Soap still not hard??

[Loran]

So I’ve been lucky and had many successful batches, well my beginners luck has finally ran out. I made 2 batches last night, one I tried the heat transfer, that did NOT work, the batch seized up before the lard melted, and that batch is still mushy right now, the second batch I made same recipe I been using, only difference is I used bottled water instead of out well water from the sink, and I hand stirred it instead of stick blend. The oil was a nice emulsion and poured great! But it’s still not hard! When I pull the side of the mold away it separates the soap itself! It’s always been hard by the next day. Was it because I didn’t use the blender? Maybe it didn’t blend right? I did use the soap calc and all the measurements were right. Unless my cheap Amazon brand scale is off??

 

[shunt2011]

Try popping it into the freezer for awhile to at least get it out of the mold. Chances are it didn’t gel and will just take a lot longer to get it out. Your recipe could play a large part as well.

 

[Obsidian]

I've had individual molds stay soft for a couple days, especially this time of year when the lower temps slow saponification.
The soap looks fine, just needs more time.

The other batch you can pop in a crock pot and HP to finish it.

 

[Loran]

Recipe was same you recommend Obsidian.
50% lard
20%CO
25% OO
5% castor
Batch was 17oz of oil
All I know is I lost all interest in doing the heat transfer and hand stirring forever. I’ll try the freezer thing and just give it another day or so. The batch I tried with the heat transfer I popped out of the mold and half of it stuck in the mold so it looked like broken up play dough.

 

[AliOop]

With heat transfer, hopefully you only melted your solid oils with the hot lye solution as soon as all the NaOH was dissolved. After your solid oils have melted, then you stir in the liquid oils.

As others have noted, smaller batches can take longer to firm up; same with any soap poured into cavity molds. The freezer trick really does help with unmolding, too.

 

[lsg]

You have a high percentage of softer oils in your recipe, so it may take a while to harden. For me, lard stays softer at higher temps. than butters or palm oil.

 

[Loran]

I been reading about the “gel” phase. I always thought it was a fancy word for the hardening process, when in fact it’s the heating up of the soap upwards to 180* I did not know this. I always covered the soap with a towel because that’s what I read to do, but now it makes sense! So if the soap doesn’t gel and reach that high temp it could slow or alter the hardening process. Maybe this was the problem. It’s been cold and we had the doors and windows open in the house. Today the soap is harder. And no when I did the heat transfer I had all the oils poured together. I should have reread the process again before doing it. It seems when I switched to this new recipe I’ve had more issues. I’ve really done great with the 80 lard 20 CO. I might go back to that until I get more experience under the belt