Newbie question: what's wrong with my soap?

[FoxySoap]

Hi, I've started making some batches of soap recently and none of them is successful. My recipes are calculated from bramble berry's website. I don't know why my soaps turned out this way after a while mixing by my stick blender. The mixture starts to get separated. Is it because of the temperature? the area where i live is always 27oC to 31oC. I havent dared to put any FO or EO or colors in my soap yet. How disappointing :sad: can anyone tell me what's wrong to my soap and how should i do?
Thank you so much

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

In this case, what is the full recipe? What temperatures are you combining the lye and oils at (approximately if you don't measure them)? What is your process?

 

[FoxySoap]

my soap temperature is always 27-29oC and its done in cold process. one of my recipes is
9 oz of coconut oil
9 oz of palm oil
12 oz of olive oil
4.19 oz of lye
9.9 oz of water
doesnt matter my batch is small or large, i still had the same problem that my soap turned out like the image :-(

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

So you mix the lye in to the water, leave it to cool a while. Melt the oils, leave them to cool a while. Combine, stick blend and then this happens?

What brands of oils and lye are you using? What are you melting and mixing things in? Stirring with?

I know I'm asking for details because I think the answer lies there - the recipe itself is perfectly fine. Some people may balk at the amout of coconut, but as a soap it would work, of course. So the issue must be in the details

 

[FoxySoap]

My area is hot so i dont have to melt any oil. i bought my oils from a soap provider so i dont know their brands. probably its my lye because i bought it in a market without knowing the name. my process is just like what you described. it happened after i stirred for a while. the temperature was getting high from 27 to 37-40 degree. i dont know if my stick blender is too strong (300W and only one mode) or my lye.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Where did you get your lye from? Is the solution clear and free of bits when you pour it in to the oils? Does it ever emulsify nicely and start to thicken?

 

[seven]

after reading your responses, i'm willing to bet that it's the lye. are you sure it's 100% lye? my suggestion would be to switch to another brand of lye and do another batch to test.

 

[shunt2011]

I agree it may be the lye. Are you using fragrance in your soap? It could also be a low quality fragrance not meant for soap though I've also had a couple totally rice and separate on me that are from reputable companies.

You could try to throw it in a crockpot or a pan on the stove on low heat and see if it comes together. That's what I had to do for my two that just would not come together with a stickblender the CP method.

 

[btz]

It could be that your coconut oil saponify quicker than your other oils. If nothing else works, try hand stirred it for around 1-2 hours with whisk (you don't have to do it continuously). My lye heavy coconut oil looked like that in the early stages, but as I keep on stirring, it thickened. You might want to put the batch on warm water bath while mixing though. There were still small beads before I pour into the mold, but it disappeared overnight as your soap turns into the color of the beads.

 

[Susie]

Your lye must be 100% sodium hydroxide. Nothing else. I would be willing to say that whatever you are using, it is not 100% sodium hydroxide.

 

[eyeroll]

Third vote here for the lye. I would buy another brand and try again.

 

[dixiedragon]

If the temps you gave us weren't so low, I'd say it overheated. I have had soap look like that when it over heats, or when I am hot processing it.

If you still have the lye container, I'd call the manufacturer.

 

[FoxySoap]

Where did you get your lye from? Is the solution clear and free of bits when you pour it in to the oils? Does it ever emulsify nicely and start to thicken?

I bought my lye from a chemical market so they sold it to me from a big sack of lye. I dont remember the name or the percentage of it. i'll try to find another reliable brand of lye to test again. The solution was clear before i added it into my oils. it never got thicken but had emulsion at the beginning when i stirred by hand, as soon as i put my stick blender in and stirred for like 5 mins it started falling apart, the more i stirred the worse it got and it ended up like in the photo i only had one batch "successful" with 18% superfatted, the mixture got nice trace after a short time stirring. it got harden after 7 hours. But i dont find its a success as its heavy lye.

 

[FoxySoap]

If the temps you gave us weren't so low, I'd say it overheated. I have had soap look like that when it over heats, or when I am hot processing it.

If you still have the lye container, I'd call the manufacturer.

Thanks for your concern. Im from a tropical country so its always above 27oC. I dont know how to make the temperature lower if i need to work in an open air place. i dont know what to do if its because of the temperature :cry: all i can hope is to get another brand of lye like you have advised and hope it works.

 

[shunt2011]

I have a question regarding the batch that worked, you said you superfatted it 18% but that it's lye heavy....that does not make sense to me. Also, there is no 100% lye....generally it's between 93-95 or so. It could vary a bit as well. Ask your supplier for the information on the lye and they should be able to tell you how pure it is.

 

[FoxySoap]

I have a question regarding the batch that worked, you said you superfatted it 18% but that it's lye heavy....that does not make sense to me. Also, there is no 100% lye....generally it's between 93-95 or so. It could vary a bit as well. Ask your supplier for the information on the lye and they should be able to tell you how pure it is.

Oh. So i guess i don't understand what lye heavy is :smile: sorry I'm new to this. What type lye would you suggest me to buy? I really appreciate every response as I'm excited to learn about soap making.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

A soap is lye heavy when there is not enough oil for the lye to react with (or too much lye for the oil, if you look at it the other way), leaving unsaponified lye waiting to burn your skin!

It usually happens when there is a mis-measurement or when there is a bad recipe that actually has bad information on how much oil and lye to use.

If you were aiming to have 18% less lye than the oils can handle, you'd be very unlucky to get your measurement so wrong that you would end up with too much lye!

Why do you say it was lye heavy? How did you test it?

 

[seven]

your successful batch is not lye heavy (considering you did all measurements right). you superfatted for 18%, that means 18% of the total oils is not saponified. it is also often called a lye discount.

a lye heavy soap is generally considered one that has a superfat below 0%, meaning there is too much lye to have all the oils saponified.

so you said you had 1 good batch using the same lye, hmmmm... that's weird.. for now, i stand by my previous post that it is possible that you could have a bad lye.

have you try making via hot process/crock pot method?

 

[new12soap]

I have no idea what brands are available to you, but you want something that says it is 100% sodium hydroxide. Lye drain cleaners and so forth are not sufficient unless they say they contain ONLY sodium hydroxide.

Shunt, the label should say it's 100% if using something off the shelf. No, commercial grade lye isn't that pure, you are correct, but that is what to look for to avoid something mixed with other ingredients. It should however be around 98+ %, unless we are talking about KOH.

And I agree, I think what you are using contains very little actual lye, your pic looks like a big batch of oil with some soap curdles in the bottom.

 

[coffeetime]

I would be concerned about buying lye from an unmarked sack in a market. Especially in a tropical country- likely with high humidity.