Soap Hardening and becoming grainy

[lburnworth]

Hello Everyone! I’m new to soap making and I make goats milk soap. I own my own company and it’s been going great. I’ve been using the same recipe no problems at all and it’s been going great as well. But recently my soap as I’m pouring it, it starts to harden and I can’t mix it anymore and turn grainy and the oil seems to separate a little bit from the mixture. I’m at a loss; I’ve researched what I could be doing wrong, and thought I fixed it, monitored the temp, watched how much fragrance oil I put in it, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

 

[Obsidian]

Are any of the ingredients new?

 

[lburnworth]

Are any of the ingredients new?

No new ingredients, I use the same recipe every single time.
-11oz of water, 11oz of lye, 5oz sodium lactate
-25oz canola oil, 25oz of a rice bran/olive oil mix, 25oz coconut oil, 4.2oz Shea butter, 4.2oz cocoa butter
-3.5oz fragrance oil

 

[Megan]

Sounds like false trace or ricing. Either too cold or due to your fragrance oil

 

[lburnworth]

Sounds like false trace or ricing. Either too cold or due to your fragrance oil

How do I fix that problem?

 

[Megan]

Soap warmer (around 90-100 degrees is my recipe's sweet spot but YMMV) and/or use a different fragrance that you know doesn't rice/separate. Either way, you will want to stick blend more if your batter is separating.
It really sounds from your description like a naughty fragrance so I would start there.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

False trace → work at warmer temperatures. With shea + cocoa as hard oils, be sure you're working at least at some 32°C/90°F all the time until the soap is in the mould. When unsure, preheat the tools (beaker, spatula, stick-blender head, mould) in an preheated & turned-off oven.

Fragrance oil → make a small test batch without FO.

ETA: @Megan beat me to it .

 

[lburnworth]

False trace → work at warmer temperatures. With shea + cocoa as hard oils, be sure you're working at least at some 32°C/90°F all the time until the soap is in the mould. When unsure, preheat the tools (beaker, spatula, stick-blender head, mould) in an preheated & turned-off oven.

Fragrance oil → make a small test batch without FO.

ETA: @Megan beat me to it .

What fragrance oils do you recommend I buy for my soaps?

 

[Megan]

Also, woah, that looks like a lot of sodium lactate!
I don't think it would cause problems with pouring but I'm surprised the loaf isn't brittle when cutting.

 

[AliOop]

Agreed, that is WAAAAYYY to much SL. Typically you want 1-3% of the total oil weight. You are using almost double that. You are also making a HUGE batch for someone who is new to soaping.

Are you really using a 50% lye solution? Or did you forget to include the goat milk when listing all the ingredients?

Regarding the fragrance oil, every FO (and EO) reacts differently, and has different safe usage rates. You should be purchasing them from suppliers who provide safe usage rates, testing notes, and customer reviews to tell you how that particular FO behaves. Many of them will accelerate terribly, cause separation or ricing, or create other problems. You need to research this and adjust your process accordingly (or don't use that particular FO).

Given that you aren't aware of these basic facts about using FO in soap, or how to diagnose the very basic problems you are having, you really aren't ready to sell. Please make a bunch of small batches and give them to testers who will provide honest feedback over time. Otherwise, you are exposing yourself to potential liability for causing harm to your users (skin irritation, or worse), and also potentially creating a bad name for handcrafted soap if your soaps go rancid quickly, or develop other problems that don't show up until some time has passed.

We are here for you and want to help you succeed with soapmaking, as well as selling - when you are ready for that.

 

[user 49910]

According to the way I entered your formula in the Soapmaking Friend Calculator your WATER to LYE ratio is ONE to ONE or 50/50 by weight, that is really high and can be risky. (I actually used the 2:1 ratio and then noticed the difference on my own.0 It seems you want to "water discount" your soap formula but I would go around a 38% Lye to Water ration or about 1.65:1 water vs lye. Why are you doing it this way? Just curious on my part, no offense intended.

