Is my batch ok??

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Hello, I've just made the three cold process soaps so far, and the last one seems a bit weird. The other two were internet recipes and they came out fine (except in No.2 I experienced what I now know to be almost 'seize'). But this last batch seems really, really soft.

For this I used a recipe from a very well-known soap-making book for beginners. It was 9.5oz olive, 5oz coconut, 1.5oz palm kernel and 0.5oz castor oils. I also added 25g different fragrance oils and used 2.4oz lye in 5oz water. I was keen to make a thin-ish batter I could split into 3 colours and try to be creative with, and everything seemed to go well. poured the colours when things were just beginning to thicken up (they were thin to begin with but became 'medium' trace before I'd finished putting all the colours into the mould). But things seemed to go wrong when I tried to cut it.

My first attempt to cut was the day after. It came out of the mould fine, but was clearly way too soft when I made my first cut. I left it unmoulded for a few days but same problem. I then left it out in my bedroom (the only warm room in the house) for over a week, but trying to cut it tonight has resulted in the same issue - it's the texture of very soft fudge.

My other batches were proper hard, but tonight I cut a sliver off this one to test the texture, and when I rolled it in my hands it just produced a VERY sticky mess - similar to thick cake mixture.

Does anyone know if this batch will be ok? I'm really surprised it's so soft after almost a week in my very warm, dry bedroom!
 
my head never really works well in oz as im english and we use grams which i know the difference but just by looking at them confuses me. it looks like you have had quite a lot of liquid oils in there. If you only took it to medium trace and didnt gel it then it might just take a bit longer to get harder one of my first batches still isnt as hard as most of my recent batches are after 2-3 days and that batch was from about 3 months ago. It can take a week or 2 to even unmold some. it will still be soap it will jist need longer to sit

Ill have a look at a soap calc and input that and see what it shows :)

Did you gel the soap?

Im sure someone with more experience and knowledge will be along soon to tell me im wrong lol. My recipes usually have about 50/50 liquid and hard oils and i unmold and cut after a day except the lard soap thats still pretty darn soft after 3 maybe getting on for 4 months now
 
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Did you run it through a soap calc to verify that enough lye was used? Even books are prone to typos. Otherwise I would chalk it to a mismeasurement, because I believe your recipe has enough hard oils to be a firm enough to cut.
 
Did you run it through a soap calc to verify that enough lye was used? Even books are prone to typos. Otherwise I would chalk it to a mismeasurement, because I believe your recipe has enough hard oils to be a firm enough to cut.

iv just run it through a soap calc and thats the right amount of lye it gave me slightly less water quantity though

Thats with 5% sf i have no idea how to adjust it to siit other than change and see what it says after lowering or raising the number?
 

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Gosh you're all so helpful, thank you! xx What an amazing bunch of people you are, this is my very first post on here and I truly didn't expect such support so quickly! I didn't gel, it might be a bit early for me to try to do that just yet, and I guess I was trusting of the recipe so didn't think to put it through a calculator. I know I need to invest in some more accurate scales at some point, so maybe that's the problem. I'm still in the "everything is very exciting" stage of soapmaking, so having to wait a few months with this one seems painful! BUT - I'll just have to make some more to take my mind off of it sitting there curing! ;)
 
Gosh you're all so helpful, thank you! xx What an amazing bunch of people you are, this is my very first post on here and I truly didn't expect such support so quickly! I didn't gel, it might be a bit early for me to try to do that just yet, and I guess I was trusting of the recipe so didn't think to put it through a calculator. I know I need to invest in some more accurate scales at some point, so maybe that's the problem. I'm still in the "everything is very exciting" stage of soapmaking, so having to wait a few months with this one seems painful! BUT - I'll just have to make some more to take my mind off of it sitting there curing! ;)

Wait till someone with more experience comes along they have the soap calc info iv added now to hopefully help iv only been making soap about 6 months now so still learning. If you have a look at the forum soap calc and once you regester have a look at the public recipes for one called simple everyday soap i made that the other day with very small adjustments for me. theres also a thread about that has helpful tips on how to use a soap calc so if you get stuck or confused but even if its a internet recipe you should always run it through a soaping calc to check because as amd said even books ect can have typos.

