Thanks Dawni
, well yesterday I bought a small stick blender and made the smallest batch I've ever done. 70 g of oils . I'll attach fotos as soon as I'll be back home.
Soap not hardening...Help!!!
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, well yesterday I bought a small stick blender and made the smallest batch I've ever done. 70 g of oils . I'll attach fotos as soon as I'll be back home.
Dean
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Thanks Dawni
I do two bar test batches at bout 185 g of oils. Ur stickblender must b tiny to make that sm of a batch. Can u post a pic of the SB next something for size comparison.
penelopejane
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You have to be really careful with your measurements when making tiny batches because a few mls extra water will make your soap soft and a few mls or extra lye might make your soap lye heavy.
Personally in the recipe above I’d swap the Coconut oil and palm oil amounts and drop the castor to 5%. Over 5% I find castor can make soap sticky.
Personally in the recipe above I’d swap the Coconut oil and palm oil amounts and drop the castor to 5%. Over 5% I find castor can make soap sticky.
Hi Dean, the length of the SB is 20 cm, 2 AA batteries. I've attached a foto below. Also attached the silicone mold that I used. Today I did another small batch same size with full sea water, and 1/3 tsp of turmeric added at trace. It becames much more orange then I thought it would but I like it anyways
Hi Penelopejane, yes I know, that's why I try to be as accurate as I can.
And about the amounts, to which recipe did you mean?
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Hi Menny,
Could I suggest that you cure your soap in the shade, rather than in the sunshine?
Sunlight can trigger an oxidation reaction in your soap, and with the high superfat (10%) that you have used this might lead to rancidity - best to avoid that by keeping the soap away from metal and sunlight
Pretty soaps
Could I suggest that you cure your soap in the shade, rather than in the sunshine?
Sunlight can trigger an oxidation reaction in your soap, and with the high superfat (10%) that you have used this might lead to rancidity - best to avoid that by keeping the soap away from metal and sunlight
Pretty soaps
Thank you Saltefig Is it the heat or only the light of the sun that might lead to rancidity ? Usually I let them cure in a shady place, but in that particular case I wanted to get rid of as much water as I could so I thougt it'll be a good idea to let it warm a bit by the sun.
Is it the heat or only the light of the sun that might lead to rancidity ? Usually I let them cure in a shady place, but in that particular case I wanted to get rid of as much water as I could so I thougt it'll be a good idea to let it warm a bit by the sun.
The light is the problem. Possible UV lights inside might have the same problem. If the soap is in the shade, especially if there is a breeze, it will tolerate a wide variety of temperatures
I don't believe the heat is as much of an issue.
It get's hot where I am, and it doesn't seem to upset the soap too much, but if I leave some on a windowsill in the sun, it will go yellow and crack within weeks.
I don't believe the heat is as much of an issue.
It get's hot where I am, and it doesn't seem to upset the soap too much, but if I leave some on a windowsill in the sun, it will go yellow and crack within weeks.
Did you run it through SoapCalc or other calc application? If so, you may just have to wait a day or two or three.
penelopejane
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The recipe in post 24
Well I have had same issue an year before when I started soaping. I didn't use stick blender but blender for frape coffee (I think that is the name of that blender you pictured lately in your post). The result were soft soaps. They actually never harden. That's why I recomend to you to use stick blender untill you get enought experience. Also I think that it's bad idea to add salt and sugar solution to the soap. Salt is used to destroy soap in industrial proocess of producing sodium stearate for example. I have no idea what sugar in solution can cause. Usually salt and sugar are added as crystals and they remain undissolved. They act as scrub.
If you want to save your soap I suggest to put your mould in the oven at about 60 degrees celsius for about two hours. In that way you are goint to promote gelling and you soap should harden at the end.
Also 36% water is not that much but 10% superfatting with almond and sunflower oil might slow saponification too much.
If you want to save your soap I suggest to put your mould in the oven at about 60 degrees celsius for about two hours. In that way you are goint to promote gelling and you soap should harden at the end.
Also 36% water is not that much but 10% superfatting with almond and sunflower oil might slow saponification too much.
I add 1 tsp PPO for my soap when I use them.
I got you. Is there any particular reason to swap them? any benefits?
You're right. Last night I used it for 20 minutes but the oil won't trace... Decided to use the stick blender, it brought it to trace in less then 1 minute... And I wanted to ask you about the sugar adding amount. Sugar will add to the bubbles right? and it is recommanded to use 1 tsp PPO. Now say I wanna have as bubbley soap as possible, can I add 2? or 3? or 4 tsp of sugar PPO? Or maybe use different liquid added to the Lye like cherry syrup ( I read some soapers use beer as liquid) ? Or... how can I make my soap as bubbley as possible.
?
I did, I allready mold it out.
Dean
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penelopejane
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Palm makes a hard long lasting bar.
Coconut makes a fairly hard bar but doesn’t last as long.
Many people find coconut oil in soap dries their skin. I don’t use it above 10% and often not at all.
With sugar more is not better.
Dawni
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It's not too much. I've tried adding more, currently experimenting with amounts. So far no soft bars. There's also salt bars, where you can use up to 100% salt at trace, and brine soaps, where you can dissolve up to 25% salt in the water before lye. My recent one used more. Do a search on salt and sugar, you too @Menny, you'll find loads of threads
Dean
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Hi @Dawni. Ive been thinking bout the conditioning prop lately and remembered ur post. Are u saying that ur skin feels diff when u wash with low cleansing/low conditioning soap vs low cleansing/high conditioning soap? If so, what is the diff that u feel?
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Dawni
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Hmm let's see if I can word it correctly.
After some experiments my latest soaps have all had only about 18% coconut, resulting in (plus or minus 1) 11 or 12 cleansing. Depending on what else I add I've had varied conditioning from 55-64 I think. Will need to check my notes later. I normally do not superfat more than 5% except for the brine soaps.
What I noticed is low cleansing but low conditioning doesn't feel much different from a slightly higher cleansing but also slightly higher conditioning. My face has some problem areas, dry spots scattered here n there and one particularly dry patch under one eye.... With these soaps, my face is tight right out of the shower and that one spot is noticeablely white. All goes back to normal within a few minutes though, the heat here will not leave me dry for long.
Whereas low cleansing and 59+ conditioning does not cause that spot to look and feel dry. It's rougher than my cheek for example, but not dry n white. Very unscientific but those are my findings.
I have yet to compare the oils I've used in each of the non drying soaps, but I have to post in the faux seawater thread after this because I did notice something between those soap experiments as well.
