the honey soap gel, they put it in the freezer or fridge to prevent gel. It takes longer to saponify, but it is still lovely soap.

 

[carebear]

So, the honey isn't oil soluble part makes good sense. I'm not expecting better integration/dissolving/etc. by adding the honey into the oils. My only goal would be to simplify the process.

Since honey can handle the heat of the oil, and saponification is still going on at light trace, is there any real benefit of waiting until trace to add the honey? If I were stirring with a whisk, then I can see some difference, but I'm stick blending it.

you can add it any time, but I find I get best dispersion of it if I dilute it out with some warm water and add at light trace. if I add with the oils I'm more likely to get what I call honey drops or honey dots in my soap. but others manage just fine.

if you are just stirring with a whisk it might not works so well to add the honey to the oils - if you use a stick blender you might get better results. but mileage may vary.

 

[kommon_sense]

Ok, sounds reasonable. I'll try adding honey with the oil and see how that works out for me.

Here are the pics of this failed batch. It looks like I could rebatch, but I've never done that before. The top/sides are fine. The bottom is burnt though. I had the soap sitting on a block of wood in the stove. The wood was to make sure the mold was level. Looks like if I didn' t do that, it would have been fine. The soap passes the zap test.