blucrsr
Active Member
2 months ago I made a batch of soap and divided it into 3 parts to make some scent samples. 27.5% coconut and palm, 25% olive, 10% mango butter and avocado oil. 33% lye concentration. 5% superfat. My notes show that my oils and lye were both at 85 degrees F. I usually soap closer to 100. I noticed that the soap mixture immediately seemed "grainy" and was setting much faster that I'd seen before. I split the batter into 3. I added 6% of Awaken from Nurture. Kept stirring since it looked real weird. Decided to just pour and moved onto the other 2 scents. They seemed to eventually become not so grainy looking. When I unmolded a few days later it was obvious something was wrong with the first soap. It looked patchy and chalky. The other 2 looked fine. Their cure time is up. The first soap breaks in half easily. And when you use it it leaves a very slimy feeling on my hand (almost like I just poured a little oil on my hands). I did a zap test and it seemed fine also. I've included a picture showing the 3 soaps and a close up of the weird one.
I'm asking because the soap a made 2 days ago looks the same coming out of the mold (but I had no issues with it while stirring). I hand stirred this one just to try not using the stick blender. I checked on the back of a spoon and it looked nicely emulsified.
So, could this issue be caused by the soap not actually coming together well enough? With the first one it seemed to be moving quickly so I stopped mixing and poured. With the 2nd and 3rd from the original batch I did keep stirring a bit to try and clear up the graininess.
I feel like I'm rambling a bit. I'll provide more details if needed.
Thanks!
I'm asking because the soap a made 2 days ago looks the same coming out of the mold (but I had no issues with it while stirring). I hand stirred this one just to try not using the stick blender. I checked on the back of a spoon and it looked nicely emulsified.
So, could this issue be caused by the soap not actually coming together well enough? With the first one it seemed to be moving quickly so I stopped mixing and poured. With the 2nd and 3rd from the original batch I did keep stirring a bit to try and clear up the graininess.
I feel like I'm rambling a bit. I'll provide more details if needed.
Thanks!