Crumbly Castile Soap

[Bonanza]

Hello!
I am trying my hand at cold process soap making and decided to attempt a 100% olive oil castile soap. I read this kind of soap will usually take long to trace and unmold due to it being a soft oil. Following that information I entered 33% water in soapcalc instead of 38% and it reached trace at a decent speed. I also added 1 teaspoon of olive leaf powder per pound of oil (2 pounds oil total). I split this batch exactly in half and added 1 teaspoon sodium lactate to one half to see how much that would harden up. Unmolded 22 hours later as both halves hardened up like a rock. Both were quite crumbly on the edges but the one with sodium lactate was especially easily broken. I used "extra light tasting" olive oil from Costco, Kirkland Signature brand. Tested the PH using the generic cheap PH strips and it showed up as 7-9. I have not done the zap test and my hands are not dry or irritated from using the soap. What could have gone wrong with the texture?
Thanks!
Edit: also entered 5% superfat
Edit edit: soaped at room temperature and did not insulate

 

[Obsidian]

Sounds like you waited too long to cut and the soap was too hard.

Castile can be tricky, sometimes it sets up rock hard quickly, other times it stays soft for days.

I always check my soap every 3 hours or so, just to make sure it's not getting hard too fast.

 

[Bonanza]

Thank you very much! I did notice it was quite hard within half a day but did not bother to unmold at that point. I didn't realize soap could get too hard to cut properly.

 

[CaraBou]

Castille hardens quite well when there is not too much water.

 

[Susie]

pH strips are notoriously inaccurate when measuring a salt. Soap is a salt. Add to that that you must dilute the soap in order to pH test it accurately.

 

[SaltedFig]

Did you use 33% lye concentration, or 33% water as a percentage of oils?

If you used water as a percentage of oils, your true lye concentration would be around 28%, which is quite a lot of water for a pure olive soap.

It is likely with that high an amount of water, your soap would have gone through gel easily, which would have caused it to harden a lot quicker than a non-gelled castile.

I don't know the brand that you used (Aussie here), but if it is a (chemically extracted) pomace olive oil, it is said that it will trace a lot faster than a cold-pressed oil.

I entered 33% water in soapcalc instead of 38% and it reached trace at a decent speed.

 

[Bonanza]

It's possible some of the water evaporated off as I mixed in the lye. I didn't add it too slowly so the water became quite hot

 

[Bonanza]

pH strips are notoriously inaccurate when measuring a salt. Soap is a salt. Add to that that you must dilute the soap in order to pH test it accurately.

I first lathered the soap in my hands then smeared that lather all over the strip. Is there a more accurate way to use those strips?

 

[SoapTrey]

I first lathered the soap in my hands then smeared that lather all over the strip. Is there a more accurate way to use those strips?

https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/how-to-ph-test-handmade-soap/

 

[dixiedragon]

I used "extra light tasting" olive oil from Costco, Kirkland Signature brand.

I don't see this on the Costco site. Check the ingredients to make sure it is 100% olive oil.

 

[DeeAnna]

But even if you use the test strip in a diluted solution of water and soap, the chance of a test strip giving you an accurate reading is still pretty low. Strips usually say the pH is lower than it really is. Here are examples: http://alaiynab.blogspot.com/2015/05/ph-testing-of-liquid-soap-and-lowering.html

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Not to mention that pH alone is a fairly useless piece of information for us. Does it have unreacted lye? Best test for that is the zap test

 

[bathgeek]

Hello!
I am trying my hand at cold process soap making and decided to attempt a 100% olive oil castile soap. I read this kind of soap will usually take long to trace and unmold due to it being a soft oil. Following that information I entered 33% water in soapcalc instead of 38% and it reached trace at a decent speed. I also added 1 teaspoon of olive leaf powder per pound of oil (2 pounds oil total). I split this batch exactly in half and added 1 teaspoon sodium lactate to one half to see how much that would harden up. Unmolded 22 hours later as both halves hardened up like a rock. Both were quite crumbly on the edges but the one with sodium lactate was especially easily broken. I used "extra light tasting" olive oil from Costco, Kirkland Signature brand. Tested the PH using the generic cheap PH strips and it showed up as 7-9. I have not done the zap test and my hands are not dry or irritated from using the soap. What could have gone wrong with the texture?
Thanks!
Edit: also entered 5% superfat
Edit edit: soaped at room temperature and did not insulate

Hi there, I had the same thing happen to me today cutting a soap I'd poured two full days ago. My soap was 100% OO, dual lye, with 15g sugar per loaf, and unfortunately for me it was a 5-loaf batch. Zap test told me it was fine, so I am thinking I left it out too long. (I knew I should have cut it last night... >_<) I do low water and low superfat, so I really should have unmolded it earlier.

Where you leave your soap while waiting to set seems to make a difference, too. I only have problems with the batches I leave on my workspace. If I take it into the curing room it seems to behave just fine. My work space is a lot cooler and has much higher swings in temperature (it's an unfinished room in the basement.) I let my soaps set (and cure) in the basement room where the furnace is, and that seems to be a nicely-steady place for them.

Right now I'm pretty annoyed at myself, but oh well. It's still perfectly good soap, just ugly as all get out. Instead of rebatching this one, I'm going to felt the bars after a couple of months' cure.