Soap wont set

[Sallyj]

Hi, I hope someone can tell me why this has gone wrong. I made 2 batches of soap at the same time, using identical recipes, just a change of fragrance. I use the room temperature method. One batch using sandalwood fragrance turned out perfect. The other batch using nag champa fragrance even after 5 days is still like a cream cheese consistency. The only other difference in the batches is the molds. My husband makes them out of wood so I can do a kilo loaf. They are exactly the same size just made from different wood. I lined them both the same.

Has anyone else had soap that just wont set and can it be saved. Also I get no zap from it and I cut a piece off and washed my hands and it felt fine. Its just an unusable consistency.

Thanks all

Sally

 

[dixiedragon]

Can you post your recipe?

I am wondering if your sandalwood batch stayed warmer? If you did the sandalwood first, then wrapped that mold, it would have been warmer than the nag champa.

Is your mold oven safe? Perhaps heat up your oven a bit (100-150 F) and put your mold in there?

Did you add any extra water? When I am using the last of an FO I usually run a little water in the bottle, shake it and put that in the soap, and once or twice it was been enough extra water to really slow down trace for me.

 

[Sallyj]

Hi, I use 80% olive oil and 20% coconut oil for all my soaps (bit unadventurous I know but if it aint broke dont fix it ) I don't wrap my mold, I just pour it and leave it. As it's the room temp method it was literally blending to trace and then pouring so there was only about 1 minute between each pouring. The only thing I can think of is that the wood for each mold is different. Maybe one is warmer than the other. I can't put it in the oven as I soap at my shop and we don't have one here. I just find it very strange that after 5 days (4 of those out of the mold) it should still be "wet"

Thanks

Sally

 

[dixiedragon]

With 80% OO, that doesn't surprise me! What surprises me is that this hasn't happened for you before! It'll get there, eventually.

 

[cmzaha]

Not real sure how you can trace a high olive oil soap in 1 minute, you mentioned 1 minute before pouring. For such a high olive oil soap it it best to water discount and bring it to a good trace since they are great at seperating. High oo and full water do not play well many times. I would guess it is partly due to your fragrance oil and the sandalwood may have accelerated trace better helping it to set up quicker. Do you cover your molds. I have, and just recently, made two side by side batches, the only difference being 1 oz water, same bottle of fragrance. The batch with higher water failed miserably and had to be rebatched because it overheated and seperated. My batches are five lbs, which proves a little difference in liquid can make a huge difference especially. So a little difference in water could make a big difference in a kilo batch. I have not used their Nag Champa in a couple of years so I am sorry I do not remember how it soaped. Just remember I did not like it and it is still in the cabinet. Can you take a crock pot to your shop and rebatch it or let it continue drying out for a couple of months and see if it hardens. Sorry not much help from me. Just curious, how many times have you actually made this particular recipe? My experience with a spongy soap is it never hardened and is still sitting here a year later being spongy

 

[Sallyj]

Hi, I would say I have used this recipe well over a 100 times as I have a shop and it's the only recipe I use. The room temp is fairly new to me as I hp usually. I think you may have hit it on the head with the water.

Thank you