I have a strange soap issue and I’m wondering if anyone here has some insight for me.
I have been using the same soap recipe for a while now. 75% olive, 25% coconut, 10% super fat. I love this soap, it is great for my very dry and sensitive skin.
I have been adding a tiny bit of salt to the lye water lately.
I have made this recipe with many additives- different essential oils, clays, charcoal, etc.
Last night I attempted a batch colored with indigo. I added a bit of indigo to the lye water. I noticed that the soap batter remained very very liquid and thin. I went ahead and poured it into the mold at very light trace and forced gel phase as usual.
However, today, upon unmolding, the soap is a very strange consistency. It is grainy looking and crumbly. It also had a decent amount of a dark brown oily substance pooling at the bottom of the mold, and squeezing out of the soap when I cut it.
Being fairly new at this, the way it looks appears to be lye heavy... but it is soft and oily, so that can’t be it.
Any thoughts on what could be going on here?
Sad that this batch is no good, since I got a pretty lovely shade of blue.
I have been using the same soap recipe for a while now. 75% olive, 25% coconut, 10% super fat. I love this soap, it is great for my very dry and sensitive skin.
I have been adding a tiny bit of salt to the lye water lately.
I have made this recipe with many additives- different essential oils, clays, charcoal, etc.
Last night I attempted a batch colored with indigo. I added a bit of indigo to the lye water. I noticed that the soap batter remained very very liquid and thin. I went ahead and poured it into the mold at very light trace and forced gel phase as usual.
However, today, upon unmolding, the soap is a very strange consistency. It is grainy looking and crumbly. It also had a decent amount of a dark brown oily substance pooling at the bottom of the mold, and squeezing out of the soap when I cut it.
Being fairly new at this, the way it looks appears to be lye heavy... but it is soft and oily, so that can’t be it.
Any thoughts on what could be going on here?
Sad that this batch is no good, since I got a pretty lovely shade of blue.