Oh and welcome to the forum say hello on the newbie part and get tucked in to all the wonderful and helpful threads and topics that will improve the soap and the way you make it. Honestly its absolutly crammed full of help i doubt i would of learnt what iv learnt in 6 months on this forum in a year maybe more in the real world of guessing

And btw the siezibg you experienced is very likely to do with the fo you used iv only had one sieze on me and i just rammed it in mould and hoped for the best
 
Hello Ms Chard and welcome aboard! :)

Hello, I've just made the three cold process soaps so far, and the last one seems a bit weird. The other two were internet recipes and they came out fine (except in No.2 I experienced what I now know to be almost 'seize'). But this last batch seems really, really soft.

For this I used a recipe from a very well-known soap-making book for beginners. It was 9.5oz olive, 5oz coconut, 1.5oz palm kernel and 0.5oz castor oils. I also added 25g different fragrance oils and used 2.4oz lye in 5oz water. I was keen to make a thin-ish batter I could split into 3 colours and try to be creative with, and everything seemed to go well. poured the colours when things were just beginning to thicken up (they were thin to begin with but became 'medium' trace before I'd finished putting all the colours into the mould). But things seemed to go wrong when I tried to cut it.

My first attempt to cut was the day after. It came out of the mould fine, but was clearly way too soft when I made my first cut. I left it unmoulded for a few days but same problem. I then left it out in my bedroom (the only warm room in the house) for over a week, but trying to cut it tonight has resulted in the same issue - it's the texture of very soft fudge.

My other batches were proper hard, but tonight I cut a sliver off this one to test the texture, and when I rolled it in my hands it just produced a VERY sticky mess - similar to thick cake mixture.

Does anyone know if this batch will be ok? I'm really surprised it's so soft after almost a week in my very warm, dry bedroom!

Did your Sodium hydroxide have any lumps or clumps when you made this recipe?

The reason I'm asking is that it looks within the normal range for a recipe, so it's got to be something else.
Another possibility is @amd's suggestion - that there is a mismeasurement somewhere.
The only other thing that stands out in the recipe is that the fragrance amount is higher the suggested amount (25g instead of the suggested 14.5g).

Anyway, this is the soapcalc version (for you and others to look at):
upload_2019-1-30_11-24-22.png
 
Gosh you're all so helpful, thank you! xx What an amazing bunch of people you are, this is my very first post on here and I truly didn't expect such support so quickly! I didn't gel, it might be a bit early for me to try to do that just yet, and I guess I was trusting of the recipe so didn't think to put it through a calculator. I know I need to invest in some more accurate scales at some point, so maybe that's the problem. I'm still in the "everything is very exciting" stage of soapmaking, so having to wait a few months with this one seems painful! BUT - I'll just have to make some more to take my mind off of it sitting there curing! ;)
I run every single recipe through SoapCalc, for two reasons. The first is to make sure there were no typos in the recipe and the second is for practice in using SoapCalc. I think it is important for me to learn how to use/read lye calculators as I am pretty darn new to this. I will say that Iam now officially addicted and broke most of the time now because I have to buy supplies! It is an addiction I can live with!
 
Gosh you're all so helpful, thank you! xx What an amazing bunch of people you are, this is my very first post on here and I truly didn't expect such support so quickly! I didn't gel, it might be a bit early for me to try to do that just yet, and I guess I was trusting of the recipe so didn't think to put it through a calculator. I know I need to invest in some more accurate scales at some point, so maybe that's the problem. I'm still in the "everything is very exciting" stage of soapmaking, so having to wait a few months with this one seems painful! BUT - I'll just have to make some more to take my mind off of it sitting there curing! ;)
Welcome @Ms Chard ! This forum has really really been helpful to me too. It's painful to wait but one antidote is to soap once a week or two and soon you'll always have something to test and use. :) If you haven't found it yet, check out the forum https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...ou-give-to-your-beginning-soaping-self.62916/ Also, an accurate scale is a must and take it from me, cover it with a baggie! After more than a year I'm still in the 'everything is exciting' stage too!
 
Welcome @Ms Chard i am new to soap making and have only been a member here for a week and omg I have learnt so much, everyone is so full of encouragement and super nice. Look forward to you sharing your journey :thumbs:
 
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