A few words of wisdom from the Soap Queen regarding water discounting:
"The trick is that water discounting a soap recipe can cause the soap batter to thicken quickly. Generally, the more a recipe is water discounted, the faster the soap thickens. This is because the lye solution is more concentrated, which speeds along the emulsification process. The water content also affects when soap goes through gel phase and how it reacts to heat."
"It is possible to water discount too much. If your solution contains too much lye and not enough water, the mixture can become extremely hot and very, very dangerous. In addition, the lye may not have enough water to dissolve fully. In general, the absolute highest ratio of water to lye is 1:1. This means there is equal parts lye and water in the mixture, or 50/50. At this ratio, the lye is still able to dissolve, but will be very concentrated and somewhat difficult to work with. I do not recommend this ratio of water to lye. Some advanced soapers use a ratio of 40% lye to 60% water, but this is still an extremely concentrated solution, and may be very difficult to work with."

Using a 3% Oil percentage by weight for your sodium lactate, you only need 2.5 oz. not 3.5 oz. Also, remember to add the sodium lactate to your cooled lye solution, when it is around 90-110° F. and combine thoroughly prior to adding it to the oils, which should be around 90-95° F.
A trick I learned to keep fragrance oils from seizing or accelerating my trace was to add them to the warmed oils PRIOR to adding the lye solution. It has worked out much better for me personally, others here may disagree, but it works believe me. Your fragrance oil percentage is on the high side at 6.5%, try turning it down to around 5% max. and see how things go.

 

[DeeAnna]

I agree most people, including myself, typically use lye concentrations more in the 33% to 40% range, but I don't have a problem with a higher concentration if the recipe is suited for that, as the OP's seems to be.

I would use 28% to 35% lye concentration for recipes based on fats high in myristic and lauric acids (for example coconut oil soap) that saponify quickly and easily. But a 40% to 50% lye concentration works fine for recipes that mostly have fats high in oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids (the liquid fats) that often saponify more slowly.

Another aspect of this issue is the OP is apparently using a lot of sodium lactate (5 ounces as stated in post 3 with 11 ounces each water and NaOH). Most people use a liquid SL solution purchased from a supplier and if the OP is doing likewise, the solution is typically 60% sodium lactate dissolved in water. Five ounces of a 60% SL solution would contribute 2 oz of water. That will lower the actual lye concentration to about 46%.

Sodium lactate is a salt. There is an optimum dosage for most salts -- too little or too much salt is not good in soap. Adding more of a given salt than the recommended amount is not better. It can make soap softer and even rubbery. Or the salt can precipitate out on the surface of the soap and affect the apparance -- something like soda ash.

 

[TheGecko]

I’ve been using the same recipe no problems at all and it’s been going great as well. But recently my soap as I’m pouring it, it starts to harden and I can’t mix it anymore and turn grainy and the oil seems to separate a little bit from the mixture. I’m at a loss; I’ve researched what I could be doing wrong, and thought I fixed it, monitored the temp, watched how much fragrance oil I put in it, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

Obviously something has changed...it could be something as minor, it could be something major.

Some things to consider:

- New ingredients. No matter how much you buy of something, you are eventually going to run out and need to buy more. A tree may produce great coconuts one year and not so great coconuts the next, and it can/will affect the quality of the ingredients.

- New supplier. Not all companies buy their ingredients from the same place. And when it comes to FOs and EOs, the change can be even more dramatic.

- Soaping temperature. Soaping 'cool' with a lot of Hard Oils/Butters can lead to 'false trace', but I'm thinking that you would have to be soap really cold if your batter is 'hardening'. My recipe is 60% Hard Oils and I have gone as low as 75F and that was pushing it.

I'm also curious about a couple of things:

1) The amount of Sodium Lactate you are using. General rule of thumb is 1 TEASPOON per pound of oils, NOT 1 OUNCE.

2) You mention that you are making Goat Milk Soap, but I don't see any Goat Milk in your recipe.

Okay...off to work. Will check back later.

 

[lburnworth]

Hello Everyone! I’m new to soap making and I make goats milk soap. I own my own company and it’s been going great. I’ve been using the same recipe no problems at all and it’s been going great as well. But recently my soap as I’m pouring it, it starts to harden and I can’t mix it anymore and turn grainy and the oil seems to separate a little bit from the mixture. I’m at a loss; I’ve researched what I could be doing wrong, and thought I fixed it, monitored the temp, watched how much fragrance oil I put in it, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

Update:
I asked the lady who taught me how to make soap and I just had a naughty fragrance oil, I bought new oils and everything went perfectly. Thank you to everyone who commented and gave me advice!