my 1st batch and a few questions

[KylieO]

Hi All,

So excited, i've finally, after much studying, made my 1st batch. i want to only use GM and decided my 1st bar would be Castille. Here's my recipe:

500gm OO
175gm GM
64.3gm Lye
no fragrance or colour

I froze the GM in ice cubes, when frozen emptied them into a jug and slowly added the lye. it just gently melted the cubes and turned into a lovely creamy consistency. it didn't get too warm at all and remained it's milky colour. i let it sit for a few hrs then mixed it with the OO, by hand for a few secs then with short blasts with the SB. I'd say it took about 3 mins to get to a lovely med trace (learnt only through youtube). poured it in to my mould, swished the tops a tad and put in freezer in an attempt to avoid gel. i expected to wait about 2 days for it to be hard enough to unmold but when i peeked 2 hrs later it was hard and i could easily pull away the silicon and the bar remained firm. too excited, i got it out and started to cut :O the knife went throu the 1st half ok but then the bottom half of the bar crumbled. so, clearly, even though it was hard, it wasn't ready to unmold and cut right? it's also remained a lovely creamy milky colour, i had expected it to be beige, will it turn beige? should my slices go in the fridge to firm up for a day or so then be taken out and left to cure? or no more fridge?
so, i have some really soft, half crumbled slices of my 1st soap but i'm chuffed with how much fun it was and it felt really easy
going to attempt to upload some pics
[/img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/84804317@N00/5973744892/[/img] [/img]

 

[KylieO]

LOL, will try again

 

[KylieO]

 

[cp chick]

This link should work. I just removed the from your link.

I'm going to leave the recommendations to the experienced soapers, but it does look like you should have left it a bit longer before unmolding.

[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/84804317@N00/5973744892"]http://www.flickr.com/photos/84804317@N00/5973744892[/url]

 

[busymakinsoap!]

What a shame you cut early - it looks like your soap would have been beautiful!

Patience is a must with CP soap, it's a long process, but the end result is (usually) worth it

Unfortunatley I think your batch would have been firm because it had frozen after being in the freezer for two hours. I don't think it would have had time to go through the whole saponification process???

Has it defrosted and is it still solid? I have never heard of a bar (apart from salt) being cut so early, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

It looks quite slick in the photos - is that water, or oil?

 

[KylieO]

thanks so much Monica, next time i'll leave it at least 24 hrs.

i've put it in the fridge :O

 

[KylieO]

sorry my pics are so big, took me forever to work out how to do it and i still got it wrong lol

thanks so much for your reply busymakinsoap. in hindsight (LOL) i too think it is only hard cause it's frozen lol. it's still solid though, i have the bars in the fridge and a ball i made with the crumbly bits on the bench, both are solid. that's oil in the pics, it feels very slick. will it go beige do you think?

 

[busymakinsoap!]

personally, I would melt it down again ( a few short bursts in the microwave) and repour. It's kinda like rebatching/hp but if you do it really quickly you should end up with a texture that is almost identical to regular CP.

You may loose the beautiful white colour though

 

[FreeRabbit]

I think maybe it could still harden (unless it lost all shape completly- in which case you maybe can return to original mold?), it wasnt suppose to gell anyway from your method, and if it traced then it will continue to saponify even in smaller bars- the only disadvantage is probably the appearance, which some people here say could be fixed later on with knifes, alcohol, pantyhose...???

that would be by guess anyway, I never tried before 24hrs also (ok maybe 20 but never 2...)

 

[KylieO]

LOL, patience isn't my greatest quality
still in same shape as when i cut so hoping that's a good sign and it will all work out. appearance doesn't bother me at all, well not for 1st batch. it's been so awesome and i can't stop starring at it LOL. making another batch tomorrow and will definitely let it be for at least 24 hrs
thanks heaps FR

 

[calico21]

Soap that is put in the fridge or freezer should really wait longer. What your doing is avoiding the gel stage(*or trying). I found that my ungelled soaps need to wait about 48 hours or more some times to prevent the crumbling. If you had zap tested the bottom crumbly part, you would probably have been zapped. Its not necessarily a bad thing just means it hasn't fully saponified yet. HTH

 

[KylieO]

Soap that is put in the fridge or freezer should really wait longer. What your doing is avoiding the gel stage(*or trying). I found that my ungelled soaps need to wait about 48 hours or more some times to prevent the crumbling. If you had zap tested the bottom crumbly part, you would probably have been zapped. Its not necessarily a bad thing just means it hasn't fully saponified yet. HTH

thanking you. with today's batch, i will put it in the fridge for 24-48 hrs.
also really keen to know about the colour cause i never expected it to be so white

 

[KylieO]

it's still solid and lovely and white-ish. hope to get another batch done today. something i forgot to mention in OP and i'm curious about is my lye/milk solution. i used frozen cubes of milk, so not at all slushy, fully frozen. added the lye slowly and mixed in, it was cream consistency. i let it be to cool down (even though it didn't seem too warm) it it turned really thick, like thick custard. i added it to my room temp oils and it traced beautifully. but, from what i've seen on youtube the lye solution is usually a thing liquid. so, is what i'm doing OK, using frozen milk and a super thick lye solution?

thanks so much all, really appreciate your help

 

[jennikate]

Not a issue really. There is fat in milk so reason for that is the fat in milk had saponified. I would really agree with wait at least 24 hours to unmold and cut. It might very well stay that nice cream color.

 

[carebear]

Soap that is put in the fridge or freezer should really wait longer. What your doing is avoiding the gel stage(*or trying). I found that my ungelled soaps need to wait about 48 hours or more some times to prevent the crumbling. If you had zap tested the bottom crumbly part, you would probably have been zapped. Its not necessarily a bad thing just means it hasn't fully saponified yet. HTH

thanking you. with today's batch, i will put it in the fridge for 24-48 hrs.
also really keen to know about the colour cause i never expected it to be so white

correct. by cooling your soaps, you are slowing the rate of reaction - and thus need to give it more time...

 

[KylieO]

thank you carebear and jennikate

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Some of my goat milk soaps are reasonably pale and others are darker. It depends on oils/fats and additives as well. My darkest have honey in them. You've done well with the colour. :wink: