First batch of soap gone funny looking in mould

[ribartsi]

Hi everyone,

I had my first go at soapmaking yesterday and successfully reached trace and the batch looked homogenous and all good. I left the soap in the mould overnight and had this interesting look in the middle of the soap this morning (UK time). I had a quick google search and this seems gel process went wrong or essential oil behaving badly. To be honest, I am not sure what it is exactly and hope someone with more experience could tell. Is this batch safe to use?

 

[KiwiMoose]

Hi there - and congratulations on your first soap-baby! It looks like partial gel to me - where the soap gels in the middle but doesn't extend to the outer part. Is it solid now? If so, it's fine to cut as-is. But if you want to re-heat it you could potentially achieve full gel ( where the gel parts extends all the way to the outer areas). @DeeAnna has a website where she explains this process.
Was was your recipe exactly? This could have some bearing on it, but partial gel can happen to anyone. Some people like to gel (like me) and so will make sure the poured soap is kept warm so that it gels fully. Others don't like gelled soap, so keep it cool ( even pop it in the fridge!) so that it doesn't gel. Partial gel is just a bit of both, and the soap itself will still be fine to use, it's just that the colour won't be uniform.

 

[ribartsi]

Thank you for your response @KiwiMoose! It is solid at the moment and I am hoping to cut it into pieces in a few hours. @DeeAnna's website look incredibly useful, I will definitely be using it going forward! Though, since being the rookie I am, I am afraid to mess with it too much and do something wrong along the process. As long as it is safe to use, I will go ahead with the funny look and try to do a better job with the next batch

As for the recipe, I used below:

Olive oil - 426 gr
Coconut oil - 173 gr
Water - 282 gr
NaOH - 85 gr
Essential oils (peppermint and eucalyptus) 18 gr

I used soapcalc.net to calculate lye and water amount but it is entirely possible that I messed up with measuring at some point. It took me a bit longer to reach trace as I initially relied too much on blender power and remembered hand-stirring only after a while.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Seems like an awful lot of water you have used. In soap calc it is better to use the 'Lye Concentration' setting rather than water as a percent of oils setting. At 33% lye concentration setting it says to use 172g water with 85g lye. They may take a while to cure with all that extra water.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I agree with @KiwiMoose, it is partial gel and nothing to worry about. However as you progress in your soap making at some point you may decide that you want a full gel or none at all or something in between for a interesting look. I won't overload you with to much information right now but learning what different stages your soap will go through after pouring, is a good idea.

Knowing what ingredients will cause your soap to heat up is not just about gelling your soap but about knowing the difference between a soap that will behave in the mold and a soap that will volcano and cause a mess with a lot of headache. Good start & good luck!

 

[ribartsi]

Seems like an awful lot of water you have used. In soap calc it is better to use the 'Lye Concentration' setting rather than water as a percent of oils setting. At 33% lye concentration setting it says to use 172g water with 85g lye. They may take a while to cure with all that extra water.

You are right. I have only realised this after making the soap. And just as you said, soap is still considerably soft and seems like it will take time to cure. Thank you for all your help!

I agree with @KiwiMoose, it is partial gel and nothing to worry about. However as you progress in your soap making at some point you may decide that you want a full gel or none at all or something in between for a interesting look. I won't overload you with to much information right now but learning what different stages your soap will go through after pouring, is a good idea.

Knowing what ingredients will cause your soap to heat up is not just about gelling your soap but about knowing the difference between a soap that will behave in the mold and a soap that will volcano and cause a mess with a lot of headache. Good start & good luck!

Thank you for the advice and you are definitely more about doing more research about ingredients and the process in general!

 

[TheGecko]

Concur with others that it is a partial gel and congratulations of making your first soap. Set it sit in the mold for a couple days and when it feels like cheddar cheese, go ahead and unmold and then set it sit for another couple of days before cutting. If you cut with a knife, remember to twist your soap off the blade, don't pull. I would also place a small fan to blow on the soap...it will help with drying.

