Soap making gone bad

[nikky]

Hello Lovely Soapers,
am new to soap making and i just tried my first batch yesterday, but to my surprise 24hrs later i brought it out to cut and discovered it didn't work! i mean the liquid oil seperated and moved up and the solid oils has solidified. I do not know where i went wrong with the process. I remember everything was fine untill i added the essential oil (Tea Tree) to the traced soap and it was like loose again so i stick blended for another few seconds and poured into the mold. I am so confused and do not know what to do with the liquid.
Pls help me out.
This is the recipe i used:

olive oil 946.3gram
coconut oil 630.78 gram
Avocado oil 210.4gram
cocoabutter 104.89gram
castor oil 210.4

lye 288.9 gram
water (Distilled) 673.87
vitermin E 20.98gram

superfat 7% = 7gram

essential oil 68gram

please help me with advice on what to do next cos i am scared i just left the liquid in my kitchen.

 

[judymoody]

I ran your recipe through soapcalc and it looks fine with respect to the amount of lye and water.

I wonder if you got false trace. When this happens, your soap will thicken but look kind of grainy instead of smooth. This can happen if you soap on the cool side and your hard oils start to solidify again. If you don't get a true trace your soap will separate as you've described.

Tea tree oil is pretty easy to work with and doesn't cause heating or acceleration problems.

If you have saved everything that was in your mold (solids and liquids) all is not lost. You can heat the mixture in a double boiler or a crockpot or in the oven on a low setting until it becomes fluid again. Mix it well until you have an even consistency, then pour into your clean mold again. The consistency will be kind of gloppy, some people describe it as like mashed potatoes and the finished soap will be a bit more rustic looking but it should be usable soap. However the heat involved in this process might mean that your end result is less fragrant.

For the future, I'd do smaller batches until you get the hang of this. My standard tester recipe is about 750-800 grams which fits into the silicone loaf molds sold by Wholesale Supplies Plus and others. They measure 8x2.5x3.5

Hope this helps!

 

[Genny]

I agree with JudyMoody, it does sound like a falce trace.

I also suggest throwing it in the crockpot or double boiler to try to save it.

 

[nikky]

Thank you all for your swift responds.
am i going to mix with a stick blender when its melted or just mix well with a spoon and pour in the mold?
Just want to be sure
Thanks

 

[judymoody]

I usually use a spoon as sometimes the mixture can be too thick for a SB. Just stir very slowly and use eye protection as you don't want this hot caustic stuff to splash up at you. As it becomes more evenly incorporated, you can go at it with more force.

 

[myhnabird]

What jumped out at me was that the recipe seems to contain a rather high percentage of cocoa butter. I could be wrong, though, as I don't use much CB in my soap.
Mary

 

[VanessaP]

I put the amounts in SoapCalc and it came up with cocoa butter at 5% of the total recipe. I don't think that's high at all. I've seen some ladies use upwards of 20% or more, depending on the rest of the formula.

It seems to be broken down to 5% CB, 10% each Avocado & Castor oils, 30% Coconut and 45% Olive oil with a 30% lye solution. All I can think of too is the false trace so I hope it works out for you nikky.

 

[nikky]

Thanks everyone for your advice. i have done as you adviced yesterday night and plan to leave it for about two days before unmoulding.
I'm hoping everything goes well.