Is this a total mess?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
May 7, 2015
Messages
2,269
Reaction score
2,485
Location
Chatta-Vegas, TN
I tried out my new mold. I made the mold. It is a huge mold compared to what I'm used to. I used a standard recipe of mine with a twist, I added not only goat milk powder (which I've done before) but yogurt powder (which I've never used). The problem is, it overheated because I covered it with a towel and there is a HUGE oil slick on the top. I've also lost an undetermined amount of oil to the towel. The first photo is the recipe. The second photo is the oil slick on July 2 shortly after I uncovered the mold and discovered the major error I made. The third photo is the oil slick today (July 4). It appears to be absorbing back into the soap. But, there is a crustiness on the top of the oil slick that looks really nasty. And, when I cleaned the soap dishes this morning, the soap left in the pitchers was still soft. VERY soft. I made a ball out of it and it was mushy. I'm used to gelling my soap in the oven and they're usually hard the next day, so having a giant oil slick two days after the fact and a mushy ball of soap is not boding well for me right now. Should I scrap this mess and rebatch it or just leave it alone and see what happens over the next week? Thanks.

Oil Slick Recipe.jpg


oil slick 3.jpg


July 4 version of oil slick.jpg
 
Wow! That's a big oil slick! If it were me (since the oil is absorbing back in), I would let it sit a week and see what happens- i.e., see if it zaps, etc.. ,- and then I'd decide from there whether to rebatch or not.


IrishLass :)
 
Thanks, IL. That's what I was thinking, but I wasn't sure. I'm so disappointed. This was the the first trial of my mold and my first Clyde Slide. I hope I can salvage it. Time will tell, I guess.
 
Well, um, perhaps this isn't any consolation -- but now you know this recipe will fit that mold. That's good news, maybe huh? :mrgreen:

Almost wonder if the batter didn't quite get to a stable emulsion. If you use the same mixing equipment and technique for this large batch as for your smaller ones, I'm guessing that might have been the problem. A scaling-up issue.
 
Sorry to say but I would say you need to rebatch it. I find when soap overheats that badly it usually have a cavern in the middle with leaking oil and will not get better with time. Have you used that fo before? I also find most coconut fo's tend to overheat then you added in two milks to add to the problem. It is a real bummer when such a large batch goes haywire. :-(

Irish Lass may be correct but I have never had a batch with that large an oil slick turn out okay. Of course you have nothing to lose to let it sit, cut and see what is in the middle.
 
Last edited:
I have had many batches recently do that, (lovely adventures in FO land) and I would just let it sit until the oil reabsorbs, then unmold and cut over a plastic bin. Wear gloves. I did not have a single batch with alien brains or liquid in the center, but you never know.
 
Cool mold T. I suspect Carolyn is right but you have nothing to lose but time at this point. Seems like it might be worth the wait to see what happens, even if it just puts you back to square one.
 
Well, um, perhaps this isn't any consolation -- but now you know this recipe will fit that mold. That's good news, maybe huh? :mrgreen:

Almost wonder if the batter didn't quite get to a stable emulsion. If you use the same mixing equipment and technique for this large batch as for your smaller ones, I'm guessing that might have been the problem. A scaling-up issue.


Good point, DeeAnna. The only real difference I made to the method was using a stainless steel pot to make the batch instead of my normal batter bowl. I blended to emulsion using my stick blender and divided the batter into large pitchers instead of my small funnel pitchers. I mixed my colorants into the pitchers and stick blended, but I went easy on the stick blender because I wanted to keep the batter fluid since I had never used the FO before and didn't want to have it accelerate. After the colors were fully blended, I divided the FO into each of the four pitchers and hand stirred to incorporate it (instead of using the SB). I poured the batter back into the stainless steel pot to do my itp swirl. (I had actually left a good portion in the pot and used the TD in that as the base color, mixing in the FO by hand.) Instead of doing one faux funnel spot, I did two. The batter was still fairly fluid, but definitely fully incorporated. The white was getting a bit thick but the greens and purple weren't. When I poured into the mold, it flowed out well, but the white was heavy on the bottom and I had to scrape it a bit. (If that makes any sense?)


Sorry to say but I would say you need to rebatch it. I find when soap overheats that badly it usually have a cavern in the middle with leaking oil and will not get better with time. Have you used that fo before? I also find most coconut fo's tend to overheat then you added in two milks to add to the problem. It is a real bummer when such a large batch goes haywire. :-(

Irish Lass may be correct but I have never had a batch with that large an oil slick turn out okay. Of course you have nothing to lose to let it sit, cut and see what is in the middle.

No, I have never used it. This is a new FO I just bought. I have a coconut lime verbena that I didn't have any problems with, though. I purchased a bar of soap made with this Coconut Lime FO and fell in love with the fragrance. The soaper (who is also the distributor) said it is a well behaved FO. The soap I purchased was made with fresh jersey cream, so I didn't think anything of adding the yogurt to the goat milk. I made sure to use the correct amount of powders for the amount of water that I needed to add. There was a total of 13 oz water needed for my recipe. I figured on 8 oz goat milk and 5 oz yogurt. It takes 28 grams gm powder to make 8 oz liquid gm and 100 grams yogurt powder to make 8 oz liquid yogurt, so I only needed 63 grams for my 5 oz water. These are reconstitution figures I got by searching the internet for powdered milk and yogurt manufacturers' directions for use. I purchased mine from groups and there weren't any directions or nutrition labels with them. I thought the gm & yogurt would be less fat and sugar than fresh jersey cream and wouldn't have to worry about the heating issue, especially since I was using premade (room temp) 50% lye solution. So much for my thinking abilities. :) It was about 85 degrees outside. I didn't need the towel. I forgot until it was too late that the milks/sugars create their own heat. I knew I didn't want to put it in the oven because it would overheat; I just wasn't thinking the towel would make it overheat, too. It probably wouldn't have happened if it was winter. That room is like an icebox and it would have been perfect for this recipe with the towel over it.

