Soap gone wrong

[markwadsworth]

Last weekend we made a batch of soap out of lard. We cut the water in half and used orange juice to make up the other part. The soap has been sitting in the mold since Sunday and has yet to set. It looks like it is layered. The bottom looks hard. The top looks like partly gelled grease. What can I do to save this?

 

[Genny]

It sounds like the citric acid from the orange juice neutralized some of your lye. So with some of your lye neutralized, your soap became incredibly superfatted.

 

[new12soap]

Hmm... I have heard of people using all apple cider vinegar for the liquid in soap making with no problems, so I can't say that's it for sure... I do believe that lard soaps take forever to trace, and if it got too cool and thickened you may have reached false trace and the soap has separated in the mold. I would try dumping the whole thing, solid and oily layer into a crockpot or double boiler and see if it can be saved by hot process. Either way you've got nothing to lose!

 

[sosocal]

what Genny said!

 

[judymoody]

I'm going to go with false trace or possibly overheating, probably the former. Did you use a fragrance oil?

It's possible that the acid in the juice neutralized some of the lye but given that you can make soap with 20% SF, I doubt the OJ had that much of an effect.

Your complete recipe would help. Assuming it checks out, you can probably save it through rebatching.

 

[markwadsworth]

We took the bad batch and put it in to a crock pot and heated it up and melted it down and as it was using a stick blender it started to look like soap instead of partly melted cheese. At this point we poured it in to a mold. I am not sure if will pretty but I think it will work.

Mark

 

[markwadsworth]

If this does not work, It will be dropped off at "Clean the world".