QUICKLY NEED SOME HELP!

[kerzuke]

Hi,


i really need your help right now. I was making shaving soap, but when i added lye to the oils it immediatly accelerated, it became too thiock and i even couldnt manage to add coconut milk (supposed to add at trace). What can i do with the soap now? Can i somehow hot process it and if yes then how?

Right now its in the glass bowl, coconut milk at top of the soap (i tryed to mix, bot the soap was really thick)

Please help!

 

[krissy]

yes, throw it i n the crock pot and HP it, add the coconut milk too and melt & stir.

 

[IrishLass]

Ditto what Krissy said. HP that sucker!

Things most likely moved very fast on you like that because of the higher amount of stearic in your shaving formula, combined with soaping too cool. What happens in situations like that is that the soap is not going into a true trace. Instead, it is going through a 'pseudo trace'. Pseudo trace looks like a true trace, but it's not. What is really happening is that the melted fats/stearic are resolidifying because the temp is too far below the melting point to keep them in liquid suspension. At least that has always been my experience when I soap with a high % of hard fats/butters. Because of that, I now soap my shaving formula fairly hot- my oils/fats are about 130 degreeF and my lye solution is about 100F (the container is just warm to the touch of my hands). Doing it this way has helped tremendously at avoiding pseudo trace for me with my shaving formula, which has a very high stearic %.


IrishLass

 

[kerzuke]

Well, i tried to microwave HP or smth, i have read about it. I dont have stove in my workshop, i always use microwave. Well i dont know if i did all right and how the soap turn out but at least i tryed to do something to save it Now it is in molds and harden.....

Irishlass - actually i took your advice from another post where i wrote my recipe and asked feedback. I soaped at higher temperature, but it turn really thick for about few seconds :/ I dont know what went wrong and what should i do next time :/

 

[AmyW]

Get yourself a crockpot, no stove needed.

Did you add the lye water in all at once, or very slowly while stirring?

 

[IrishLass]

Irishlass - actually i took your advice from another post where i wrote my recipe and asked feedback. I soaped at higher temperature, but it turn really thick for about few seconds :/ I dont know what went wrong and what should i do next time :/

Hmmm.....Now you have me stymied! What was the temp difference between your lye and oils, and also- was the temp of your soaping room on the cool side? (just wondering if the all temp differences added up to being just enough to throw things off).

Hmm, let me try something..............Okay- I just looked up the melting point of stearic acid. If memory serves me correctly, I think you mentioned that you were going to use stearic acid as an additive instead of relying on just your fats for the stearic amount, right? If so, the melting point of stearic acid (the additive kind) according to Wikipedia is 157F (69.6C). Wow! That's pretty high. I don't know the exact temp you soaped at, but you may need to go higher to keep pseudo trace at bay. Then again, with such a higher temp to maintain, you might as well just HP your shaving formula from the get go.

I don't use stearic as an additive myself, I just use fats that have a high % of stearic already built in, but trace happens in a normal fashoin for me when I soap my shaving formula at the temps I mentioned above.

IrishLass

 

[carebear]

Formula?

 

[kerzuke]

Irishlass - actually i took your advice from another post where i wrote my recipe and asked feedback. I soaped at higher temperature, but it turn really thick for about few seconds :/ I dont know what went wrong and what should i do next time :/

Hmmm.....Now you have me stymied! What was the temp difference between your lye and oils, and also- was the temp of your soaping room on the cool side? (just wondering if the all temp differences added up to being just enough to throw things off).

Hmm, let me try something..............Okay- I just looked up the melting point of stearic acid. If memory serves me correctly, I think you mentioned that you were going to use stearic acid as an additive instead of relying on just your fats for the stearic amount, right? If so, the melting point of stearic acid (the additive kind) according to Wikipedia is 157F (69.6C). Wow! That's pretty high. I don't know the exact temp you soaped at, but you may need to go higher to keep pseudo trace at bay. Then again, with such a higher temp to maintain, you might as well just HP your shaving formula from the get go.

I don't use stearic as an additive myself, I just use fats that have a high % of stearic already built in, but trace happens in a normal fashoin for me when I soap my shaving formula at the temps I mentioned above.

IrishLass

When i mixed lye solution and oils, the lye solutions temp was 37C and oils were 45C. Room was pretty warm. I used stearic acid - 5%. I think thats too much? I have tried to make formula so that i dont have to use stearic acid so that stearic acid number would be 19 but i havent manage to get so good formula. I have palm oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, coconut oil and differend liquid oils. Also have some mango and avocado butter. What shoul i add more so i dont have to use stearic acid to achieve such a high stearic acid %. I once tried to use lard, although stearic acid % was about 19, it still wasnt such a good soap when my first one in which i used stearic acid (that one thickened quickly too but not soooo quickly as this one). Please help (A) I really want to make good shaving soap.

 

[Fragola]

When i mixed lye solution and oils, the lye solutions temp was 37C and oils were 45C.

That is not a very high temperature ...

 

[IrishLass]

When i mixed lye solution and oils, the lye solutions temp was 37C and oils were 45C.

That is not a very high temperature ...

I agree. That's too much on the cool side for this type of formula. You'll need to soap it much warmer than that to avoid pseudo trace.


IrishLass

 

[kerzuke]

So...

Can i mix oils and lye when they are both at 60C? Or then i have to HP it?

I really want to make this soap with CP method, because HP didint come out so pretty and smooth, althought lather were really good for shaving soap. So i want to stay with this recipe, but there is 5% of stearic acid. Is there possible to make this soap with CP method so that its good to mould them too

 

[IrishLass]

Actually, I've CP'd with my oils a bit hotter than 60C once before with a lard formula and all came out perfectly fine, but my lye was only about 38C in that batch. I've never soaped with both lye and oils being equally as hot as 60C or higher, but in theory, I don't see why it wouldn't/couldn't work. Based on my hot lard batch coming out fine, and being the experimental person that I am, if if were me, I'd give 60C/60C a try. I'd do it on a sample 1 lb batch (.5 kg) to start with, though, mostly because I tend to be a cautious experimentor. 8)

IrishLass

 

[kerzuke]

Actually, I've CP'd with my oils a bit hotter than 60C once before with a lard formula and all came out perfectly fine, but my lye was only about 38C in that batch. I've never soaped with both lye and oils being equally as hot as 60C or higher, but in theory, I don't see why it wouldn't/couldn't work. Based on my hot lard batch coming out fine, and being the experimental person that I am, if if were me, I'd give 60C/60C a try. I'd do it on a sample 1 lb batch (.5 kg) to start with, though, mostly because I tend to be a cautious experimentor. 8)

IrishLass

here i am again...microwaving my soap

i tried mixing when both were 60C, but again it thicked quickly. And again when im doing microwave soap there are white spots - i think its stearic acid then. i dont know how some people manage to do shaving soap using 5% of stearic acid and another oils and butters with hoigh stearic acid %. I have read about how they get really good soap. I guess i have to keep making microwaves soap Actually im sad...

But thank you all, you are so helpful

 

[IrishLass]

Really and truly, it is possible to CP shave soap with great results - at least when using only high stearic fats that equal up to 20% stearic (which is the way I make mine), but I always use an electric coil stove-top when heating my oils (and a hot water batch to heat my lye solution up), so maybe that's the difference?

A few of our members here use stearic as an additive with good results at higher temps, but I don't know if they use a microwave to heat or not. Is there any way you could get a coil top? I've seen individual countertop/tabletop versions of them sold like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Proctor-Silex-341 ... 785&sr=8-1


IrishLass