Please help ASAP!!!, HP disaster in the making.....

[GoddessMama]

Ok Im in the processof making my HP soap in the crock pot and I have been stiring for over an hour and now I have a thin layer of what looks like cottage cheese floatin on top of the oil? What did I do wrong please help!

 

[mamaT]

Did you use a stick blender to take the soap to trace? Once you get trace you can leave the soap til it finishes cooking and looks kind of transparent. Usually within an hour or less. The soap will be somewhat solid then it will bubble up from the edges and consume the solid part and it will be totally transparent looking. Kind of a vasoline type consistancey.

 

[dandelion]

stickblend it, IF your stick blender is strong enuf

 

[AndyZohner]

Don't worry, your soap separated, but you can stir it back together. My goat's milk soap separates every time and I just stir it back together with a spoon. Use a big wooden spoon and mix till it comes back together. You may need to cook it a little longer, but it's not lost!

 

[vivcarm]

I find a whisk is better, my SB doesn't seem to go through the whole batch once it's gelled, but a whisk works a treat and on the plus side your arm gets a work out too!

 

[Guest]

Goddess, I only do cphp. I mix my oils with my lye. I then stick blend to a thick trace. I then watch it until it becomes vaseline like and then I whisk it over and over until it doesnt zap. Usually it takes about 30 minutes total, but I put my crock on high. I dont recommend high until you have quite a few batches under your belt and you know what your soap will do. Goooood luck. I say whisk the crap out of it after stick blending it into thick trace.

 

[TheSoapyEwe]

I do hp only and never ever bring it to trace.
I melt my oils in the crock, while they're melting I mix my lye water.
When the oils are melted I pour in my lye water and use my whisk to stir well and then put the lid on.
I clean up and stir again and maybe again in 5 minutes or so.
I leave the crock on high until I can tell it's starting to cook around the edges and then turn my crock on low.
I cook stirring every 20 minutes or so.
I don't have a stick blender nor the patience to bring it to trace and have found there is no reason to bring to trace for hp.
The wisk is way better than a spoon though in my opinion.

Good Luck

 

[honor435]

Yikes stirring for an hour, why didnt you stick blend? it would only be less than a minute, then left to cook. I bought one from the used store for 5$, it will help a lot!

 

[GoddessMama]

I didn't have a stick blender, mine broke and no $ to replace it, not even 5$, DH has been laid off for almost a year. I had left over supplies from when I used to soap about 5 years ago.

I think I did something wrong, because I literally had like have a big crock pot full of oil with a little bit of curds floating on the top.

 

[Sparklebrook]

I have had this happen to me before. I let it cook for a while and then whisked. I tried the SB but that didn't do anything. It took a while but I whisked a few different times and it turned out fine. It didn't go through the stages like I would expect but I zap tested it after it had cooked for a good long while and it was done. My batch turned out just fine.

 

[GoddessMama]

Sigh, I gave up after midnight and poured it down the drain. Somehow I don't think that was the best choice but I was so tired I couldn't see straight.

 

[Sunkawakan]

I do hp only and never ever bring it to trace.

You never bother with bringing to trace? I've NEVER heard of this, but then again I've never heard of a lot of things. This is new to me and I'm totally interested! Can someone please tell me what the point of bringing it to trace is? If there's no point, I'm not going to bother, its the step I hate the most (though I admit I have it down to a science - popped a rubber band around my switch so it stays on and plugged into a switch that plugs into the wall - turn on wall switch and lett 'er rip while keeping an eye on it - sometimes running into the other room for a moment, or starting clean up - I ALWAYS put my lye away (stored in a plastic bottle and then in a sealed bag and then in a box with a tight fitting lid - animals in the house) while its coming to trace.

Does anyone else skp the trace stage? I add my eos right before molding.

 

[Guest]

IMO getting it to trace speeds up the whole process. I have never NOT traced my hp. It only takes a couple minutes and is so worth it to hurry the batch along. Just my 2 cents

 

[carebear]

Is it a castile? My first castile HP took literally 11 hours to reach trace - I had no SB then.

You may find, with a long cook, that you need to add some more wter.

 

[carebear]

I do hp only and never ever bring it to trace.
I melt my oils in the crock, while they're melting I mix my lye water.
When the oils are melted I pour in my lye water and use my whisk to stir well and then put the lid on.
I clean up and stir again and maybe again in 5 minutes or so.
I leave the crock on high until I can tell it's starting to cook around the edges and then turn my crock on low.
I cook stirring every 20 minutes or so.
I don't have a stick blender nor the patience to bring it to trace and have found there is no reason to bring to trace for hp.
The wisk is way better than a spoon though in my opinion.

Good Luck

Oh it reaches trace, it's just that you don't see it because it happens during the cook.

Trace is just the point at which your oils and water are fully emulsified - and the soap IS the emulsifier so it happens as the saponification is starting to really get underway. This emulsification point is easiest to recognize by the thickening of the soap which is why we typically bring CP soap to that point - but for HP it can happen without you paying attention to it!

 

[GoddessMama]

Hmm, maybe I should have waited longer, I just didn't want to go to bed with it sitting on the counter and have it erupted when the kids got up in the morning.

 

[TheSoapyEwe]

All that trace does is as bconrade884 said is speed up the process
My crock pot soap takes a little longer than if it were brought to trace, but not really considering I'm not standing there whisking it for 30+ minutes as I don't have a stick blender and really don't see the point of getting one.

I don't have to add more water even though the cook time is longer and my soap is nice and pourable without the addition of sodium lactate or the likes.

I just let the ingredients and the heat do the work and as I mentioned before just give a stir now and then.

 

[TheSoapyEwe]

I do hp only and never ever bring it to trace.
I melt my oils in the crock, while they're melting I mix my lye water.
When the oils are melted I pour in my lye water and use my whisk to stir well and then put the lid on.
I clean up and stir again and maybe again in 5 minutes or so.
I leave the crock on high until I can tell it's starting to cook around the edges and then turn my crock on low.
I cook stirring every 20 minutes or so.
I don't have a stick blender nor the patience to bring it to trace and have found there is no reason to bring to trace for hp.
The wisk is way better than a spoon though in my opinion.

Good Luck

Oh it reaches trace, it's just that you don't see it because it happens during the cook.

Trace is just the point at which your oils and water are fully emulsified - and the soap IS the emulsifier so it happens as the saponification is starting to really get underway. This emulsification point is easiest to recognize by the thickening of the soap which is why we typically bring CP soap to that point - but for HP it can happen without you paying attention to it!

Exactly, it does reach trace I just dont manually get it there

 

[honor435]

i always mix my oils and lye well, and that IS trace( most people think the spoon has to leave a trail) not neccessary. But with hp i do sb til kinda thick, it takes less than a minute!