Heeelp! Botched Batch? a weird looking one...

[Guest]

Here's the recipe:
40 oz olive oil
5 oz. lye
14 oz water

It looks like a weird gelling pattern?


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[soapbuddy]

Could it be partial gel?

 

[Hazel]

That is odd looking but I don't have enough experience to know what caused it.

 

[SudsyKat]

Weird - your recipe looks okay. No fragrance or anything, I assume. I don't have an answer for you, but actually, I think it looks kind of cool.

 

[Guest]

It does look strange. The pattern reminds me of marbleized steak, lol. No, no fragrances or anything. Just olive oil, lye, and distilled water.

 

[ToniD]

Was the pan it is sitting in for the picture your mold? I can see it is some kind of metal---what metal is it? I know aluminum does something weird to soap. I can't remember what, exactally, but hopefully someone will tell you.

 

[Guest]

No, that wasn't the mold. It's just an aluminum cake pan nobody in the house likes. I stuck a liner in it and set the soap in it until I figured out someplace else to put it to cure.
The mold is actually a recycled entertainment center. That's the adjustable dam inside it.


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[punkflash54]

i may be way off here but could it be old oils? outdated or something? im not even sure if that would make a difference but your soap did turn out odd looking

 

[soapbuddy]

At what temp did you combine the olive and lye? Could it have been too cool? Did you check for zap?

 

[Guest]

I combined the oil and lye at about 125F. I stirred for a few minutes, then I hit it with the stick blender. Now that I think about it, it might have traced too fast. I prob should have blended it, then stirred it alternately. I say this because after blending, it traced in minutes. Not the hours Castile soap is supposed to take from what I've read about it.
Btw, the dark spots have lightened up a LOT just overnight.

 

[judymoody]

I don't know but here are some educated guesses:

Was it crumbly when you cut it? The mixture might not have incorporated fully and the outer white crust might be lye heavy. Did you do the zap test on it?

It might be very heavy ash?

Somebody with more experience might have more conclusive input.

 

[dubnica]

Yep, the white stuff looks like ash to me...

 

[Guest]

It wasn't at all crumbly when I cut it up. It sliced up like good cheese.

Ah, ash..I can deal with that. I'm just glad the batch isn't a lost cause.

 

[honor435]

looks like it got too hot? ive never made all oo soap, so cant help ya!

 

[soapbuddy]

I combined the oil and lye at about 125F. I stirred for a few minutes, then I hit it with the stick blender. Now that I think about it, it might have traced too fast. I prob should have blended it, then stirred it alternately. I say this because after blending, it traced in minutes. Not the hours Castile soap is supposed to take from what I've read about it.
Btw, the dark spots have lightened up a LOT just overnight.

The only way castille will take hours to reach trace is if you use a spoon. When I use my stick blender, I get trace within a couple of minutes.

 

[Guest]

i have only used pomace to make castile soap and it traced fairly normally compared with other soaps i've made with the stick blender.

 

[c.a.p.]

Ash? Really? I've had ash and it didn't look like THAT! That white looks like a whipped soap. I'm guessing something went seriously wrong with that batch.

 

[dcornett]

Does kind of look like ash, so now I'm curious did it scrap off? Was it just ash?

 

[newbie]

Has it changed since it was unmolded and cut? If so, I would love to see an updated picture.

I'm stumped with the pattern, but I have had some soaps get very heavy ash, especially around the edges if I unmolded it when it was too wet. I don't know that this is the same situation, but I've had deep deep ash that needs to be cut off and is really crumbly but doesn't zap.

You wondered if it could be partial gel. Do you know for certain that it did gel? I've gotten the really heavy ash when my soap didn't gel and then I unmolded it too soon- which is why it's then too wet and then it dries more quickly and gets really really ashy. Well, at least that what i've concluded in my cases.

 

[Guest]

Just took these today. The pattern is still there, but it's faded a LOT. The white stuff you could see in the pics isn't ash. Sure, there is some spots of powdery white ash on the very top of the bars, but that can be easily cut out.

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