Ready to give up

[navigator9]

Your stating that "But within 3-6 hours, EVERY and I mean EVERY batch I make has gone through the entire curing process.", makes me wonder where you got your soapmaking information. If you got it off the internet, be aware that there's some absolutely incorrect and sometimes even potentially dangerous info floating around out there. You might want to get to a library and look for some books with reliable information in them. Here are a few, Anne Watson's being my personal favorite. "Smart Soapmaking by Anne Watson", "Soapmaker's Companion by Susan Miller Cavitch", "The Everything Soapmaking Book by Alicia Grosso". Having a good basic knowledge about the soapmaking process will make things so much easier for you.
So as you've been informed above, your soap hasn't cured, that process takes much longer. What I'm wondering is, if it has gelled. Are you familiar with what the gel stage looks like? This is a batch of soap, in a loaf mold, going through gel stage. It starts in the center, and works it's way out to the edges. If your soap goes through this stage, the process of the ingredients turning into soap, goes much faster than if it doesn't. Within 24 hours or less, you can take it out of the mold, cut it, and there is no zap left. Zap is when you touch your tongue to the soap and you get the tingle of lye that's still not saponified. If your batch doesn't go through this stage, it still turns into soap, it just takes longer. If it doesn't gel, the soap will be firm, but it can still be dented with pressure from your finger. It may also crumble if you try to get it out of the mold. Try just leaving your soap in the mold for several days.....a week. Forget about it. Then go back and check. Is it hard? Is the zap gone? If so, then the problem was that your soap didn't gel, and just needed more time in the mold. Good luck!

 

[newbie]

Agree with everyone else's comment but wanted to add that you are using expensive oils as a beginner, when you are bound to have more issues as you familiarize yourself with soap making. They aren't really necessary to make a fantastic bar of soap so I would suggest you consider trying different ingredients to start- lard, olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, palm, tallow. The high percentage of shea plus coconut is going to make a very hard bar and if you leave it too long before cutting, it is far more likely to break.

Smaller batches- 1 to 2 pounds- and less expensive oils with you saving your high end ones for a body butter or such (plus high percentage of shea or cocoa can decrease the lather) would be first steps, from my point of view. Try a single 1 pound batch with the recipe Susie gave you and you will see what we mean.