 

[ribartsi]

Hi everyone,

It's me again!

I made my 3rd batch of soap today. Though, this time, I had the soap really really thicken up - like extremely that it almost looked like a HP soap rather than CP. I first realised something was wrong when I poured laye/water mix to the oils. Rather than smoothly integrating with oils, lye solution instead formed a lump at the bottom of the bowl. But once I started using the blender, everything went back to normal and upon reaching light trace, I added my essential oils (lavender and mint) and kept mixing with blender for about another min or so. I then stopped mixing and started getting the mould ready for pouring and left the soap unattended for about a minute. When I got back, I realised that the soap was thickened considerably and wasn't liquid anymore. Using blender would be no help so I just poured it into mould.

Though, I wonder a few things;

1- What went wrong? I used the exact same measurements from soap calc. This was the same recipe with slightly bigger volume, so I'm familiar with all ingredients etc. The only difference was the brand of coconut oil I used and essential oils - but not sure if they would make a huge difference?

2- Is this batch safe to use? It is currently in the mould and it doesn't look like it's going through it is going through gel process even though it is fairly warm. As I said it looks more like a HP soap rather than CP.

Thank you so in advance for your time. I am attaching the recipe I used for your reference.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I reckon three things:
1) your lye concentration is quite high. Try using around 35%.
2) don’t stick blend for so long. It sounds like you may have over-blended.
3) ALWAYS have your moulds ready to go. Once your batter reaches trace, it won’t just stay at the same consistency. Every moment you leave it, it will get thicker and thicker.
N.B. Soap with such a high lye concentration is less likely to gel unless forced into gel.

 

[linne1gi]

I agree with @KiwiMoose, the three things that helped me the most when I was a new soap maker, 1- Use a ratio of water to lye, I usually use 2:1 unless I am making a Castile Soap, then I use 1.5:1. 2- Don't over stick blend, blend for 2-3 seconds, hand stir, blend for 2-3 seconds, hand stir and so on. I literally stop after the 3rd blend. No more stick blending after that, everything is ready and I just hand stir it in. This makes a huge difference. 3 - Have everything ready ahead of time - your colors, your fragrance, your mold, and any additives. Remember that stick blending accelerates the soap - so when you stop blending the soap doesn't stop - it keeps right on trying to saponify.

 

[ribartsi]

Thank you @KiwiMoose - I cut the batch today actually and although it looks like Frankenstein's soap, it feels normal in terms of texture. So I will assume that it is safe to use

And thank you so much @linne1gi for your advice. I am still guilty of stick blending a bit too much as I try to reach a thick trace to convince myself that soap is ready. Though, in my previous batch, I stopped while at a very mild trace and that batch turned out perfectly fine. I need to make blending less and not more more of a habit going forward.

I have another question. I am moving out of my current flat and will live in another city for a few months. So hiring storage space to keep my stuff until I move back. I was wondering if sodium hydroxide is safe to store in a storage company/depot, provided that it's kept dry and in a non-breathing plastic container. Has anyone had any experience with a similar situation?

 

[linne1gi]

Thank you @KiwiMoose - I cut the batch today actually and although it looks like Frankenstein's soap, it feels normal in terms of texture. So I will assume that it is safe to use

And thank you so much @linne1gi for your advice. I am still guilty of stick blending a bit too much as I try to reach a thick trace to convince myself that soap is ready. Though, in my previous batch, I stopped while at a very mild trace and that batch turned out perfectly fine. I need to make blending less and not more more of a habit going forward.

I have another question. I am moving out of my current flat and will live in another city for a few months. So hiring storage space to keep my stuff until I move back. I was wondering if sodium hydroxide is safe to store in a storage company/depot, provided that it's kept dry and in a non-breathing plastic container. Has anyone had any experience with a similar situation?

