Beginners question including lye and overheating

[iwoodyouwood]

Hello all. My last batch of soap turned into a disaster and I was hoping to understand, learn and move on from it. Please do forgive for such basic questions, I have only just started recently.

I used 468 grams coconut oil, 150 almond oil (sweet), 124 grams lye and 234 grams water after using one of soap calculators.

I used frangipani essential oil (perhaps went a bit too crazy).Both lye and oils were at or less than 110 degrees upon stirring/mixing, although mixture felt very hot in the mould (and cracked on top, of course).

It zapped big time after 24 hours and crumbled away when I tried to cut it. Would anyone please point out what I did wrong here? Too much lye? The overheating, of course. False trace, potentially?
I thought of rebatching - would you recommend that at all or shall I just chuck it all.

really appreciate your time!

 

[dibbles]

Running your recipe through soapcalc, you would have needed 101 g lye for the oils you used. So your soap is lye heavy. As to the heating problem, coconut oil can be a heater in high amounts (75% is high), and floral fragrance/essential oils can be problematic too.

I hate rebatching and have almost no experience there, so I won't even try to advise you about that. Someone else will hopefully be along to help you decide if it is worth doing - or even advisable in this case.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Welcome to SMF, @iwoodyouwood!

Obviously, something went really wrong with your soap calculator. The soap is lye-heavy with >16% unreacted lye and never safe to use. 106 g NaOH would have been enough to saponify the oils, and even then the soap would be quite harsh.

What is your objective for using 75% coconut oil? What superfat were you aiming for?

With such a high fraction of coconut oil, it is to expect that the soap becomes crumbly, forms cracks everywhere, and is in dramatic overheating danger. That's just the nature of coconut oil, and some of the reasons why time-proven recipes rarely exceed 30% of it.
(False trace occurs when soap batter gets too cold, which you said wasn't the case.)

Coconut oil is a double-edged sword. Think of it as an “effect addition” rather than a “base oil”. The almond oil just can't add enough conditioning qualities into the bar to compensate the cleansing violence of that amount of CO. And you don't have “hard oils” (palm oil, lard, tallow, cocoa butter, etc.) in there, i. e. the soap (even with correct lye calculation) will be readily soluble, become soft and mushy by the sink, and doesn't last long.

I myself have learned the hard way that it's best to first learn the process and understand the performance of a basic recipe, like the famous Basic Trinity of oils, and only from there go on and develop an own “soaper personality” with fine-tuned recipes.


ETA: Hehe, @dibbles was just a moment faster than me. Yes, rebatching is a way how to salvage the material of that batch. And yes, it's laborious. It's okay when you now just wrap the batch airtight (important!), and forget about it until you are more experienced and/or feel the urge to get your hands dirty with a proper rebatch.

 

[KimW]

I vote for salting out the soap, only because I hate throwing away soap.

About your recipe - could it be that your recipe called for 568 grams of coconut oil? If I plug in 568 grams, instead of 468 grams, for the coconut oil I get your 124 grams of lye at 0% SuperFat.

 

[AliOop]

I love your mindset of learning and moving on! With that, I think @KimW nailed it - you were off by 100g on the CO. Darn! You can rebatch it with the missing oil if you are up for that - lots of great threads here on rebatching.

False trace is very unlikely at 100F, since CO melts at 76F. More likely the batch accelerated (traced faster) due to the combination of a lot of CO, soaping at the higher temp, using excess lye, and using a floral fragrance.

Also, you waited far too long to cut this loaf. A soap with that much CO normally needs to be cut within a couple of hours to avoid crumbling - even if it weren't lye heavy.

Don't be discouraged; keep reading about the basics of soapmaking, and asking good questions, and soon you will be posting pics of your successful soaps.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Hi Fellow Kiwi!
Read heaps and you'll get the hang of it. You need a good combo of oils, but it doesn't need to be complicated to start. As a very basic recipe you could use something along the lines of 30% CO, 30% OO, 10% Shea, 20% Rice Bran Oil, 10% Sweet Almond? It's by no means a perfect recipe but it's a starting point. Use the soap calculator on here - it's very good.
Have a read of this - I found it quite helpful: What Fatty Acid Profiles in Soapmaking Are the Most Popular?
Try Pure Nature and Zen Designs (amongst others) for your supplies - Pure Nature has some recipes on their site, though I've never used them.
Weigh your fragrance oils too - and read the reviews on the above websites before buying - it will tell you which ones accelerate etc.
Good luck!

 

[Zing]

Nothing to add here except ditto to all of the above. Just popped in to welcome you! Clearly the Kiwis are taking over here.
I did think of something. For your first batches, you may want to stick to just oils/butters and lye solution. There's several steps to get used to without having to fuss with colorants, scent, and additives (I know, I know, scent is the fun part!) Best of luck to you!

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Welcome iwoodyouwood

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Clearly the Kiwis are taking over here.

 

[TheGecko]

Hello all. My last batch of soap turned into a disaster and I was hoping to understand, learn and move on from it. Please do forgive for such basic questions, I have only just started recently.

I used 468 grams coconut oil, 150 almond oil (sweet), 124 grams lye and 234 grams water after using one of soap calculators.

I used frangipani essential oil (perhaps went a bit too crazy).Both lye and oils were at or less than 110 degrees upon stirring/mixing, although mixture felt very hot in the mould (and cracked on top, of course).

It zapped big time after 24 hours and crumbled away when I tried to cut it. Would anyone please point out what I did wrong here? Too much lye? The overheating, of course. False trace, potentially?
I thought of rebatching - would you recommend that at all or shall I just chuck it all.

really appreciate your time!

Welcome to the rabbit hole!

If your weights are correct, your soap is lye heavy and since you are new to soap making, I would toss it.

Recipes high in Coconut Oil need a bit different treatment...CO tends to saponify faster and harden faster...hence the heat and the difficulty in cutting it. Last time I made a soap high in CO was during the winter and in individual molds. They were ready to unmold after just six hours. Recipes high in CO also tend to be more drying, at least for women and so a higher "super fat" (unsaponified oils) is recommended...at least 10% if not 20%. You don't want to go too high through as the unsaponified oils can leave a mess.

I would start over with a basic three oil recipe of Olive, Coconut and Palm Oils (often known as the "Holy Trinity")..equal amounts. I would also go with a TOTAL batch weight of 16 oz or 454 grams and no other additives...no color, no scent...just a 'plain jane' bar of soap. 110F is a good place to start, mix to a light trace and then pour. Cover the mold with some plastic wrap and let sit for 18 to 24 hours...when you press the soap, it should feel like a medium cheddar. Unmold and cut into four pieces and then put it somewhere dry and let sit for four to six weeks.

 

[giulia]

Welcome! When I started making soap I stuck to a very simple recipe which helped me learn and it also built up a little confidence as I was nervous about using lye. There are so many great resources here and I think you have the right idea about learning from this so next time is better! Good luck