What do I do with this situation?

[QuanahRose]

This is how my soap looked after 48 hours in the molds. I just unwrapped it this morning. The droplets shown are only on the soap poured into wooden molds. Soap poured into a silcone mold and into a hard white plastic mold with individual cavities looks fine.



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I used the "Gourmet Soap" recipe from Cavitch's "Natural Soap" book. I soaped at 88 degrees rather than the 80 degrees called for in the recipe.

Soap was poured at trace. All was smooth and even. Everything was wrapped in several blankets and left to its own devices. (Looks like it got up to some sort of trouble! : - ))

I've been successful with this recipe in the past -- love the soap it makes as do all the folks to whom I give it. Now this.

Please let me know if this soap will be OK with the passage of time or, if not, can it be at all salvaged.

TIA

 

[debbism]

What is the consistency of the droplets on top. Are they thin oil, like maybe the fragrance oil came up, or are they goey like perhaps it is a bit of glycerine?

I get the glycerine on top when I soap at higher temps or the molds heat up a lot......usually, wood insulates better than silicone so maybe the wood molds heated up a tad more and forced out fragrance or glycerine. I just swipe it off when I unmold and am sure to zap test from the ends as well as the middle just to be sure.

 

[Fragola]

Do they zap ?

 

[carebear]

Looks like a touch of overheating, no biggie.

Blot gently then leave it to see what happens - likely any residual moisture will be reabsorbed.

Zap test in a few days. If the surface is zappy, then rinse the bars and let rest a few more days and try again. Sometimes the lye solution sweats out a bit and a quick rinse will take care of that.

 

[QuanahRose]

Whew, I'm feeling a little better having read your responses. As of this writing, about 12 hours after I took the pictures included in my first post, all the droplets (which were of a light viscosity) have been absorbed back into the soap loaf. The top surface is mottled but no droplets and the entire top surface of the loaf is evenly firm to the touch. I can post pictures if you are interested.

Tomorrow I will cut it into bars and put the bars on the storage shelf for a couple days before testing further.

It makes sense the smaller individual soaps didn't have the droplet problem since they had no opportunity to overheat.

Was it that 8 degrees that made such a difference between my first batch, which was success, and this batch that developed the droplets and the mottling?

I'll post an update on this "gourmet" batch in a few days.

Tomorrow I'm going to try a smaller recipe that features hemp seed oil and hope I can get my groove back. : - )


Thanks to all of you for being so generous with your time, knowledge and experience.

 

[Soapy Gurl]

Which recipe did you use? I have made the "baby grand" and loved it. Her recipes make great soap. I need to go back and make a few more of them.

 

[ChrissyB]

I've had this happen quite a few times, just left it and it re-absorbs back into the soap.

 

[judymoody]

What fragrance did you use, if any?

8 degrees in temperature shouldn't make a difference. She recommends soaping very cool much of the time, cooler than I prefer. I'm not particularly fussy about temperatures any more - I generally soap somewhere between 90-110, depending on my recipe.

By the way, you are allowed to peek at your soap as it's saponifying. In fact, peeking can help you to avoid overheating problems before they get worse. Once your soap is in full gel, you can throw off the blankets and let your soap cool.