I just tried to make some soap & it didn't work out too well. I'm not sure where I went wrong. I decided since I had all my new oils, molds, fragrances & micas I would give it a shot. My first few batches were just made w/olive oil, Crisco, coconut oil, grapeseed & castor. I got palm oil, olive pomace & palm kernal flakes.
This batch was 30 oz of oils for the Crafter's Choice green silicone mold from WSP. I did palm oil at 35%, olive pomace at 30%, palm kernal flakes at 20%, castor oil at 10% & grapeseed at 5%. I kept the grapeseed aside & used that to mix my color in.
I got everything ready & had both the oils & the lye at 110 degrees. I poured the lye water into the oils & used the stick blender only long enough to get it all mixed together. I scooped out some of it to put in my cup of grapeseed color & then I blended for about 2 minutes before it was at a thin trace. I got my fragrance (Blarney Stoned from Nature's Garden) measured & then poured it in along w/some titanium dioxide. At this point it had somehow gotten itself to a really thick trace just by sitting there, before I poured the fragrance in. It looked like whipped buttercream frosting. I ran the stick blender around a few times to try to get the fragrance & titanium dioxide dispersed evenly & then glopped it into the mold. I poured the colored bit, which had also set itself up to a thick trace, on top & then kind of pushed it down inside.
Any suggestions to why it set up so quickly? I just want to figure out how to do it differently next time. I had no issues before w/the different oils so I don't know if it was the smaller amount of oil, the fact that they're different oils or that I mixed in my stainless steel pot instead of a wider mixing bowl. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. This is a special batch I was trying to make for my mom & I'm a bit discouraged now. I was gonna try to make another batch later to give away as Valentine's soaps, but I'm kind of worried it will just happen again.
This batch was 30 oz of oils for the Crafter's Choice green silicone mold from WSP. I did palm oil at 35%, olive pomace at 30%, palm kernal flakes at 20%, castor oil at 10% & grapeseed at 5%. I kept the grapeseed aside & used that to mix my color in.
I got everything ready & had both the oils & the lye at 110 degrees. I poured the lye water into the oils & used the stick blender only long enough to get it all mixed together. I scooped out some of it to put in my cup of grapeseed color & then I blended for about 2 minutes before it was at a thin trace. I got my fragrance (Blarney Stoned from Nature's Garden) measured & then poured it in along w/some titanium dioxide. At this point it had somehow gotten itself to a really thick trace just by sitting there, before I poured the fragrance in. It looked like whipped buttercream frosting. I ran the stick blender around a few times to try to get the fragrance & titanium dioxide dispersed evenly & then glopped it into the mold. I poured the colored bit, which had also set itself up to a thick trace, on top & then kind of pushed it down inside.
Any suggestions to why it set up so quickly? I just want to figure out how to do it differently next time. I had no issues before w/the different oils so I don't know if it was the smaller amount of oil, the fact that they're different oils or that I mixed in my stainless steel pot instead of a wider mixing bowl. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. This is a special batch I was trying to make for my mom & I'm a bit discouraged now. I was gonna try to make another batch later to give away as Valentine's soaps, but I'm kind of worried it will just happen again.