About 2 weeks ago I was all riled up about making my first whipped CP soap. I believe I used 80 hard oils and 20% soft.
I made the soap around 2 or 3pm-- only a trial 500 gram batch. Then stuck it in the fridge overnight so that the heat created won't melt down the peaks.
Then the next morning I took it out the fridge and let it do its thing. I left it out for maybe 3 hours or so and then went to poke at it.
It was hard. Not because I got it out the fridge bc at this time it was room temp. I was surprised since I figured putting it in the fridge
would slow down the saponification process. So then I decided to put it back in the fridge for 30 min or so before cutting because I was
paranoid I was cutting too soon. Once I took it out the fridge to cut, to my horror it was crumbling as I was cutting it. This has never happened to me
before in my usual recipes. I don't have the recipe in front of me but 99% chance I did NOT put sodium lactate in the recipe.
1. Is this from the high percentage of hard oils (tallow majority with some coconut)
Generally, soaps made with majority hard oils will crumble? I am upset because where I live tallow is hard to come by!
2. Did putting it in the fridge overnight or back in the fridge prior to cutting harm or help me?
3. Did I wait too long? To avoid loosing my peaks I had 50% water:lye ratio and the lye was chilled as I was whipping it in an already chilled oils.
It was cut less than 16 hrs since it was made and it was in the fridge a majority of that time so I was thinking it anything I have to wait over 24 hrs to cut.
4. Can the FO or anything else contributed to this?
5. What should I do differently next time? There was a lot of waste, maybe 30% so its not the end of the world. Luckly 70% was salvaged
and made proper bars. I tried some crumbs I found yesterday and it lathers beautifully. I was squeezing it and it was nice and hard so its
not a delicate or crumbling now -- from what I can tell. Please advise!
I made the soap around 2 or 3pm-- only a trial 500 gram batch. Then stuck it in the fridge overnight so that the heat created won't melt down the peaks.
Then the next morning I took it out the fridge and let it do its thing. I left it out for maybe 3 hours or so and then went to poke at it.
It was hard. Not because I got it out the fridge bc at this time it was room temp. I was surprised since I figured putting it in the fridge
would slow down the saponification process. So then I decided to put it back in the fridge for 30 min or so before cutting because I was
paranoid I was cutting too soon. Once I took it out the fridge to cut, to my horror it was crumbling as I was cutting it. This has never happened to me
before in my usual recipes. I don't have the recipe in front of me but 99% chance I did NOT put sodium lactate in the recipe.
1. Is this from the high percentage of hard oils (tallow majority with some coconut)
Generally, soaps made with majority hard oils will crumble? I am upset because where I live tallow is hard to come by!
2. Did putting it in the fridge overnight or back in the fridge prior to cutting harm or help me?
3. Did I wait too long? To avoid loosing my peaks I had 50% water:lye ratio and the lye was chilled as I was whipping it in an already chilled oils.
It was cut less than 16 hrs since it was made and it was in the fridge a majority of that time so I was thinking it anything I have to wait over 24 hrs to cut.
4. Can the FO or anything else contributed to this?
5. What should I do differently next time? There was a lot of waste, maybe 30% so its not the end of the world. Luckly 70% was salvaged
and made proper bars. I tried some crumbs I found yesterday and it lathers beautifully. I was squeezing it and it was nice and hard so its
not a delicate or crumbling now -- from what I can tell. Please advise!
