Partially soft bars

[Feelin' Soapy]

A batch I made about two weeks ago has sections of the soap that are still very soft. The problem is with the bottom of each bar where I used a lot of batter colored with mica dispersed in oil. The less colored soap in the rest of the bar is fine. I'm guessing that either I added too much extra oil with the mica so there wasn't enough lye to saponify it or maybe I didn't mix that portion of the batter long enough. I'm also guessing that since it's still very soft after two weeks, it will never harden.

Does one of my guesses seem like the likely culprit? I'm thinking of just cutting off the bottom 1/2" or 3/4" and salvaging the rest as weird squatty soaps (haha).

 

[rdc1978]

I'm little better than a novice, but how much oil did you disperse the mica in? I've split a 52 oz batch in threes and dispersed the micas for each in about a tablespoon and a half to two tablespoons of mica (more for titanium dioxide) and I haven't particularly had a soft bar with cold process soap. But I cannot imagine what else could account for the soft soap that was only on the bottom. Did you disperse in a light weight oil like sweet almond? Its all I use, because its all I can remember! Could it have been a partial gel? When my soaps don't gel they are super soft, but if your top layer is fine and hard I don't see how that could be it.

Perhaps you could give it a couple more weeks, but if the top layers are fine, then I'm not sure what that would do

 

[cmzaha]

I do not disperse mica in oil, I simply add it into split off soap batter, so there is no worry of too much extra oil. Just let your soap sit, it should eventually harden unless you started out with a high superfat.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

I do not disperse mica in oil, I simply add it into split off soap batter, so there is no worry of too much extra oil. Just let your soap sit, it should eventually harden unless you started out with a high superfat.

I will definitely try mixing the mica directly into the batter, especially when coloring only a small amount of the batter.
These bars are about 2 weeks old and the dark sections are still super soft. I've been hoping they'd harden, but I'm losing hope after not seeing much change so far. Superfat was 5%.