Semi-New to CP Soapmaking...

[KLag]

Wow am I glad I found this forum! I've spent the last few months playing around with CP soapmaking, and am glad to find a bunch of people as crazy about soap as I am. As I've been dabbling, I've noticed a few things that I can't seem to find answers for.

- The recipe I've been using has been 80% Olive Oil (Pomace) and 20% EV Coconut Oil, at 6-7% SF. It takes forever and a day to trace, and often only gets to a thin pudding texture even after 30-45 minutes of almost constant blending. I heat my oils when I soap, and have never actually had an issue reaching trace, just getting anything thicker than thin pudding. Is this due to the high olive oil content? Also (and I know this is arbitrary), does this seem like an okay recipe? I don't like using other supermarket vegetable oils, and don't want to use palm oil, so I know my recipe is very limiting for now. I'm thinking of buying some oils through soaperschoice and might go for some combo of shea butter, cocoa butter, and/or rice bran oil to add to my olive and coconut oils. I'm dying to do layers and make textured tops, and it makes me sad when I pour my soap into the mold and it just sits there like, well, pudding. Boo!

- I made two batches of soap about a month and a half ago - one batch unscented/no additives, the other with tea tree oil. I cut the batch into 1" cubes and left them out to dry (but didn't turn them). I walk by them daily and haven't seen any issues.

However, today I looked at them and noticed that the unscented batch had turned a dark buttery YELLOW and smelled rancid (both batches had been a light cream color). The tea tree oil batch is still the same color. Would old oils have caused this? And did the tea tree oil have prevented the other batch from yellowing? None of my other batches had this issue, I've had some DOS here and there but never had a whole batch go off. For what it's worth, the recipe was 80% pomace olive oil and 20% EV coconut oil, at 6-7% SF. Nothing else added except the tea tree oil to the other batch.

Thanks so much, sorry for the long post. So much cycling through my head! Colors, scents, materials, shapes, yeesh! Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings!

 

[seven]

hi there and welcome to the forum

when you said old oils, how old are we talking here? olive and coconut oils are very stable oils which last a long time. can you post pics? i'm curious to see the DOS part.

i recently made a castile batch and it didn't take that long (def less than 45 mins) to reach thin-med trace. did you use a stick blender? a thin pudding consistency (thin trace) is okay to pour. you don't need thick trace every time. how much water did you use? using less water def cuts trace time. for a high olive recipe like yours, i would personally use 1.5-2:1, water:lye ratio.

your recipe is a bastille and it should be a very nice and mild soap. i don't see why you can't do layers, swirls, whatever with that recipe. for peak tops, wait a while after you pour until the soap is a bit thicker, then start pulling your weapon of choice to play with the tops.

 

[Seawolfe]

My most basic recipe is 70% OO and 30% coconut oil, and it makes a decent little soap. I've since subbed in 5% castor and dropped the coconut to 25%, and upped the superfat to ~ 8%. Some people don't like that much coconut or olive oil, but I think its quite nice once cured.

Using a stick blender I seem to recall trace happening within 10 minutes of alternating stick blending and stirring on that soap, probably 15-20 min on my pure OO castiles.

If you dont want to use palm, there's lots of other choices, lard being a VERY good option. I just recently made an experimental batch that used rice bran oil, shea butter & cocoa butter instead of palm oil - I just kept fiddling in soap calc until the fatty acid & soap qualities profiles looked similar to the soap with palm oil. Ill report back once its done curing.

Your stinky orange soap definitely sounds like DOS (Dreaded Orange Spots). I've heard that Tea Tree is an antiseptic so maybe that's what saved the one that didn't go yellow?

Oh and welcome

 

[Ann Marie]

You may want to make a water discount. I do a castille soap 100% OO with a water discount and only 3% superfat if that helps at all, traces nicely and you swirl or layer, etc...it comes out nice and hard and I haven't had any DOS issues.

 

[KLag]

Thank you all for responding! To answer some questions on my batches, I do a water:lye ratio of 1.5:1, I don't feel quite comfortable yet going any lower. Should I go lower, given the amount of Olive Oil I'm using? Also, I am most certainly using a stick blender, I would be stirring into the night if I stirred by hand!! Though I could use the muscles...

Sometimes I add in grapeseed oil to 5% (sometimes 10%, but I know that's pushing it). When I do this I deduct the percentage from the olive oil (from 80% of oils to 75%), coconut oil always stays at 20%.

The oils have been bought from Costco in the last 2 months, I figured that shouldn't be an issue, but who knows?

@Seawolfe: I'm so glad to hear of someone besides me having success using only an OO/CO blend. I tried looking up recipes similar to mine but found nothing, figured I must be doing something wrong. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to get a rich, lathery bar with just those two oils!

I only have a picture of the tea tree oil soap and the unscented soap side by side, none with the DOS (husband has since thrown out the garbage).

The unscented soap works well, it just looks sad and stinks of old oil. Don't know what gives, since older batches I've made with the same recipe are still creamy white.

Anyhow, thank you for the warm welcome everyone! So nice to speak with other soapers!

 

[Bex1982]

Humm, that's weird. Sometimes they change color as they cure but since your others never do that I'm guessing the oil was old... I've had that happen a few times. Once I did olive, hemp and coconut, it got gross smelling and kind of rubbery. I always thought it was the hemp since it has a short shelf life, but I did use costco olive oil and I've heard of some other soapers having issues with it. Maybe it's kind of old when stocked sometimes?
I did an olive oil coconut last night and it traced in about 10 min, but I guess it could have been the fo.
I wanted to tell you that rice bran oil has a short shelf life so be careful, your soap might get yucky smelling after a couple months.