Hello everyone I'm new to the forum and having a little bit of an issue last night I made an 8 pound batch of charcoal activated soap I read somewhere that it was best to mix activated charcoal with oils before introducing lye I'm not sure if that played a factor in my end result, that and my stick blender broke down about 2 minutes into blending. After the blender went out I stirred by hand an hour later and still no trace and 2 hours after that I went inside to make my kids food I came back out and started to mix vigorously one last time and lo and behold I got trace. I poured it into my mold just fine, had a nice cake batter texture. This morning before work I feel on my molds like I do every time I make a batch and theyre always firm this batch wasn't it had firmness around edges and a little in the middle and seemed a little deflated. does anyone know what could have happened? can I attribute this to not having the stick blender and maybe oils not fully mixing? I'm attaching the recipe as well. thank you