Soap is crumbly

[Greg Hartman]

I tried a hot process recipe the other day. The soap lathers up and feels wonderful on your skin, but it’s pretty soft and a little crumbly.

I looked up hot process tutorials and they basically said to heat up the oils in a Crock Potr, add lye/water mix and stir until it starts to show traces.

Then it said to let it sit in the Crock Pot for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until it had the consistency of mashed potatoes.

I did that and it looked like the photos as it expanded and got bubbly and so on.

I didn’t find any recipes that mentioned a temperature to maintain; just that I should look for a certain consistency.

Am I doing anything wrong with this? Here’s the recipe:

Water: 10.64 oz.
Lye: 3.99 oz.

(No fragrance or superfat)

Olive oil: 17.00 (I had extra-version on hand so that’s what I used; I didn’t see different types in SoapCalc when I put in the ingredients).
Coconut oil, 76 deg.: 4.00 oz.
Almond oil, sweet: 1.50 oz.
Castor oil: 1.00 oz.
Walnut Oil: .50 oz.
Cocoa Butter 4.00 oz.

 

[glendam]

Have your bars cured yet? When they are Hot process, they are safe to use right away but they still need to have water evaporated through curing. I have had crumbly Hp bars from overcooking them (the top mainly).

 

[Greg Hartman]

That's a good question. I assumed it got all crumbly because it's too dry. I'll let them sit awhile and see.

 

[Arimara]

If you want your HP soap to stay fluid longer, follow the suggestions @AliOop gave below.

... In fact, this is one of the best ways to make your HP batter more fluid, along with:

1. not overcooking the soap - this is HUGE in my experience. Start zap-testing at 20-30 minutes into the cook. You may be surprised at how quickly the saponification may be complete. As long as the batter is cohesive (no separation or curdling), you can stop cooking when there is no more zap.
2. using a higher water % in the lye solution than one uses for CP
3. adding hot sugar-water post-cook
4. adding warmed milk of all kinds, including yogurt, coconut milk, etc., post-cook
5. adding sodium lactate post-cook
6. not scraping the dried soap batter off the sides of the cooking pot or the spatula. This creates a chunky soap with different-colored bits throughout. It is still soap and will work just fine, but these bits keep the soap from looking nice and smooth (one of the big objections to HP).

It came from this thread but it's still solid advice.

Re-batching on purpose?

Hi. I made this soap: Olive oil: 37 ounce Lye: 5 ounce Water: 9.3 ounce That's a 0% superfat, all olive oil soap. I dump the batter on a cookie sheet and let it sit for three days. Then I shred it and put it in a pan and heat it up for maybe two hours until it gets gelatinous. Then I add...

www.soapmakingforum.com

 

[Greg Hartman]

If you want your HP soap to stay fluid longer, follow the suggestions @AliOop gave below.




It came from this thread but it's still solid advice.

Re-batching on purpose?

Hi. I made this soap: Olive oil: 37 ounce Lye: 5 ounce Water: 9.3 ounce That's a 0% superfat, all olive oil soap. I dump the batter on a cookie sheet and let it sit for three days. Then I shred it and put it in a pan and heat it up for maybe two hours until it gets gelatinous. Then I add...

www.soapmakingforum.com

Gotcha, thanks. What is zap-testing?

 

[Arimara]

Gotcha, thanks. What is zap-testing?

That is when you use your tongue to test some soap residue to see if it is saponified. if you get a jolt, it's not done. if it tastes like soap, it's done.

How To Properly/Safely Conduct The Zap/Tongue Test

For reference, the following list of instructions on how to properly conduct the zap/tongue test is a paraphrase of the procedure as taught by Dr. Kevin Dunn in his highly esteemed book, 'Scientific Soapmaking' (on page 75): 1) Take a gloved finger and wet it. 2) Rub the wet finger over the...

www.soapmakingforum.com