New Soap Maker and Beeswax

[OmSweetOm]

I just started making soap. I took a class and we all made a batch of oatmeal honey soap. It came out great. I came home and a couple of weeks later, I made 3 batches of soap, but I changed the recipe slightly to include 7% beeswax. The process all seemed fine. Actually it went better that I expected. The only problem is the soaps are all dark colored and they have a funny food/cooking smell to them. I made a honey coconut milk, a honey almond, and a honey Lavender White tea. They all have this very distinct smell to them. I used these old wooden boxes that I had there were perfect size for molds. I Lined them with parchment paper and all the soaps came out fine after 24 hours. I am just wondering if I used too much beeswax. I cooled all the ingredients to about the same temperature, so not 100% what is happening. For all I know, they could all be fine. I have cut slivers of them and tested them and they are certainly soaps, they are all just dark and have this odd smell about them. Also if anyone has a good CP Beeswax recipe to share, please let me know.

 

[pink-north]

Did you check your new recipes against a reputable lye calculator?

Here are a couple of links

http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/soapcalcWP.asp

http://www.tlcsoaps.com/tlcsoapcalc.htm

 

[OmSweetOm]

Yes I did. It was the same recipe that we used in the class, but I substituted 7% of the hard oils for the beeswax.

 

[pink-north]

I think you may have to high a % of beeswax. Don't quote me on that though. The only other thing I can suggest is maybe your oils/fats have gone a little rancid. Perhaps you could post your recipe and see if anyone else picks up something. That's all I've come up with so far.

 

[leansoapqueen]

I'm going with too much beeswax as well- the smell might go away after curing for awhile.. the color probably comes from the beeswaz- so it's a little natural looking- nothing wrong with that. I bet with that beeswax it's shaping up to be one hard bar of soap!