Soap went to trace, but is not hardening in the mold.

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SoapySpirit

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Hello! My latest batch of soap, as the title says, went to trace normally, but after several hours in the mold is still liquid.
The recipe was as follows:

450g Coconut Oil
450g Shea Butter
450g Olive Oil
450g Sweet Almond Oil

256g Lye (NaOH)
594g Distilled Water

5% Superfat

We had started melting the shea butter and coconut oil slowly on the stovetop to make it easier to mix, but let it get too hot instead of just enough to help the lye melt the hard oils. We stirred it a lot and let it cool down before it went to trace, then we added the superfat oil and poured shortly after a bit more stirring.
If anything, letting the hard oils get too hot is my guess on what's causing it to stay liquid. Will definitely stop doing that for future batches.
If it changes anything, temperature has been very hot today as well.

Hopefully some of you people can offer some insight/experience into my situation! Thanks!

Edit: Just wanted to say, all of our previous batches gelled within a few hours, and hardened fully overnight. Haven't changed the recipe dramatically since.
 
Last edited:
I'm a little confused. Are you a hot or cold process soap maker?

Could you walk us through how you make soap? I may be misreading what you wrote, so I want to make sure I understand you correctly.
 
Your percentages seem alright according to the SoapMakers Friend Calculator on this website.
It's probably in gel phase, give it at least 24 hour to cool down and completely harden. Give it time.

Your shea butter and almond oil percentages seem really quite high to me. I would have subbed palm oil for part of the almond oil and as it is a hard oil and also contributes to the suds and bubbliness. Almond contributes great conditioning factors but virtually nil on the suds, lather and creaminess of the soap.
Same for the shea butter.
Almond oil and shea butter are quite pricey to use in such quantities. I know that you're trying to achieve a conditioning bar of soap but the same results can be achieved by cutting back on the two pricey items and adding some palm oil to it.

That is one really big batch size too! Wowsers! o_O
 

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