Trouble: Cracking and oil leaking

[Lychee517]

I started making soaps over a year ago. I have temporarily settled on a goats milk recipe I took from a book and altered. I use Brambleberry's lye calculator. I use Olive Oil, lard, coconut oil, and castor oil (5% superfat). I really love the recipe and it turns out very well whether I leave it at room temperature or even oven process it at a 170 degree oven turned off and left overnight.

The problems start when I add fragrance or essential oil and colorant. I work the recipe and everthing seems normal. I bring it to a medium trace and swirl or layer. I'm very happy when I'm finished and leave it to set, covered, at room temperature. Then in the morning 50% of the time I feel that its cooled off, uncover it and discover its ruined. (The other 50% of the time its fine). The soap looks curdled with soft spots and normal spots. The soft spots pool or leak oil that looks like olive oil. The color and smell seem normal and the liquid leaking out does not burn my skin. It just seems like oil.

This has happened too many times now. Every time I spend hours reading troubleshooting soap blog posts and comments and don't seem to find any cases exactly like mine. I triple check my measurements. I am more careful about soaping temperature (110-120 degrees). What baffles me is that the heat or goats milk can't be the problem because I have never had this problem with my plain bars. Sometimes I can rebatch it and its fine (but I loose my beautiful swirls and colors and solid smooth texture.)

Every tutorial I've seen mixes colorant (mica) with a bit of the liquid oil (olive) from the recipe. I swirl uncolored soap with colored. Sometimes I lighten the uncolored with a bit of titanium dioxide also usually mixed with oil (this time water because I didn't reserve olive oil for it.)
Is this my problem? Not mixing colorant in well enough (I don't want a thick trace). Or maybe the uncolored soap doesn't have the extra ounce of oil that the colored soap has?

I make 5lb batches so I really hate when it doesn't turn out :/

 

[newbie]

This does require figuring out. 5 pound batches coming out only 50% of the time is disastrous for a seller and expensive for anyone.

How do you add your fragrance? DO you add it to the oils before adding the lye water or do you add it after you've already mixed? Does this happen with any fragrance or is there a common EO or FO in the botched batches? Are you 100% certain you don't have false trace? It would not seem like it with your temps, but I'm just brainstorming.

There are a lot of FO's that don't seem to accelerate much but do have an element of that so that bit of acceleration with the milk could be firing the whole thing up too much. Cracking and the oil and the look of that soap are leading me to suspect overheating.

Have you ever tried refrigerating or setting this out in a garage during the winter or cool season (You probably don't have room for a 5 pound batch in your fridge) to be certain this is not over-heating? That would be my first guess, with milk in it and with the oil on top. Even though you don't CPOP or add heat, it could be separating because of getting too hot. Have you tried a smaller batch- 1-2 pounds, doing exactly the same, and does that have problems? You could do a side by side of two smaller batches. One stays out as you normally do and one goes in the fridge and see if there is any difference. My guess is overheating as your issue.

I would also experiment with soaping cooler, room temp if you can or 95-100 if you can't get away with RT. You could try your oils at 95-100 but your lye water at RT.

I have to keep coming back and editing because I keep thinking of different things. If you try a 5 pound batch again, can your set the mold up off the surface so there can be airflow underneath? You can then set up a fan to keep it cooler and the bottom won't be sitting on the surface holding heat. You could also get it up off the surface and try putting cold packs underneath to keep the temps down.

 

[cmzaha]

It is overheating and is most likely from your fo. This should not happen with all fo's since some are heaters and some not. Spice EO's can also cause overheating. as can high water/liquid. If you are using full water which is appox a 27% "Lye Concentration" (38% water as % of Oil weight) in soap calc try using the box that lets you put in Lye Concentration and try around 33%. High or full water will cause a much hotter gel. Many of us here use 33% lye concentration. Do not insulate and soap with room temp when you have a heater up eo. You can also put the mold in the freezer to help cool faster, but it can leave a gel ring since it cannot cool all the soap evenly especially in the middle. For fo's such as a coconut fo I use that severely overheats I put the mold in the freezer to chill and use chilled lye, and immediately get it into the freezer. With all that it can still overheat and volcano.

 

[KristaY]

Have you zap tested the liquid? If not, wet your finger and rub it on a spot. Gently touch your finger to the tip of your tongue. If it's lye leaking, you'll feel a bit of a zap. If it's oil or FO, no zap. That way you can rule out leaking lye.

Exactly when do you mix in your colorants and scent? If your zap is negative, possibly you aren't mixing these in well enough. If you're doing it at med trace, that might not give you enough time to get it thoroughly mixed in before thick trace sets in. Think about bringing your batter to emulsion or thin trace then divide, color and scent. That will give you more time to make sure things are well blended. You can always wait for a thicker trace (or SB to speed it up) but you can't go backwards to slow it down. There are occasions when an FO can slow trace but that's rare.

FWIW, I don't reserve oil from my batch weight to mix colorants. I mix enough to do several batches of soap so add what I want when I want it. Since I'm using only a few grams of mixed color for each portion it really doesn't affect the ending SF. Plus, if I mixed with reserved oil I'd have to add all the color and what if I don't want to?

 

[newbie]

Good point about the water/liquid amount, Carolyn. I forgot about that.

 

[penelopejane]

The soft spots could be caused by the additional water or oil used to mix the colour or excess FO if you are close to full water in your recipe. You need to reserve some water or oil from the recipe for each section of the mix.
So if you have 1/2 the batter coloured reserve 20ml water from EACH part and mix the colour then add to 1/2 the batter and add back the other plain 20ml of water to the other 1/2 of the batter. It has to be equal.

