**HELP** First large batch fail, now what...

[evangelos]

Hello all,

This was a larger batch of mine to give out for the holiday season and it failed.

http://natureshomespa.blogspot.ca/2013/07/honey-beeswax-natural-soap.html
Recipe:

19 oz Olive oil (32%)
26 oz Vegetable shortening (Crisco, which is 75% soybean and 25% palm oil blend))
11 oz Coconut oil (18.5%)
2.5 oz Castor oil (4.2%)
0.8 oz Beeswax (1.3%)

8.48 oz Lye (sodium hydroxide)

19.5 oz Water

3 TBL honey, warmed, add at trace
2.8 oz of Warm Vanilla sugar FO from
Brambleberry, made a light scent.

oils + lye solution were mixed at 105F

Problem:
I did not use the "Vanilla sugar FO from
Brambleberry" , instead I poured some vanilla (aprox. 1.5Tbsp in granulated sugar.

The honey and my vanilla sugar mix were added after trace.

Also added a few dashes of cinnamon after trace for scent and colour.

I did notice on the spatula some grains of sugar stuck to it.

My lye solution was well mixed as it was clear

The soap was poured into a loaf and after 6 hours or so I checked it to assess the progress and that was when I saw the colour had changed from creamish to dark brown. Texture was like gel.

Any suggestions??

How long can it remain in the state before attempting some rebatch formula?

TIA

Evan

 

[osso]

Sounds like the batch is just gelling. And the brown is likely the vanilla. Let it finish saponifying. It may be just fine.

 

[Obsidian]

Yep, its just going through gel. Your finished bars will eventually turn dark though, vanilla does that. The scent of the vanilla you used won't stay in your soap either.
Curious though, why do you think it failed? What is it doing that you didn't expect?

 

[evangelos]

I did not think it was going to go "gel"

My first batch of olive oil did not go "gel" or maybe I missed it.

I think this batch worried me because my vanilla/sugar tweak, it is my first batch using crisco (worried that it could create a soft soap; so thinking the worst I figured I maid jello).

My problem is that I have not purchased a book; I have made a few batches and my last 2 were HP even though the recipe did not call for it and they turned out great. I am simply following recipes without knowing the technical procedures.

Soap book on the X-mass list. Know of any good one for beginners or can I find a source online and save a few $.

Evan

 

[kazmi]

Your gell-like texture is the soap gping thru gell phase (part of sponification that can be avoided if you want). The only thing that I would be worried about is your sugar content and high temps. Keep your fingers crossed and go to Amazon to get a book or two. Susan Miller Cavitch has a couple of very good ones. Inexpensive starter book is Anne L Watson's Smart Soapmaking. Those are just a few with many others to chose from. Also there are a lot of websites (including this one!) to learn from. Here's two useful ones:

http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/index.html
http://www.soap-making-resource.com/

If you are more of a visual person, Youtube has quite a few videos you can watch (Soaping101 is highly recommended but start from older videos to get some of the basics).

Good luck and keep us posted on how your soap turns out.

 

[judymoody]

Alicia Grosso's Everything Soap Book is a good one.

Your soap is probably just fine although if you used vanilla extract instead of FO, no scent will survive saponification.

Your soap probably gelled because of the honey.

 

[tryanything]

While the books are nice, you can also get good information on various websites and youtube. the Soaping 101 channel has a lot of great videos as well as soapqueen. Kathy Miller's website http://www.millersoap.com/ also goes over a lot of the basics. Happy soaping!

 

[seven]

I don't think you have to get books to learn soap making. I didn't get soap books till i've had quite a lot of batches under my belt. yes, it is a good thing if you are familiar with the technical issues, i'm just saying that there are a lot of places to learn here on the internet like previous posters had said.

I learned a lot from youtube. i'm more of a visual person, and it really helps seeing all the stages, etc.

As for your soap, ditto what the rest were saying, i think your soap is going thru the gel process (from what you describe). and yeah, expect for the soap to be brown coz of the vanillin content. i made a batch using melted white chocolate before, and it was cream at 1st, but after a month it has turn brown

 

[evangelos]

Results:

Success !!!

I guess I got ahead of myself but there is a lesson to be learned here - GET EDUCATED!

Thanks to all who took an interest and commented.

Evan

 

[Obsidian]

Glad it all worked out do you have pictures? we love pictures. I don't have any books, all my education comes from research on this site and numerous other pages. I've watched nearly all the soaping101 videos on youtube, they are my favorite.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I would also say that, as you've done HP before, you have already seen soap gelling first hand - but it might look a wee bit different and not expected when you're not mixing it around as you do in HP

 

[evangelos]

Here are some pix

 

[Obsidian]

Looks good, I like the speckled look. Did any scent survive?

 

[evangelos]

Vanilla scent - No

Cinnamon - Yes

The texture feels right, the scent is quit interesting because I only put 2 Tbsps of honey can really be smelled and its a good mix with the cinnamon.

I would make this recipe again if its sudsy and all but I would avoid the vanilla. The brown colour is not that bad.

I have been making BioDiesel for a few years and the byproduct (garbage for the most part) can be used to make hard/soft soap and the standard colour is brown. Although it does not seem popular but making different designs with other soaps can be interesting...

 

[kazmi]

Congrats! and yes you will find it to be sudsy because sugar is good for bubbles. I've found the scent of cinnamon to survive for awhile but it can be a little scratchy.

 

[evangelos]

thanks,

When using sugar should it be melted down to a liquid format and added at approximately 100F at trace?

Is there a difference between sugar, maple syrup (I live in Montreal) or honey?

Evan

 

[Obsidian]

There really isn't any difference in sugars. I like to reserve around 2 ounces of water to dissolve the sugar in then once the lye solution has cooled, I add the sugar water to it.