Orchidgirl
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,
So in returning to soapmaking after a 2 year hiatus, I believe I may have made a disastrous batch last night. I'd love to know whether you folks think it is going to be salvageable.
Here's what I did: The batch in question was made with 100% olive oil, and I set up my recipe in soapcalc for a 5% superfat and used the default "water as % of oils" setting at 38%. I used 0.9 oz of 10x orange essential oil for fragrance. So far, so good (right?).
Anyway, where I messed up big time was with my colorants. I had been watching a bunch of soapmaking videos earlier that day that showed people dispersing a tsp of colorant in a tablespoon of a light carrier oil. I only had olive oil in the house, so I proceeded to set up my colors (an orange mica, a yellow mica, and titanium dioxide) the same way, but I planned to use only a small portion of each in my soap. I dispersed them thoroughly using a mini whisk blender. At this point, I got distracted and ended up dumping ALL of the mixed colorants into my divided portions of soap batter.
The soap is in the mold now, and boy, are those colors BRIGHT. :shock: Think neon orange play-dough. I have two main questions: 1) The additional olive oil that I dumped into my soap (3 tablespoons), along with my essential oil, has no doubt WAAAY overfatted my soap. But how badly? Will this ever set up (I know, being Castile, and especially with no water discount, it would have been the better part of a week before I could have unmolded anyway, but I went to clean my soap dishes this afternoon and the soap residue was extremely mushy). The soap in the mold looks ok, though (no beading up or oozing of oils so far). 2) Assuming by some miracle this does in fact become a solid bar of soap, will there be skin safety issues due to the excessive colorant?
I looked up the weight of a tablespoon of olive oil online, and was able to figure out that my recipe, that was calculated for 24 ounces of olive oil, ended up with 25.45 oz of olive oil, plus the 0.9 oz of essential oil, to only 3.1 oz of lye. But I have no idea what to make of that info...only that I know I am at a higher superfat there than the 5% I had planned!!!
So much for soaping at 2 a.m. Next time I do this, I will be well-rested with all my brain cells functioning, I hope! Thanks for any suggestions or thoughts.
So in returning to soapmaking after a 2 year hiatus, I believe I may have made a disastrous batch last night. I'd love to know whether you folks think it is going to be salvageable.
Here's what I did: The batch in question was made with 100% olive oil, and I set up my recipe in soapcalc for a 5% superfat and used the default "water as % of oils" setting at 38%. I used 0.9 oz of 10x orange essential oil for fragrance. So far, so good (right?).
Anyway, where I messed up big time was with my colorants. I had been watching a bunch of soapmaking videos earlier that day that showed people dispersing a tsp of colorant in a tablespoon of a light carrier oil. I only had olive oil in the house, so I proceeded to set up my colors (an orange mica, a yellow mica, and titanium dioxide) the same way, but I planned to use only a small portion of each in my soap. I dispersed them thoroughly using a mini whisk blender. At this point, I got distracted and ended up dumping ALL of the mixed colorants into my divided portions of soap batter.
The soap is in the mold now, and boy, are those colors BRIGHT. :shock: Think neon orange play-dough. I have two main questions: 1) The additional olive oil that I dumped into my soap (3 tablespoons), along with my essential oil, has no doubt WAAAY overfatted my soap. But how badly? Will this ever set up (I know, being Castile, and especially with no water discount, it would have been the better part of a week before I could have unmolded anyway, but I went to clean my soap dishes this afternoon and the soap residue was extremely mushy). The soap in the mold looks ok, though (no beading up or oozing of oils so far). 2) Assuming by some miracle this does in fact become a solid bar of soap, will there be skin safety issues due to the excessive colorant?
I looked up the weight of a tablespoon of olive oil online, and was able to figure out that my recipe, that was calculated for 24 ounces of olive oil, ended up with 25.45 oz of olive oil, plus the 0.9 oz of essential oil, to only 3.1 oz of lye. But I have no idea what to make of that info...only that I know I am at a higher superfat there than the 5% I had planned!!!
So much for soaping at 2 a.m. Next time I do this, I will be well-rested with all my brain cells functioning, I hope! Thanks for any suggestions or thoughts.