My Castile Soap did not harden... any tips?

[42things]

I used 3 c cold water, 3/4 c lye crystals, 3 c EVOO

mixed the lye with the water, then the lye water with the oil, stirred forever until it was fairly thick, leaving tracks as I stirred and a drop would kind of sit on top.

I poured it in the mold and then wrapped it in a towel and put it in the basement where it's nice and warm for 48 hours.

i just went to cut it and it's just a paste, not hard at all.

Can I fix it or should I just make it into liquid soap or what should i do?

 

[glenolam]

Castille soaps are soft to begin with, and require setting up for a longer period of time than regular CP soaps.

You seemed to have used 100% of your liquid/oil which would make the batch very soft to begin with and didn't seem to superfat at all - I plugged your amounts into soap calc and with that % of water as a % of oils didn't add up to using 6 oz (3/4 c) of lye...where'd you get your recipe from?

 

[SudsyKat]

It's my understanding that you need to do recipes by weight and not by volume. That doesn't mean your recipe was necessarily off, but it's hard to tell without knowing the weight of your ingredients.

Incidentally, I made my first batch of castille the other day and I was surprised because it set up just as quickly as any of my other batches - it was just OO (Refined A), lye and water. It's a very pretty white soap. Too bad I have to wait 6 months to try it!

 

[42things]

this is where I got it.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/castile-soap-recipe.html

should I just add boiled water to it and use it as laundry detergent?

 

[42things]

wow... 6 months! why so long? most places just say a month...

 

[glenolam]

Some say 6 months because castille takes a very very long time to set up. Soap is like wine...the more it ages the better it gets and since castille is 100% (ish..) of olive oil it will take a longer time to harden and last. Sure, you could use it as soon as it sets, but it will just soften and dissolve a lot sooner than had you waited a few weeks or months to use it.

SudsyKat - I plugged the recipe into soapcalc by converting the cups to oz and got:

24oz OO
24oz H2O
6 oz lye

When I went to soapcalc and changed the water as % of oil to 100 and changed the superfat % to zero, the recipe only called for 3ish oz of lye, so I'm not sure how this particular article came up with 6 oz. Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in, but I think that article leaves out some important tips, like using a stick blender, cut only if/when the log is hard enough, wait longer than 2 weeks, etc.

I still think that part of the problem is the water as a % of oils and that you needed to wait a tad longer to cut it - JMO and I could very well be wrong.

 

[SudsyKat]

glenolam - I'm sure you're right. I personally would not trust a simple cups to oz conversion because different substances weigh a different amount. A certain volume of lye, (like one cup, for example), would weigh a different amount than a cup of olive oil. Imagine weighing baby powder compared to weighing water. Just my 2 cents.

In any case, I'm not really commenting on the big question here - just some thoughts on volume vs. weight.

 

[judymoody]

I think the problem is your water amount. Assuming you used 24 ounces of olive oil, you should have used 9 ounces of water at 38% weight of water to oils which is what is recommended for most beginners (that includes me!) I find that when making predominantly olive oil based soap that it's better to cut the water amount down a little further to reduce trace time and to speed curing time. However, it might also end up lye heavy (you should weigh out your 3/4 cup of lye to see if it exceeds three ounces and by how much.

It might be possible to save this by rebatching in a crockpot, finding out the weights for your original recipe, and adjusting the ratio of lye and oils accordingly.

Good luck!

 

[ToniD]

That is a lot of liquid to put into soap. I am not recommending that you do it that way by relating the story below, but...

My neighbor has been making her own castile soap for 30 or 40 yrs. She apparently uses a lot of liquid cuz she keeps it in the mold for about 3 months and then lets it cure for another 9 months.

All that to say, it might get hard given time. However, if it is usable depends on if the lye amounts were correct. I would weigh 3 cups of the oil you used and then put that amount into a lye calculator and see what it called for.



I would suggest measuring your ingredients by weight next time and checking your lye and water amounts with a lye calculator. That is a good practice for any recipe you have, IMO But if you had the patience and perseverance to stir by hand till you reached trace in a castile soap--you will have the patience for any future projects !!

 

[42things]

so... I did leave the soap in the mold... do you think it will ever harden up?

I'll leave it for a few weeks and then look at it again.

In the meantime, I'll try another batch ... weighing the items this time

Oh and why do I need a stick blender? Can't I just stir it by hand for an hour? doesn't a stick blender whip it up too much, adding air? I don't know... i do know that would make it go a lot faster but I don't want a whipped soap.

 

[42things]

duh, read new posts before posting myself

Thanks so much for those tips... I will weigh my oil and see what the lye amount should have been.

my scale is a pain in the butt that's why I went with a cup measurement recipe.

 

[MissMori]

Run away! Run away! That was my first thought when seeing a recipe posted in volume and not weighed amounts. Have a look around here for recipes or make your own using a lye calculator. ALWAYS weigh your ingredients. It is much more accurate in the long run.

The recipe you posted, like a few others have commented, has much to much water in it and too much lye. Tinker with it (use lye calculator) a bit and you will have a great castile soap.

 

[42things]

K, I weighed 3 c. evoo.... 625 gms

I weighed 3/4 c. lye crystals 210 gms!!!!! almost 3 times MORE than the lye calculator told me was recommended.

also the water was recommended to be between 156 - 234 mL which is also less than 1/3 of the recipe.

so... now what.

how do I rebatch this?

I'm going to have to add more oil?

 

[glenolam]

glenolam - I'm sure you're right. I personally would not trust a simple cups to oz conversion because different substances weigh a different amount. A certain volume of lye, (like one cup, for example), would weigh a different amount than a cup of olive oil. Imagine weighing baby powder compared to weighing water. Just my 2 cents.

In any case, I'm not really commenting on the big question here - just some thoughts on volume vs. weight.

Nope...you're completely right! All I did was take 1 cup = 8oz and apply it to the recipe here - I didn't even think about the whole "baby powder vs water"...kind of like "Which weighs more - a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?" That completely slipped my mind! :wink:

 

[ToniD]

I don't know how to re batch something that lye heavy. Hopefully someone who knows will answer.

But as far as the stick blender goes--that is why you use a stick blender as opposed to a hand mixer--so as not to get air in your soap. You still need to be careful to not get air in it. Make sure it is submerged in the soap and stuff. As you read info and watch you tube, you will come across peoples tips on how to avoid air bubbles. I still usually get a few small ones, but it is not like whipped soap at all.

 

[MissMori]

I'm not being snarky, but do NOT use that website for info. I just looked over another recipe, it says to add coffee to your lye. Never add a liquid to your dry lye, always the other way around.

 

[42things]

Not snarky at all, just a good warning.