New Soaper

[Mockingbird Ramble]

Hola, been lurking here for a few weeks trying to find the answers to some of my questions, I lucky found most of them! My first two batches were made with some really lovely red palm oil which turned my soap to a lovely shade of dial.

After two great batches I decided I was advanced enough for a soap bar. ha..haha....hahahaha, it turned out intresting to say the least.

In the first two batches I had a very quick and very thick trace 3 minutes or less no additives. My Salt batch and now my honey/oatmeal batch did not go through a very thick trace the h/o was as thick as half and half after 30 minutes, but never separated when I left it alone so I mixed the honey and oatmeal and poured into the mould.

It has been 24 hours since I poured and the soap is drying nicely in the mould, but is so far much softer in the mould then the first two batches.

Is the softness from the lack of palm oil in the h/o? I substituted new criso for the palm oil and changed it all in soap calc, super fatted at 15%, used grams to weigh out and water was 38%.

Thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Chay]

Hello and Welcome

 

[Badger]

Welcome to the forum and glad you have decided to stop lurking I would answer your questions if I knew them, but I am not an expert on such things as i am brand new to this myself. Was your HO superfatted to 15%? That seems high for something other then a salt bar, but I could be wrong (most likely I am ;-) )

 

[Smee]

...

After two great batches I decided I was advanced enough for a soap bar. ha..haha....hahahaha, it turned out intresting to say the least.

...

HA! I like you already! You think like me!
Wait until you stink up the whole neighborhood with scorched coffee & lye
or break your stick blender mid-way through a special batch.

 

[MaitriBB]

Welcome! Do you mean that after your first two batches you tried a shampoo bar? Otherwise I am confused

 

[new12soap]

Sorry, I don't understand, what were the first two batches that weren't bar soap? And the first 2 batches with no additives? THEN came the salt bar and the honey oatmeal? If you could post your recipes and your process that would make it easier to troubleshoot, but yeah 15% sf seems pretty high unless it was an all coconut oil soap. Crisco will be softer than palm, yes.

Welcome

 

[Lindy]

15% is way too high a superfat. Take that down to about 6% to start out with.

 

[WallFlower]

I always have trouble getting my soap to set because one of two things happened...

-Like Lindy mentioned your superfat is a bit on high side. Take her advice and go down to around 6%. I'd stick to around at least 5% to 8% at most depending on recipe type. 10 or a little more for a salt bar with 100% coconut oil.

-Or my soap did not gel.

 

[Mockingbird Ramble]

Sorry I missed out a few details, the third batch I tried was a salt bar, at 15% superfat, the H/O bar was set at 8% superfat, the recipe for the first two batches was: (I have it in oz, but actually measured in grams)

6.5 oz coconut
6.5 oz red palm
7.5 oz olive oil
1/3 oz castor
3.1 oz lye
8 oz water

The only difference between batches 1/2 and 4 was the change from red palm to crisco. Will that take the soap longer to set so I can unmold it as well as the cure time?

 

[Lindy]

When changing your oils out you need to run it through a lye calculator to make sure you have enough lye to handle the oils.

 

[Mockingbird Ramble]

Thanks Lindy, I made sure to go through soapcalc before I started the proses, I guess I should have stated that before!

 

[new12soap]

I am not at all familiar with red palm, but yes switching to crisco will make it a bit softer and take it longer til it can be unmolded. Cure time is the same, I like a minimum of 6 weeks and really think that 8 weeks is best.

 

[Mockingbird Ramble]

Thanks New12Soap! My neighbor makes soap, well enough to have a storefront and while I could ask her these questions, I would feel like I am asking for her secrets! I am just a hobby maker and hoping to give some as gifts.