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Prashant

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Hello friends,
I think this is the appropriate time to say thank you for all the knowledge I am gaining. Today, for the first time, I used this knowledge to work, after collecting all the required material for weeks. I have attached the recipe of my first soap, the fragrance I used is Eucalyptus. The sunflower oil I used is not raw , but the one available in the market for cooking, please advice on this. Right now, my soap is wrapped under cloth for 24 hours. Please read the recipe and tell me what you think, it will help me a lot.
 

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You should have good bubbly lather and fair creamy lather. Your bar may not be really hard at first; but should harden more with cure time. Pictures please.:)
 
Hi, Thanks for reply. After 24 hours, my soap still not solidified, so not able to cut it into blocks, though it's looks like a jelly. I have used the soap, it is giving good creamy lather with bubbles, here are the pics. Please advice, how to proceed from here.
 

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Unfortunately, I can't open your PDF on my ipad or computer at work so not sure what your recipes is. So no help there. Your soap should not look like it does. It looks like it's stuck in gel phase. Is it CP or HP?
 
@AliOop Thank you!!! It would not open for me at all.

@Prashant are you sure you used Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and not Potassium Hydroxide (KOH). Your soap almost looks like liquid soap paste made with KOH.

Your recipe as written looks fine, though a lot of liquid oil so may stay soft for a bit longer than one with hard oils/butters in it.
 
@AliOop Thank you!!! It would not open for me at all.

@Prashant are you sure you used Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and not Potassium Hydroxide (KOH). Your soap almost looks like liquid soap paste made with KOH.

Your recipe as written looks fine, though a lot of liquid oil so may stay soft for a bit longer than one with hard oils/butters in it.
Hi,
I have used NaOH, the leftover soap in the utensil I used for mixing the oil and lye, solidified satisfactorily, I hope same happens to the batch too.
 
This is slightly high in linoleic acid, so you will want to make sure that it doesn't get DOS (but it's not that far off the mark so it might be fine).

A general rule is to keep your linoleic+linolenic acids under 15%. This is because these polyunsaturated fatty acids are prone to oxidation.
 
@shunt2011 here is a .jpg of the recipe. View attachment 49779
First I would say that your first soap batch should be much smaller - this is a huge amount of soap. I recommend scaling back to 16 ounces or 32 ounces tops. Second that is a lot of water - and you really don't need that much water. The default in many soap calculators is set high because they were originally designed for HP soap making, where a lot a moisture is lost during the cook. Look into water discounting for your next batch. And thirdly, the Sunflower Oil you are using is very high in Linoleic acid - that number needs to be 15 or under (combined with Linolenic acid). There is high oleic Sunflower Oil available and I suggest you use that if you continue to use Sunflower Oil. But all these things are normal for a new soapmaker and you will learn them all in time. Welcome to the addiction.
 
Hi,
Another update, my soap is undergoing curing process, they are in the well ventilated room, which naturally gets warm during daytime and cools down at night. They are still soft, I hope they gets better with time. It seems I have to cure them beyond 6 weeks. Looking forward to expert comments.
 

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Hi,
Another update, my soap is undergoing curing process, they are in the well ventilated room, which naturally gets warm during daytime and cools down at night. They are still soft, I hope they gets better with time. It seems I have to cure them beyond 6 weeks. Looking forward to expert comments.
With 70% liquid oils, it will need a long cure. But that's okay, eventually they will evaporate out some water and you will be able to try them out. Next time do a water discount.
 
They look like they will be a nice whitish soap, but if you keep them on newsprint, they will pick up the colors from the print. For the most part, that tends to make that portion of the soap look dirty rather then a purposeful design element.

I suggest sitting them on some plastic mesh or parchment paper or even plain white paper towels.
 
They look like they will be a nice whitish soap, but if you keep them on newsprint, they will pick up the colors from the print. For the most part, that tends to make that portion of the soap look dirty rather then a purposeful design element.

I suggest sitting them on some plastic mesh or parchment paper or even plain white paper towels.
Yes, I totally agree. I cover my painted racks with white very thin tea towels, bar cloths actually, that I picked up years ago in Walmart.
 
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