Heeeeelp!! *panic* Picture added...

[Cheirenya]

I just made soap with coconut milk, I'm beginner and now I don't know did I put enough liquid to my soap? My recipe had 87g lye and 219g coconut milk, oils and butters 630g. What do you think, did I messed up? :cry: I also added 2 different brown sugars to it.

I added lye to coconut milk.

And if you have used coconut milk, how does it look like when you add lye? Mine had little white things, those are smaller than 1mm and hard, is it lye, sugar or what?!

How do I know is it lye or not?

This is how it looks like (VERY close photo):

 

[RockinRodeoChick]

Hmm, my only suggestion would be to zap test it. You;ll find out for sure if it's lye or not that way.

 

[Cheirenya]

Tested, definitely lye!!

 

[Healinya]

I don't know your recipe, but I plugged your numbers into soapcalc using olive oil for the recipe, so it isn't accurate - but at 5% superfat, you should have only needed 82gm lye... at 0% sf you would still only have needed 85gm. I suggest putting your recipe in at soapcalc.net to find out exactly how lye heavy it is. From there you can rebatch it and add the needed oils.. that is if it's lye heavy. I don't know your recipe, but I would still guess that it's a little high. What size batch was it? In smaller batches, the need for precision is stronger.

eta: Cocnut milk does contain some fat which is supposed to saponify with the lye. But it's a guessing game, so still advisible to still superfat the recipe, even a little.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

That brown stuff? Is that the sugar? When and how did you add the sugar?

 

[ChrissyB]

I think this problem is just a case of "over done".
Too many different things going on to pinpoint one issue BUT:
Coconut milk (has fats and sugars of it's own)
2 Different brown sugars? When? How? Why?

Any sugar product (sugar, honey, milks (because of the natural sugars), are going to cause a higher heat reaction than a "plain" soap. Overheating can cause separation. How did you mix the sugar in?
You've got too many variables there.

I'd start slowly. Coconut milk makes lovely soap. Say your recipe calls for 100gm of lye and 300gm of water, then dissolve the lye in 100gm of water and add 200gm of coconut milk at trace. No overheating problems then.

 

[carebear]

some coconut milk has guar gum added which can, from what I've heard, be problematic in soap tho in what way I'm unsure.

let me know if yours does and I can try to look into it more