I usually buy 10 2 pound bottles of NaOH at a time. I keep these in my stinking hot and humid garage. (I live in South Florida). I put my unopened bottles in a large bin with a tight lid. I haven’t had any go bad yet. A way you can tell, is add the lye to water and if it heats up to at least 180F, it’s good to go.

 

[earlene]

What Essential Oils did you use? Some can make a HUGE difference.

I suggest you store your closed lye containers inside a bucket with a gamma lid and inside the bucket, put a desiccant to absorb any moisture that may get into the bucket from the air in it before you seal it. It will be fine stored this way. The only precaution would be to carefully read the storage facility rules about storage of dangerous chemicals.

I use a large paint bucket and buy the gamma lid from Home Depot, but you can buy them in lots of places, including Amazon (like this). For the desiccant I use what will fit best in the bucket, which for my situation is like this one because I like the way the shape fits between the lye bottles.

 

[ribartsi]

Hi everyone,

First of all, @earlene and @linne1gi - please forgive me for not replying to your posts. It was a very busy time for me with moving from one city to another and for some reason, I thought I replied to you guys. Turns out I didn't :/ So sorry for that!

And I have another of my rookie questions. After practising with simpler recipes (those only consist of base oils, NaOH, water and essential oils), I decided to spice things up a bit use honey in my latest batch. After some research, I found out that 1 teaspoon per pound in base oils is the optimum amount.

So, I planned an 800 gr base oil batch (100% olive oil) with a 35% lye concentration. This approximately called for 2 teaspoons of honey, which I thought would be equivalent of a tablespoon of honey. Well, I think I was wrong. My soap has golden-coloured spots, which look like a honey separation. Though, I must add that they are homogeneously spread across the soap and don't look like your usual oil separation.

My questions are:

1 - Do you think that's honey separation?
2 - I believe the answer to this question is yes but to be sure - is it safe to use?
3 - If I used too much honey (looks like I did) would that affect soap's cleaning properties? And how would this work with other additives like goat and donkey milk, oatmeal, aloe vera etc.

Have a great one and keep safe!

 

[SPowers]

Thank you @KiwiMoose - I cut the batch today actually and although it looks like Frankenstein's soap, it feels normal in terms of texture. So I will assume that it is safe to use

And thank you so much @linne1gi for your advice. I am still guilty of stick blending a bit too much as I try to reach a thick trace to convince myself that soap is ready. Though, in my previous batch, I stopped while at a very mild trace and that batch turned out perfectly fine. I need to make blending less and not more more of a habit going forward.

I have another question. I am moving out of my current flat and will live in another city for a few months. So hiring storage space to keep my stuff until I move back. I was wondering if sodium hydroxide is safe to store in a storage company/depot, provided that it's kept dry and in a non-breathing plastic container. Has anyone had any experience with a similar situation?

I started my journey last May and I remember that organization was my biggest issue! I made a spreadsheet with absolutely every step so I could ensure I didn't miss anything... I really felt out of my element. But after I had several batches under my belt it seemed 'muscle memory' kicked in and I found I wasn't using the checklist anymore - but it really helped in the beginning making sure all was ready and at hand for when you needed it. Give it time, it will come!

 

[ribartsi]

I started my journey last May and I remember that organization was my biggest issue! I made a spreadsheet with absolutely every step so I could ensure I didn't miss anything... I really felt out of my element. But after I had several batches under my belt it seemed 'muscle memory' kicked in and I found I wasn't using the checklist anymore - but it really helped in the beginning making sure all was ready and at hand for when you needed it. Give it time, it will come!

I definitely agree with you - looking back, that was my 3rd batch and I was definitely out of my depth, still trying to figure things out. Now, most of the process feels like muscle memory and I can shape it the way I want (like melting hard oils and butters with lye solution, really proud of that one )!

Though, I still mess things up when I try something new, like with this honey thing. I guess you do the mistake and then know how not do it next time!

