so I posted a few days ago about being annoyed with partial gel, and discussed with Chrissy about using hot tiles or a pizza board underneath the soap mold to help gel. We also discussed mixing lye and oils when both at a temp of approx 45 celcius.
So today, I tried again (usually do rtcp, non gelled soap, so trying to gel is not easy for me for some reason), making my oatmeal and honey unscented bar.
mixed my lye with my aloe, then remembered that i'd just bought some tussah silk to try, so i pulled a few strands off and chucked them in. i have read the post on tussah silk lately, and was planning to put it into my aloe first and then pour the lye on top, but that didn't happen. anyway, the silk didn't really dissolve very well, probably becuase i hadn't taken the time to cut it up or something.
melted my oils to 45, added the lye/aloe/silk and stick blended till trace. everything looked ok, added my gm, oatmeal and honey, stirred, mixture darkened because of the honey, but looked normal, so i poured into the log mold which was sitting on a hot pizza board, covered with a wool blanky and left it.
checked it half an hour later to find a huge pool of oil sitting on top of the soap, and some had poured out of the mold on to the pizza tray and table.
questions:
what makes the oil separate like that, i've never had that happen before in 2 years making soap
i used 3pounds 14oz mixture of oils, 6oz aloe, 13.5oz gm, 8.3oz lye, 6Thoney, 1/2 cup ground oats, a few silk strands
i wasn't sure what to do, whether to leave it to see if the oil would reabsorb, or do something to it. so i did something. i poured the now quite dark looking like it had already gelled soap back into the pot, stirred in the separated oil, and poured back in the mold. that was about 3 hours ago, and i haven't checked it since.
did i do the right thing, or should i have left it?
did I overheat/overinsulate?
is it something to do with the silk that didn't dissolve in the lye?
i'm obviously going to leave the soap for a few days and see what happens, i know it can change a lot in a few days, but do you think it will be ok or not, or is it hard to know till i can do a zap test?
So today, I tried again (usually do rtcp, non gelled soap, so trying to gel is not easy for me for some reason), making my oatmeal and honey unscented bar.
mixed my lye with my aloe, then remembered that i'd just bought some tussah silk to try, so i pulled a few strands off and chucked them in. i have read the post on tussah silk lately, and was planning to put it into my aloe first and then pour the lye on top, but that didn't happen. anyway, the silk didn't really dissolve very well, probably becuase i hadn't taken the time to cut it up or something.
melted my oils to 45, added the lye/aloe/silk and stick blended till trace. everything looked ok, added my gm, oatmeal and honey, stirred, mixture darkened because of the honey, but looked normal, so i poured into the log mold which was sitting on a hot pizza board, covered with a wool blanky and left it.
checked it half an hour later to find a huge pool of oil sitting on top of the soap, and some had poured out of the mold on to the pizza tray and table.
questions:
what makes the oil separate like that, i've never had that happen before in 2 years making soap
i used 3pounds 14oz mixture of oils, 6oz aloe, 13.5oz gm, 8.3oz lye, 6Thoney, 1/2 cup ground oats, a few silk strands
i wasn't sure what to do, whether to leave it to see if the oil would reabsorb, or do something to it. so i did something. i poured the now quite dark looking like it had already gelled soap back into the pot, stirred in the separated oil, and poured back in the mold. that was about 3 hours ago, and i haven't checked it since.
did i do the right thing, or should i have left it?
did I overheat/overinsulate?
is it something to do with the silk that didn't dissolve in the lye?
i'm obviously going to leave the soap for a few days and see what happens, i know it can change a lot in a few days, but do you think it will be ok or not, or is it hard to know till i can do a zap test?