Failed salt bar?

[atiz]

Hi everyone,

Haven't been here for a while (except lurking sometimes) due to work and having way too much soap already... But maybe someone could enlighten me on this one.

I made a salt bar a couple of months ago that I absolutely love. (Recipe is by @IrishLass as found on this forum somewhere; 100% CO, 13% SF, 30% salt -- I used pickling/canning salt just because that's what I had.) It's only a 2-month old batch, but I love it really much and use it in the shower daily. Great bubbles

Anyway, I thought I should make another batch so that when I run out of the previous one I would have some nicely cured ones. I also thought I would experiment a little, so did it differently this time. The result: taking forever (3 hrs) to harden; after 10 days it is still very sticky/kind of mushy and a little soft (I can dent it with my finger).
Here is the recipe: 85% CO, 10% AvO, 5% Castor. 13% SF, 40% salt. Lye concentration 30%; divided the liquid, used aloe juice for dissolving the lye 50/50, the rest is Coconut milk mixed in with the oils.
I had light-medium trace when added the salt. No other additives except for an FO that seemed to behave well.

A few guesses:
- Castor doesn't go well with salt bars?
- I did not discount the fat for the CM, so the superfat is actually quite a bit higher than 13% and maybe too high? (But that is also true of my first batch and that was fine.)
- maybe it will get better eventually? But the first batch was so nice even the next day, hard and smooth as a rock.

Has anyone had anything similar? Any suggestions?

 

[Obsidian]

That is really odd. Castor is fine in salt bars and that recipe should be nice. The extra sf from the coconut milk shouldn't be a issue either, I use 20% sf in my salt bars.

The only thing I can think of is either a mistake with weighing the lye or your lye has went bad. Have you tried doing a zap test? Has it been cut?

 

[atiz]

Yes, I cut it after unmolding. I guess measuring mistake is a possibility, although I always try to be quite careful about that. I zap tested after unmolding and it was fine. Yeah, very odd. I will see if my lye is okay; it is pretty fresh (and I only buy very small quantities), but maybe I should try it in another small batch.
I tried a small bit on my hands the other day. It feels okay, a little oily perhaps. But it's just a sticky mess, too sticky even to bevel

 

[Meena]

Could it have been a quality issue with the Avocado oil having too many unsaponifiables?
(I'm reaching, here.)
Where is @DeeAnna? lol

 

[DeeAnna]

I have no idea. My recent batch of salt bars had 80% coconut oil and 20% avocado oil with 35% ppo canning salt and 15% superfat. The batch saponified and hardened just as expected -- no problems.

I'm guessing a measurement error as the most likely issue -- either too much fat or too little NaOH.

 

[atiz]

Yeah, maybe a measurement error -- I had just never done that before and am usually pretty good at being precise with these kinds of things. Anyway, maybe it will get a bit better in a few months; I really like the scent and color of it, it would be a real bummer if I had to toss it.

Speaking of which: if I make a confetti soap with this in another salt bar with less SF (let say 10%), would the SFs "even out"? Maybe that's what I should do.