I have had many batches recently do that, (lovely adventures in FO land) and I would just let it sit until the oil reabsorbs, then unmold and cut over a plastic bin. Wear gloves. I did not have a single batch with alien brains or liquid in the center, but you never know.

Yeah! Great reminder. Trust me, once burned, twice shy. I'm going to post photos of my hands by my work surface to be a constant reminder of why I should always use gloves when removing soap from the mold.

Cool mold T. I suspect Carolyn is right but you have nothing to lose but time at this point. Seems like it might be worth the wait to see what happens, even if it just puts you back to square one.

Thanks!! I was inspired by gdawgs awesome mold. (http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=60174)
 
Not a total mess, just an epic failure.

I checked the soap tonight and the oil slick was still there. Not much of the oil had been reabsorbed. I figured I was beating a dead horse, so I dumped the oil into a pot to find out how much actually was lost. There was 11.5 ounces captured in the pot. I have no idea how much was sucked up by the towel. When I finally got the soap out of the mold, it was still soft and covered in oil. I had the foresight to weigh the dry puppy pad before I put the soap mold on it. I'll weigh it again tomorrow after I toss the soap out. I'm not even going to attempt salvage it. With that much of a known oil loss, having five different oils in the mix, and an unknown amount of oils lost, I would have no idea how lye-heavy it is and how much extra oils I'd have to add. It is soft and fudge-y feeling. I tried to work up a lather but got none. I'm not interested in zap testing it. Especially since the last time I zap tested soap, it was "tongue neutral" and still burned the crud out of my hands. I guess my tongue has been burned so many times by hot coffee and soup that it doesn't zap well. (Although, I just thought of this. I don't produce much saliva because of the Sjogren's Syndrome. I wonder if that has anything to do with it? I know the reaction you get with the battery is because you are sticking a wet tongue on an electrical charge. The key being wet; dry fingers don't work. I'm going to have to buy a battery and "lick" it to see if I get zapped. I don't produce ear wax either. You might think that's great! Not so much, my ears itch like crazy all the time. Ear wax is a good thing to have. It protects your ears from nasties and stuff. No wax = lots of infections. TMI, again. Sorry. But, I think it's a weird but interesting fact about the human body. So don't be so hell-fire-bent on getting rid of your wax. Be glad you have it. No, you don't need to send me any, thanks.)

Oh, back to the soap. On the positive side, the Clyde slide was a success. If I hadn't totally messed up the soap, I would have had an awesome batch! I'm going to keep a few bars just for kicks and giggles. I want to see how the colorants evolve over some time, because they look nothing like they did when I poured them. I used a bright green, a bright purple and a pastel green mixed with activated charcoal (which turned out to be a really pretty shade).

It's too bad I'm not able to salvage this, or that it lost too much oil, because I actually like the cratered effect I ended up with in a few of them. I wish I knew how I could make that effect without messing up the soap and causing separation. Oh well. Back to the drawing board tomorrow, I guess.

IMG_0223.JPG


IMG_0224.JPG


IMG_0225.JPG


IMG_0226.JPG


IMG_0227.JPG
 
Bummer, T. Real bummer. I know things like this happens to everyone one time or anothre, but that doesn't make me feel any better when it happens to me. :sick:
 
Congrats on your Clyde Slide soap T. Sorry about this batch. For true soapies an unsalvageable batch is almost like a death
 
Congrats on your Clyde Slide soap T. Sorry about this batch. For true soapies an unsalvageable batch is almost like a death

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Yes! This is so true. It was really devastating and I was totally beating myself up over my "stupidity" because I knew better. I just had a momentary brain fart. Then, I saw how awesome the swirl looked and "forgave" myself. Yes, I wasted a lot of ingredients and the maiden voyage of my home made mold was not exactly successful; however, the mold works, I can really do a mean Clyde slide and I'll probably never forget the lesson about milk & yogurt making for one hot mess. If I ever decide to mix that combo again, I'll do it in the winter when that room is meat-locker cold.

It's all good, though. It's a great learning experience on what not to do, and because so much of the oils leaked out through the freezer paper, I don't have to get out the flax seed oil and condition the mold. It is very well conditioned right now. (Probably a bit too conditioned.) I'll use the left over oils in the pot before I throw them away to grease the outside of the mold. Once it seeps into the wood, I'll give it a good wash with Dawn to get any excess oil and lye solution off. I'll stick it in a warmed oven for a few hours to dry it out and it should be better than new.
 
Yup, that is exactly what I figured would be awaiting upon cutting. :-( Sucks When you lose that much oil it is a sure bet. Really sorry it happened T but at least the soap can be salvaged. I did not read the part about not saving it. You could have added in some oils and rebatched until no zap. Would not have been pretty but some activated charcoal and a lot of oatmeal would have made an awesome scrubby bar.
 
Last edited:
SERIOUS bummer T. Honestly. As much as it blows, it's also quite fascinating. I can't stop studying the photos! Train wreck thing I guess. I'd be tempted to keep a bar on display in my soaping room with a big sign "Don't do this again!" or something more goofy like "This is your soap on drugs".:twisted:
 
Back
Top