I am using this recipe for my soap making, but it didn't harden after 24 hours, instead it has become gooey. 300g olive oil, 200g rice bran oil, 200g sunflower oil, i also used chlorophyl as colorant, ground sesame as scrubs, ylangylang and rose geranium EO. I ran the lye calculator and worked out my NaOH to be 89g with 6% superfat, I have been using the same calculator and it has always been reliable. Please help, thanks.
My soap won't harden
- Thread starter soapandco
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Olive oil, rice bran oil and sunflower oil are all VERY soft oils, two of which delay trace. Its possible you may have only gotten a false trace.
Although, when i run your recipe i only get 87.5 grams of lye, so 88 at best.
A picture might help if you have one
Although, when i run your recipe i only get 87.5 grams of lye, so 88 at best.
A picture might help if you have one
And if you ground sesame seeds for scrubbies, then you added more oil right there.
89 grams of lye would equal a 4% superfat in soap calc which is fine for this type of soap. If you used what is considered full water of 38% that would answer why your soap is soft. It should harden but will take time if you actually got it to trace. Be patient and see if it starts setting up in a few days, if not you can rebatch it in a crock pot, double boiler or oven. I always use much less liquid with my 100% castille soaps
Dorymae
Well-Known Member
Even soaps made with soft oils will eventually harden. Granted it will not harden in a few days. It probably should have been left in the mold for longer. However when you add the proper (or more or even slightly less, ie superfat) amount of lye to oils you will get soap and it will eventually harden. That is just chemistry. However keep in mind that 100% olive oil soaps can take months to harden to a decent level and are sometimes kept for over 8 months before they are considered cured. (I have seen people say 6 months but for me that is still too soon. Really 8 months or more is much better.)
So the good news - it will harden. The bad news - don't hold your breath!
So the good news - it will harden. The bad news - don't hold your breath!
Thanks so much for the help, I will try to adjust the recipe, probably too much water as well, I added 250g water because I wanted to do a swirl, my previous experience was it traced too fast for me to do anything fancy and even having difficulty to transfer it to my mold. Maybe will try re-batching it and see how it turns out. I have never thought that soaps will take days to harden and months to cure!! LOL...
Can I ask where the recipe came from?
eucalypta
Well-Known Member
More sad news.... Prepare to throw it out anyway.
Two of the oils u used are prone to get DOS. (Dreaded Orange Spots) a.o. due to the short shelf life they have; they get rancid quickly.
So my prediction is that the spots will appear even before this soap is totally cured.
If you like those oils in the soap, consider buying the "high Oleic" type, or don't use more than 10% of the weight of oils in the soap.
Chlorophyl will turn brown, almost all botanicals do..
How much of those expensive EOs did you put in your soap?
(Just to check; any value < 3% of the oil weight in your batch is a loss.
In fact in general 5% is standard).
ok :sad:...
I put about 3% in total of EOs, wanted to do something different this time. Usually I will use cheaper and more common EO like Eucalyptus, peppermint, ginger, sweet orange....
I put about 3% in total of EOs, wanted to do something different this time. Usually I will use cheaper and more common EO like Eucalyptus, peppermint, ginger, sweet orange....
Normally I will add castor oil and/or coconut oil and/or palm oil and/or shea butter and/or cocoa butter and most of the time my soaps will turn out well. This time I totally omit any of those.
Not really wrong as such.
I usually ran any new ideas through here first - I don't think people find it annoying (maybe they did!) and it certainly doesn't take away from learning. As in this case, you now know that OO and RBO are almost the same, that some hard oils can help in a recipe and so on.
I found that asking here first saved me a lot of oil
seven
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I suggest you look into this bit of info about common soapmaking oils by soapqueen: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-b...s-guide-to-soapmaking-common-soapmaking-oils/
It also has a 2-page free pdf that you can print out. Really valuable esp when formulating your own recipe.
Sent from my iPhone using Soap Making
It also has a 2-page free pdf that you can print out. Really valuable esp when formulating your own recipe.
Sent from my iPhone using Soap Making
Dorymae
Well-Known Member
Hey you don't have to throw it out even if it develops DOS. You should never sell dos soap but most of the time it is not horrible and is fine to use for your personal use. Live and learn. Personally I LOVE sunflower oil, so I make adjustments and know there is a higher risk of failure. Does not mean I don't use that oil. If we all followed all the rules all the time what boring soap we would all make. It would all be basically the same. So don't let one failure discourage you from trying different things. Always check your lye value but other than that have fun.
hmlove1218
Well-Known Member
I completely agree. Sunflower oil is amazing in soap and I notice a difference even at 5% in a recipe, so I use at least that in most of my recipes. And yes, what a boring soap world it would be if we all followed the guideline rules and had the same recipes.. :screwy:
