Post your latest blunder (if you want!)

[Cat&Oak]

Okay soaping family my latest blunder happened yesterday while making a batch of sea salt soap.

I wanted to try Irishlass's recipe but I didn't have any coconut milk. I had some dried whole goats milk so I decided to use that.

So normally I only use 1 tbsp ppo but I figured I would need to reconstitute it to my full water in order to make sure the super fat was at the proper level.

So it said 1/4 cup per 8 ounces of water and I needed 20ish for the recipe and I weighed it on the scale instead of eyeballing it and it ended up being A LOT LOL

I mixed it well with my oils and everything came together perfectly and I poured. A half hour later the top was cracking and it was overheating like mad so I panicked and it was firm enough to cut but was gelling in the middle. I colored it a soft green and it turned brown because of the heat.

Here is a pic of both one overheated the extra didn't. Of course the overheated will only be for personal use. Lesson learned too much dried goat's milk = savage level of overheating lol

 

[AliOop]

It really looks fine, and I’m sure it will be lovely to use.

BTW, you can just stick-blend any milk powder right into your oils, so it doesn’t affect your liquid total at all. You can also make it into a slurry if you find that easier. Either way, you don't need to reconstitute it fully. That’s the beauty of using powdered milk instead of liquid milk.

 

[Cat&Oak]

It really looks fine, and I’m sure it will be lovely to use.

BTW, you can just stick-blend any milk powder right into your oils, so it doesn’t affect your liquid total at all. You can also make it into a slurry if you find that easier. Either way, you don't need to reconstitute it fully. That’s the beauty of using powdered milk instead of liquid milk.

Thanks for the tip I did stick blend it into my oils I just thought I should reconstitute because Irishlass said she used full coconut milk for her water. I tend to overthink everything

 

[AliOop]

Thanks for the tip I did stick blend it into my oils I just thought I should reconstitute because Irishlass said she used full coconut milk for her water. I tend to overthink everything

I hear ya. “Full milk” can also mean that the total water used is enough to reconstitute all the milk powder used once the entire recipe is blended together. But the water and powder don’t need to be mixed directly for that to happen. Hope that makes sense

 

[Ugeauxgirl]

My niece asked for strawberry scented soap. I bought a fragrance oil without checking the vanilla content. It turned nearly black. Ordered another FO, made the most gorgeous soap ever. Creamy white with swirls of pink. Forgot the FO. . Rebatched it. It now looks like raw ground beef.

 

[glendam]

My husband wanted to make a soap design, I had prepared the recipe a few days ago (in soapmakingfriend), to know how much lye water solution to weigh out of the lye masterbatch (I do not do the 50/50 but the actual water and lye amount in the masterbatch). I really do not know how it happened, but the recipe was different and I did not catch it until after the fact. Instead of my usual 40% lye to water concentration, the recipe showed the default 38% water to oil percentage, or something like that.
I did find it odd that the water amount seemed higher than usual. The resulting soap was very lye heavy even if I calculated a 0% superfat. So I put it in the slow cooker, and added some calendula infused oil, because I thought, maybe this will be my challenge soap after all. I actually needed 7 oz more of oils to fix the soap (initial recipe was 16 oz, so it was like not adding one third of the oils.)
I went to bed a lot later than I wanted to, but maybe it will be my entry after all. I managed to add some embeds inside.

 

[Cat&Oak]

My niece asked for strawberry scented soap. I bought a fragrance oil without checking the vanilla content. It turned nearly black. Ordered another FO, made the most gorgeous soap ever. Creamy white with swirls of pink. Forgot the FO. . Rebatched it. It now looks like raw ground beef.

Oh no! Raw beef I feel that I've had batches like that. One time I thought it would be a wonderful idea to use heavy cream...it was totally ugly and smelled like vomit!

 

[impish]

I was gifted some Roman Chamomile e.o. (so expensive), combined it with a little lavender, used usual recipe, excitedly waited 48 hours to cut and then, it CRUMBLED. Due to heatwave here in the PNW I did pop the loaf in the fridge for an hour, really hoping that's why it crumbled.

 

[AliOop]

I was gifted some Roman Chamomile e.o. (so expensive), combined it with a little lavender, used usual recipe, excitedly waited 48 hours to cut and then, it CRUMBLED. Due to heatwave here in the PNW I did pop the loaf in the fridge for an hour, really hoping that's why it crumbled.

It looks like you waited a bit too long to cut. But it's still very pretty!

 

[Cat&Oak]

I was gifted some Roman Chamomile e.o. (so expensive), combined it with a little lavender, used usual recipe, excitedly waited 48 hours to cut and then, it CRUMBLED. Due to heatwave here in the PNW I did pop the loaf in the fridge for an hour, really hoping that's why it crumbled.

That's so disappointing but the soap really is lovely

 

[The_Phoenix]

I attempted to make wood grain soap several months ago Turned out more like a special occasion heavily marbled
ribeye steak. Boo.

Then there was the soap that riced and separated so badly that I felt “haunted” by the FO that caused the blunder. The slightest whiff of it OOB makes me feel nauseous. Boo.

 

[CpnDouchette]

Not latest but the only batch I've chucked, to date.

I was aiming for a concentric circle pattern. So absorbed, I forgot to add FO. Common enough mistake. So instead of doing the sensible thing and leaving it out, I dumped the whole lot in the last and smallest portion of batter. It was also unblended leather FO which was vile. And siezed.

In the UK our bins are collected fortnightly. For 2 weeks I had to walk past my stench of failure until the bin men took it away...

 

[Cat&Oak]

I attempted to make wood grain soap several months ago Turned out more like a special occasion heavily marbled
ribeye steak. Boo.

Then there was the soap that riced and separated so badly that I felt “haunted” by the FO that caused the blunder. The slightest whiff of it OOB makes me feel nauseous. Boo.

I feel you I was recently traumatized by a couple of fo's as well!