Troubleshooting batch results

[Arlo]

Three days ago I made a CP soap with 88% OO, 8% COCO, 4% castor. No super fat. I had trouble smoothing the top after pouring into the mold, I had no plans for swirls or anything. I wonder if I overblended and it was too thick. The result is not what I would like aesthetically. Plus a few of the cuts at one end (maybe 15% of the whole bar) have a layer near the top which is whiter. Thanks for any input.

 

[atiz]

I think those look really pretty.
The color might get more uniform as your soap cures. Maybe the top did not gel?

 

[earlene]

What was your lye concentration? How new or old was your lye?

I have actually had partial gel with 100% olive oil soap once, so I also CPOP now for a high OO content soap.

I believe what you have there is related to the air interacting with the tops of the soap. How long was the soap in the mold before your unmolded? And did you cover the soap or leave it uncovered (how long uncovered?) before you removed from the mold?

Personally, I think what you are seeing is ash. Try washing it off with very hot water and see if it looks more like the rest of the bar after the bar dries.

Have you done the zap test on this soap yet?

 

[Arlo]

Lye was 161 g, water 360 g for 1200 g of oils and fats. No, it was not old. I bought it about six months ago.
Sorry, I don’t know what CPOP is! It was in the mold for about 16 hours, covered until unmolded, never uncovered.
Not sure what the zap test is!

 

[Susie]

It will all be the same color after cure. The top is dryer than the rest of the bar.

CPOP is cold process oven process. That means you make cold process soap, then put it in a 170F or so oven for the first few hours to ensure gel.

Good thread to bookmark: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/the-acronym-and-abbreviation-definition-thread.51841/

 

[atiz]

Lye was 161 g, water 360 g for 1200 g of oils and fats. No, it was not old. I bought it about six months ago.
Sorry, I don’t know what CPOP is! It was in the mold for about 16 hours, covered until unmolded, never uncovered.
Not sure what the zap test is!

For the zap test, see here. It is a test to ensure your soap is not lye heavy. It is very simple but super useful, especially if your SF is 0% (which means a slightly bigger risk for a lye heavy soap).

 

[DeeAnna]

Looks like your soap was at medium trace when you finished the pour. If you want a perfectly flat top, it's somewhat hard to get, but you'll get closer to that goal if the soap is more liquid-y than medium trace.

One possibility why the soap is lighter on top of the bars is the soap there is physically different than the soap deeper in the mold. This can happen if you do not use a spatula to scrape the soap pot walls and mix that soap batter thoroughly into the main batter before pouring. Stick blenders do not clean the pot walls like a spatula can. If you pour the batter into the mold without any final scrape-and-mix, the last soap into the mold will be the batter next to the soap pot wall that you scrape off to finish the pour.

 

[Arlo]

This is great advice, thanks DeeAnna. My first two batches took forever to get to trace and I thought I was going to wear out my blender. So this time I paid more attention to the temp and both oils and lye were around 92 F. Also, someone said with a little castor oil added I'd get to trace faster (as well as increased lather). Well, it reached trace in less than a minute, and I do think I went on a bit too long probably because I couldn't believe it happened so fast! And I did not scrape down the sides with a spatula, never thought of it, so for sure I will start doing that.

 

[DeeAnna]

If your soap takes a long time to come to trace, you don't need to stick blend endlessly. Chances are very good the soap batter is emulsified enough to not separate instantly, so a lot of stick blending doesn't really accomplish a lot. Sometimes soap making is more of a waiting game than a mixing game, but we're so attached to our stick blenders that we don't perceive this.

Try this next time your soap batter is moving slowly -- Stick blend for a few seconds, stop for several minutes, give it a stir here and there with your spatula to judge how things are going, SB a few seconds more, stop, etc. Gather up your dirty utensils and maybe even start to wash them. Get a drink of water. Come back to the soap pot and check. Give it time. You may find the soap takes no longer to come to trace if you do the waiting game than it does if you do the stick blending game. And your stick blender will thank you.

 

[Arlo]

If your soap takes a long time to come to trace, you don't need to stick blend endlessly. Chances are very good the soap batter is emulsified enough to not separate instantly, so a lot of stick blending doesn't really accomplish a lot. Sometimes soap making is more of a waiting game than a mixing game, but we're so attached to our stick blenders that we don't perceive this.

Try this next time your soap batter is moving slowly -- Stick blend for a few seconds, stop for several minutes, give it a stir here and there with your spatula to judge how things are going, SB a few seconds more, stop, etc. Gather up your dirty utensils and maybe even start to wash them. Get a drink of water. Come back to the soap pot and check. Give it time. You may find the soap takes no longer to come to trace if you do the waiting game than it does if you do the stick blending game. And your stick blender will thank you.

Just to make sure I understand, as long as the oils and lye have emulsified, I can use either the SB or time to achieve trace but no matter which, trace always has to be reached. Is that correct?

 

[DeeAnna]

What I'm trying to say is a lot of stick blending is often not necessary. If it takes 10 minutes for the soap to get to trace using the stick blender a lot ... and if it takes 10 minutes for the soap to trace using the stick blender once in awhile, which is the controlling factor -- time or mixing?

And no the soap batter doesn't have to reach trace to be sufficiently emulsified. Trace is simply a visual sign that is helpful for new soapers that tells them the batter is definitely emulsified. As you gain more experience, you will learn to see the signs when the soap batter is emulsified even before it shows obvious signs of trace (thickening).

There are times when even an experienced soap maker will want to wait until the soap is obviously thickened (aka at trace), so it's good to know how to get the soap batter to that point. Some types of swirls and design work require thicker soap to look right.

 

[Arlo]

What I'm trying to say is a lot of stick blending is often not necessary. If it takes 10 minutes for the soap to get to trace using the stick blender a lot ... and if it takes 10 minutes for the soap to trace using the stick blender once in awhile, which is the controlling factor -- time or mixing?

And no the soap batter doesn't have to reach trace to be sufficiently emulsified. Trace is simply a visual sign that is helpful for new soapers that tells them the batter is definitely emulsified. As you gain more experience, you will learn to see the signs when the soap batter is emulsified even before it shows obvious signs of trace (thickening).

There are times when even an experienced soap maker will want to wait until the soap is obviously thickened (aka at trace), so it's good to know how to get the soap batter to that point. Some types of swirls and design work require thicker soap to look right.

Ok, I get it now. Thank you very much.