 

[linne1gi]

Hi everyone,

First of all, @earlene and @linne1gi - please forgive me for not replying to your posts. It was a very busy time for me with moving from one city to another and for some reason, I thought I replied to you guys. Turns out I didn't :/ So sorry for that!

And I have another of my rookie questions. After practising with simpler recipes (those only consist of base oils, NaOH, water and essential oils), I decided to spice things up a bit use honey in my latest batch. After some research, I found out that 1 teaspoon per pound in base oils is the optimum amount.

So, I planned an 800 gr base oil batch (100% olive oil) with a 35% lye concentration. This approximately called for 2 teaspoons of honey, which I thought would be equivalent of a tablespoon of honey. Well, I think I was wrong. My soap has golden-coloured spots, which look like a honey separation. Though, I must add that they are homogeneously spread across the soap and don't look like your usual oil separation.

My questions are:

1 - Do you think that's honey separation?
2 - I believe the answer to this question is yes but to be sure - is it safe to use?
3 - If I used too much honey (looks like I did) would that affect soap's cleaning properties? And how would this work with other additives like goat and donkey milk, oatmeal, aloe vera etc.

Have a great one and keep safe!

Honey is quite difficult to incorporate in soap. First 2 teaspoons do not equal a tablespoon (3 teaspoons equal a tablespoon) - so you added a little extra. The best way to use honey in soap is to thin it out a little (dilute) - so in the future remove a little bit of your water (from your lye solution before you add the lye) and use that water to dissolve the honey. I think your soap will be safe to use - just an aesthetic problem. Milks like goat milk, donkey milk, etc also have sugars in them. So my guess is this will be a really sudsy bar.

 

[ribartsi]

Honey is quite difficult to incorporate in soap. First 2 teaspoons do not equal a tablespoon (3 teaspoons equal a tablespoon) - so you added a little extra. The best way to use honey in soap is to thin it out a little (dilute) - so in the future remove a little bit of your water (from your lye solution before you add the lye) and use that water to dissolve the honey. I think your soap will be safe to use - just an aesthetic problem. Milks like goat milk, donkey milk, etc also have sugars in them. So my guess is this will be a really sudsy bar.

Thank you for your quick response! Yeah, one tablespoon felt wrong even while doing the batch but, for some reason, I went along with it anyway. In terms of aesthetics of it, I think it actually has a pleasant look and has a strong honey smell which I have no complaints about! As long as it's safe to use and still has cleaning properties, I am actually happy the way this one turned out!

And thank you for your advice, I didn't know that we can use the water amount in the recipe separately! I always thought that water amount has to be mixed with the stated amount of lye. Really interesting to know that there is room to play around with it.

 

[SPowers]

I definitely agree with you - looking back, that was my 3rd batch and I was definitely out of my depth, still trying to figure things out. Now, most of the process feels like muscle memory and I can shape it the way I want (like melting hard oils and butters with lye solution, really proud of that one )!

Though, I still mess things up when I try something new, like with this honey thing. I guess you do the mistake and then know how not do it next time!

Yes, they are all lessons learned. But what I love most about soaping is that even a 'perceived' fail is usually not really a fail. Cleaning them up can make all the difference in the world... maybe not what you wanted or envisioned but still nice just the same.

 

[linne1gi]

Thank you for your quick response! Yeah, one tablespoon felt wrong even while doing the batch but, for some reason, I went along with it anyway. In terms of aesthetics of it, I think it actually has a pleasant look and has a strong honey smell which I have no complaints about! As long as it's safe to use and still has cleaning properties, I am actually happy the way this one turned out!

And thank you for your advice, I didn't know that we can use the water amount in the recipe separately! I always thought that water amount has to be mixed with the stated amount of lye. Really interesting to know that there is room to play around with it.

Lye needs at least its own weight for it to dissolve. So if you need 100 grams of lye - you need to use at least 100 grams of water. The rest of the water in the batch can be played with in lots of ways. For example you can add a milk or aloe juice as the rest of your water. Or you can use it as I suggested to thin out your honey.