HELP! My soap (after 5wks) is soft and slimy

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Here is my CP recipe
20oz coconut oil 1.25
20oz olive oil 1.25
18oz goat's milk 1.13
7.5 oz lye
13 oz lard
Lemon Honey Fragrance Oil - 8 oz from Bramble Berry 3.60 ounces
After sitting for five weeks my soap is very soft
Any suggestions is greatly appreciated
Thank You!

post script what about adding Sodium Lactate? add around 1 teaspoon for every pound (16 oz) of oils in a recipe, stirred into the cooled lye solution. For example, if your soap recipe has 32 oz (907 g) of oil, then use 2 tsp of sodium lactate

too much oil/liquid ? Please help me adjust this recipe Thank You
 

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Your recipe shows liquid required as 14.94 oz. You said in your first post that you used 18 oz of goats milk. So my first question is, did you use the milk as your liquid to mix the lye solution? My second question is why did you use more than the recommended amount? I think that is the start of your problems. Your superfat is high as well, and I don’t see anywhere that the fat in the goats milk has been accounted for. That is probably contributing as well.

I use sodium lactate to allow me to unmold my soaps sooner. After 5 weeks of cure time, your soap should be hard and SL wouldn’t make a difference.
 
yes I freeze the goats milk (180z) as ice cubes than add a few of the goats milk cubes in a container than slowly add a bit of lye --mix them-- add a few more cubes and a bit more lye--mix them-- and so on until the goats milk and lye become one

"My second question is why did you use more than the recommended amount?" Im lost as to what the recommended amount is of what? Sorry for my ignorance

how can I make this better so my soap bars are firmer? thank you

maybe i should not freeze the goats milk (thats adding ice liquid?) and just add the goats milk little by little to the lye keeping the mixing container in an ice bath and watching the temp closely so it does not overheat past 130F ?
 
"My second question is why did you use more than the recommended amount?" Im lost as to what the recommended amount is of what? Sorry for my ignorance
If you look at your screen shot of your in the soap calculator, in the upper right corner you will see 'liquid required' with the amount given as 14.94 ounces. You used an additional 3 ounces of liquid, which is likely the biggest problem for you.

Learn how to use a soap calculator. I would change the recipe as follows: set your superfat at 5%, set your lye concentration at 31% to 33%.

Coconut oil 25%
Lard 50%
Olive Oil 25%

You may want to lower your super fat even more to account for the fat in the goats milk.
 
There is nothing wrong with freezing the milk, the question is *how much* milk you use. Your recipe calls for roughly 15 oz liquid (it's better to measure in grams -- more precise), and it seems you have added 18 oz. That may already make a difference, and dibbles is right, you will also have some extra superfat due to the goatmilk.
 
maybe i should not freeze the goats milk (thats adding ice liquid?) and just add the goats milk little by little to the lye keeping the mixing container in an ice bath and watching the temp closely so it does not overheat past 130F ?
NO!!! Never add liquid to the lye. Always add lye to the liquid.

Freezing the goats milk is fine, and is often recommended. What you need to do is WEIGH the goats milk so you have the proper amount of liquid for your recipe. Add the lye to the frozen goats milk a little at a time and stir. It won't take long for the milk cubes to start to melt, making it easier. Alternately, you can weigh the milk and freeze it to a slushy state.
 
I also just noticed that you used 3.6 ounces of fragrance oil, when you should have used 1.59 ounces. That is contributing to your issues as well.

My best advice for you right now is to learn how to use a soap calculator. If you want to make soap, it is really important.
 
ok here is my go at the calculator the INS is within range if a bit high but to me the rest looks good Thank you so much dibbles for recomending the lower amount of fragrance !
Please ck my work Thank You so much!
 

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ok here is my go at the calculator the INS is within range if a bit high but to me the rest looks good Thank you so much dibbles for recomending the lower amount of fragrance !
Please ck my work Thank You so much!
Not dibbles, but this looks good to me, EXCEPT that you are still using way too much fragrance. The standard is 3--6 %.
 
Also, are you sure you want to make soap from 95 oz of oils? That's an awful lot of soap. I would start with 500g--1000g batches (16--32oz); that way, if it doesn't turn out really well, you have not wasted so much. A smaller batch is also much easier to handle.
 
What you want to do, is under (2), "Select recipe units of measure" choose "Percentages".
That way, you can give your total oil weight, 500g, and then put in the percentages -- it will calculate from that how much of which oil you need.
 
Let the soap calculator do the work for you. Under Section 2, in the first line select percentages. In the second line enter the total weight of (all) oils you want for your batch.* Then select the units of measure you want to use (grams or ounces). Sections 3 & 4 look fine as you have them.

In Section 5, add the oils you want to use and enter the percentage into the box with the % sign. Oils should total 100%.

Somehow, you don't have the fragrance oil calculated correctly. If you look again at the Recipe Totals section on the right hand side, your fragrance oil weight is showing 11.88 ounces. I checked the Bramble Berry site, and for the fragrance oil you are using, the safe usage rate (IFRA) is 5%. I can't see what you entered in the calculator to arrive at the amount of fragrance, but in Section 7 you have a choice of 2 ways to enter your usage rate. The first is by percentage of oils and the second is by ounce per pound. Since the max usage rate for this particular FO is 5%, I would use the first option. Simply select that option and enter 5%. For 95 ounces of oils, the maximum usage rate for the fragrance is 4.75 ounces.

*As @atiz also mentioned, I would make a smaller batch if you can. If you have multiple molds, you can figure out how much oil a batch for one mold will be by multiplying length x width x the height you want your soap to be, and then multiply that by .4 - here's a link to read: How to figure how much oil for mold.

There are lots of suggestions of alternative things to use as a mold if you search the forum. Many people use a sturdy cardboard box lined with freezer paper or milk cartons.

Good luck.
 
It looks like you are good to go. Since you are using individual cavity molds, I would still cut down the recipe size by half (run it through the soap calculator again to be sure of correct weights). But that, of course, is up to you. If you have sodium lactate, you might want to use that to help with unmolding.

I also see that you are using the fragrance at 2%. It will likely give you a very lightly scented bar, which is fine if that is what you want. You may want to increase it a bit though.

Good luck with your soap. Let us know how it goes.
 
It looks like you are good to go. Since you are using individual cavity molds, I would still cut down the recipe size by half (run it through the soap calculator again to be sure of correct weights). But that, of course, is up to you. If you have sodium lactate, you might want to use that to help with unmolding.

I also see that you are using the fragrance at 2%. It will likely give you a very lightly scented bar, which is fine if that is what you want. You may want to increase it a bit though.

Good luck with your soap. Let us know how it goes.
I slept on all the info I received yesterday and
I am going to take your sage advice and cut the recipe in half here is what I got when I ran it thru the calculator
I rounded up the original half of the 25oz of coconut and olive oils to 13 and half of the lye at 3.75 oz and I will use 3oz of the bramble berry lemon honey fragrance
How does that look?
again Thank You
 
How many molds do you have? Do you have enough molds to make the amount of soap that you are making in one pour?
 
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