I have had problems with soft spots where the colours are and this solved it. Not everyone has this problem (see Krista above!) it's pedantic measuring but it worked for me.

You might want to take it to light trace then add colours rather than medium trace to give yourself a little more time.

I agree with overheating causing the cracking.

 

[Lychee517]

Thanks for your ideas! I believe it could be overheating but it throws me off that I can use the same goats milk recipe with no fragrance or EO or colorant and oven process it with no overheating problem. I have noticed when I decide to put my batch in the freezer (when I add honey) to set I have no problems and not even a little gel ring. I have space in the freezer but not the fridge. But it takes a lot longer to be ready to unmold and longer to cure (which is annoying but fine). I add my FO or EO at light trace to the whole batch before dividing it to color. Sometimes instead of my 5lb slab mold I use two 2lb silicone molds. Yes this has happened with them too. Sometimes I try to follow a fragrance and swirl I've done before following my journal entry and still have this issue (when I didn't the first time).

 

[KristaY]

What FO/EO's are you using? Florals and water scents are notorious accelerators and over-heaters. Also spicy EO's like clove and cinnamon.

 

[Lychee517]

Ok I'm slowly catching up on all the replies. Zap test complete: negative. Its just oil.

 

[penelopejane]

Your soaping temperature might be one variable that fluctuates and makes a difference. Stick to about 110 for a few batches and see if that helps.
What lye concentration are you using?

 

[dixiedragon]

Can you tell us what FOs you used from what seller? For some reason this reminds me of the person who was using room fragrance oils they'd gotten at Yankee Candle.

Have you checked your scale? How about your lye - is it good? Is the lye from the same container each time?

This reminds me of when I had a batch where some of the lye had solidified into a cake at the bottom of the picture. I added a bit more lye to a bit more water and added it to the batch, but there was too much water and too little like, so the batch was sort of grainy looking like that, and too oily.

Are you using the same containers?

Is it possible you are sometimes using KoH (potassium hydroxide) vs NaH (sodium hydroxide)?

 

[Lychee517]

Thanks Penelope and Krista,
Something I read forever ago has made me a little cautious about overmixing, and in addition to that I'm usually a little worried about light trace and continue blending till trace is obvious. So maybe I'm not mixing in my colorants well enough. I will try making sure each section (colored and uncolored) get the same amount of added oil and see if this helps. Also I can reduce the water a bit and see if that helps.

I'm glad I have some options. I really didn't want to have to give up the milk in the recipe just to avoid overheating.

I either use EO from brambleberry or Majestic Pure or Sun from Amazon. Fragrance oils are either brambleberry or a local candle supply store that gives instructions for using thier FOs in soap.

Lye is from the hardware store. It says 100% pure lye.

 

[shunt2011]

I agree with the others. Your soap is overheating. You may want to stop putting it in the oven or over insulating it.

 

[dixiedragon]

Specifically, what oils from which company? Any correlation between company and soap?

 

[Millie]

Are you using brambleberry's fragrance calculator? IMO it's horrendous. You might be using too much fragrance. I would also agree with the suggestions to lower liquid%. Brambleberry carries some nice materials but their calculators are rediculous. Soapcalc and soapee are popular lye calcs, for good reason

 

[Lychee517]

Yes I'm using Bb's fragrance calc. I use the medium usage ammount. Thanks for the other resources! I was looking for a more detailed soap calc.

Specifically, what oils from which company? Any correlation between company and soap?

Nope, I've had batches from all fragrance and essential oil companies I use fail.
This is definitely a case of user error

 

[newbie]

I would vote for doing the following things as first line trials:

Decrease your % of liquids to about 33%.

Oils temp at room temp if possible or no higher than 100 degrees and lye water at RT.

Mold in the freezer or elevated from the surface with a fan on it or cold packs underneath.

My guess is that you will have good success with those things.

 

[dixiedragon]

Yes I'm using Bb's fragrance calc. I use the medium usage ammount. Thanks for the other resources! I was looking for a more detailed soap calc.
Nope, I've had batches from all fragrance and essential oil companies I use fail.
This is definitely a case of user error

Can you get specific?

Example: BB Spearmint Success
BB Lemongrass fail

etc.

 

[penelopejane]

Yes I'm using Bb's fragrance calc. I use the medium usage ammount. Thanks for the other resources! I was looking for a more detailed soap calc.l

Nope, I've had batches from all fragrance and essential oil companies I use fail.
This is definitely a case of user error

I put my FO/EO in with the oils before mixing, unless it's a known radical accelerator. This gives them time to mix well and I know how they are going to effect trace.

There are so many variables with soapmaking it's a matter of working through your whole process and working out what works for you, your recipe/s and your environment (weather, tools and equipment) and keeping detailed notes.

You can fix this problem but I'd definitely drop back to the smaller batch size until you do.

 

[cmzaha]

Are you using brambleberry's fragrance calculator? IMO it's horrendous. You might be using too much fragrance. I would also agree with the suggestions to lower liquid%. Brambleberry carries some nice materials but their calculators are rediculous. Soapcalc and soapee are popular lye calcs, for good reason

I do not find their fragrance at all ridiculous, in fact of I do use it I go for the strongest and at times even add extra. You will find uncorpative fo's from all companies. Rain, Waters, Coconut, and many florals are notorious mis- behavers. Do a tint test batch can save your sanity. If not selling why make 5lb batches. I would make 1-2lb batches