stearic acid mistake

[Nanette]

I made shaving soap the other day.....did not melt the stearic acid, just put it in at trace so of Course it didnt melt...I am not familiar with using stearic acid, bet youde never guess...sooo my question is can I use this soap at all, just for myself or are the flecks of stearic acid going to be a major issue? I used WSP stearic, dont know how theirs is made or what from off hand....sigh..thanks in advance..what a waste, I think it would have been nice shave soap...

 

[lsg]

I would put it in a small slow cooker and rebatch it. Hopefully, most of the stearic acid will melt in the heat. The melting point listed for stearic acid is 156.7*F.

 

[Nanette]

FOO I hate having to rebatch....I suppose that would be the best tho. My rebatched soap usually looks like dog puke. And takes forever to dry...sigh.

 

[Garden Gives Me Joy]

I recently attempted a HP batch with 1% stearic acid. I tried melting it along with the other hard fats like palm kernel oil (PKO). However, the stearic acid did not melt. Instead, it burnt. I think the stearic acid is responsible for a very unusual stickiness to my bars.

Can I melt the stearic acid by adding it to the other pre-melted if they are over the melting point of SE (ie apx 70C)?

 

[DeeAnna]

@Nanette -- If your stearic acid wasn't melted, it didn't react with the lye like it should have. Since you probably included the stearic in your recipe calculations, that suggests your soap could be lye heavy.