Hot process meltable base sweat problem

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Cobelloy

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Joined
Apr 14, 2019
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Location
Karratha
Hi, I've been trying out some meltable base formulas, but every one I've made sweats badly, literally dissolves itself in absorbed water.

I live in a hot humid tropical climate which doesn't help (however indoors is usually cool and dehumidified)

I started with a hot process coconut/olive oil soap with around 5% superfat, then dissolved it in a propylene glycol/glycerine/sugar mix

pH is fine, around 8ish,

I've tried using very little glycerine/sugar and no glycerine/sugar, I've also tried starting with a lard/coconut/olive soap and I've added a little castor oil too (all things I read that might reduce sweating) but the home made base still sweats, a lot.

Where I live there is one place that sells ready made melt base that doesn't sweat (and it really doesn't sweat, at all), but when I requested the MSDS on it, it's mostly detergent, not soap.

Things I haven't tried yet:
Adding sorbitol instead of sugar
Adding waxes or emulsifiers
- will either of those make any difference to the sweating?

I don't want to buy meltable base, I want to make it, does anyone know what I can add/leave out that will reduce the sweating, it's making me crazy
 
I've bought the book (not from Amazon, they suck at treating their employees like human beings, and I live in Australia where they don't have distribution ... yet), now just waiting for it to arrive

I've melted and mixed together all my not-quite-right melt base batches, the final product was a decent (but not clear) meltable soap, I found adding a little water to it made it much more pourable too, and 24h later there's no 'sweating' in the test soaps. Could be the extra water I added, some extra curing may have happened, or the combination of all the different batches might be some kind of magic, all I know is I have meltable soap that doesn't seem to sweat now...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've melted and mixed together all my not-quite-right melt base batches, the final product was a decent (but not clear) meltable soap, I found adding a little water to it made it much more pourable too, and 24h later there's no 'sweating' in the test soaps. Could be the extra water I added, some extra curing may have happened, or the combination of all the different batches might be some kind of magic, all I know is I have meltable soap that doesn't seem to sweat now...
You mean you melted all your cp soaps and the sweating stoped
 

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