Help needed with my first attempt

[Sanchi]

Hi,
I made my first soap last Sunday. I used the following recipe:
SF 5%
Water:lye ratio 2.4806:1

Pomace olive oil 65%
Coconut oil 30%
Castor oil 5%

I unmolded soap last night. Soap is soft, with oil layer. What went wrong?

 

[Todd Ziegler]

You have a lot of olive oil and with 5% SF it can take a long time for the soap to harden and even longer to cure.

Did you use any sodium lactate or salt to help the hardening process? If not you might want to consider using some, especially if you are going to continue to use that much olive oil.

If you want to avoid this problem, then I would reduce the amount of olive oil to 30% or less. However even with just 30% olive oil it can take your soap a while to harden for unmolding. Did you let your soap go through a gell phase, forced or not, it can help with the hardening time.

 

[Obsidian]

Did you gel the soap? If it got too warm, that could have caused the oily feel.
I suspect the softness if from too much water, next time try 2:1
Lastly, how was the trace? If it wasn't quite emulsified, that could also make it oily and soft. Make sure you have a decent trace before pouring.

 

[Sanchi]

You have a lot of olive oil and with 5% SF it can take a long time for the soap to harden and even longer to cure.

Did you use any sodium lactate or salt to help the hardening process? If not you might want to consider using some, especially if you are going to continue to use that much olive oil.

If you want to avoid this problem, then I would reduce the amount of olive oil to 30% or less. However even with just 30% olive oil it can take your soap a while to harden for unmolding. Did you let your soap go through a gell phase, forced or not, it can help with the hardening time.

Thanks Todd for the insight. No, I did not use sodium lactate. I realised I did mistake while calculating water lye ratio. I will also try to reduce olive oil next time.

 

[Sanchi]

Did you gel the soap? If it got too warm, that could have caused the oily feel.
I suspect the softness if from too much water, next time try 2:1
Lastly, how was the trace? If it wasn't quite emulsified, that could also make it oily and soft. Make sure you have a decent trace before pouring.

Thanks so much for replying. I also suspect that it got more water than required. I realised I mixed up while calculating water lye ratio.
I will try against with correct numbers over the weekend.