roscoe_bee
New Member
Hello all! I've been lurking for a month or two while enjoying the fruits of my first amateur batch. My first batch was a CP that I converted to a HP recipe (CO/EVOO blend using oils I had on hand) and it turned out OK considering it was my first batch.
I tried today to follow a recipe/formula that I found in a book ("Soap for Oily Skin" in "The Everything Soapmaking Book" by Alicia Grosso, 3rd edition) after buying a bunch of EO's and oils online.
Formula attached below. The formula recommends actually using less lye than what the book's formula called for:
6oz olive oil
4oz coconut oil (76)
6oz grapeseed oil
0.5oz castor oil
5.5oz strong black tea
2.25oz NaOH
15drops various EOs [never added]
1/4t lav EO [never added]
The only thing I can think I did poorly is not be patient enough for the lye-black tea mixture to cool enough before adding to the oils (how much does that matter? Reading on the forums seems to indicate not too much). It traced within 30-60 seconds using my cheapo stick blender purchased only for soapmaking. I put the lid on it and walked away with a timer set for 30 minutes. The recipe says to check for neutrality every thirty minutes, up to 3 hours.
Within 25 minutes (I was eager), I noticed it had solidified thoroughly.(It had definitely not neutralized) It lifted clean out of the vessel and was like a giant oblong hockey puck! I tried cutting through it with a spoon and chunked it up,
grated it with a box grater, added about 8oz water into the crockpot in an attempt to melt it back down (thinking/hoping the water would cook back out if given enough time), and finally reintroduced the grated fodder. I then Stick blended it back into a paste and allowed it to heat back up. It seemed fluffy.
Another 25-30 minutes elapsed and it appeared to take on the texture of a broken buttercream, with the tea seemingly having fallen out of emulsion and underneath the fluffy broken fat layer floating atop.
Questions: Can it trace too quickly? Is there such a thing? What/where did I go wrong in the process and is this salvageable/rebatchable? Thanks in advance.
I tried today to follow a recipe/formula that I found in a book ("Soap for Oily Skin" in "The Everything Soapmaking Book" by Alicia Grosso, 3rd edition) after buying a bunch of EO's and oils online.
Formula attached below. The formula recommends actually using less lye than what the book's formula called for:
6oz olive oil
4oz coconut oil (76)
6oz grapeseed oil
0.5oz castor oil
5.5oz strong black tea
2.25oz NaOH
15drops various EOs [never added]
1/4t lav EO [never added]
The only thing I can think I did poorly is not be patient enough for the lye-black tea mixture to cool enough before adding to the oils (how much does that matter? Reading on the forums seems to indicate not too much). It traced within 30-60 seconds using my cheapo stick blender purchased only for soapmaking. I put the lid on it and walked away with a timer set for 30 minutes. The recipe says to check for neutrality every thirty minutes, up to 3 hours.
Within 25 minutes (I was eager), I noticed it had solidified thoroughly.(It had definitely not neutralized) It lifted clean out of the vessel and was like a giant oblong hockey puck! I tried cutting through it with a spoon and chunked it up,
grated it with a box grater, added about 8oz water into the crockpot in an attempt to melt it back down (thinking/hoping the water would cook back out if given enough time), and finally reintroduced the grated fodder. I then Stick blended it back into a paste and allowed it to heat back up. It seemed fluffy.
Another 25-30 minutes elapsed and it appeared to take on the texture of a broken buttercream, with the tea seemingly having fallen out of emulsion and underneath the fluffy broken fat layer floating atop.
Questions: Can it trace too quickly? Is there such a thing? What/where did I go wrong in the process and is this salvageable/rebatchable? Thanks in advance.
