Weird Soft Soap

[BrewerGeorge]

Last night, I started to cut my aborted ribbon swirl from Sunday and it was soft, soft, soft. Fully 72 hours and it was the consistency of plasticine modeling clay. The individual molds came out alright (still soft but popped out of the silicone easily) but the leftover loaf is the softest I've ever tried to deal with.

The interesting thing is that it IS definitely fully saponified. No doubt about it. I was under the impression that soap this soft MUST be not done yet, so I kept zap testing it over and over as I worked with it.

The outside ends of the log were damaged, so I cut them off and formed them like clay into the oval molds.

This is not a crazy-high soft oil recipe - 20% each of OO, CO, GV tallow-palm, and lard, plus 5% of avocado and castor. Had salt and sodium lacate, too. I've used it twice before with no problems.

Does peppermint EO cause problems?

 

[Guspuppy]

I had a challenge soap do that once too - using a high-lard recipe that I always use, nothing different. I was able to mold the scraps by hand into a sort-of loaf and just set them in the soap curing room and left them for a couple months. They are finally hard enough to cut normally, but still softer than usual. I even used a FO I had used before without problem, so I don't know what happened. Things just... fluke, sometimes I think!

 

[BattleGnome]

My ribbon pour is soft too but we're having a heat/humidity wave right now. Is your weather also doing the season changing weirdness?

I'm also only counting 90% with your recipe. Did you miss an oil or miscalculate one?

 

[BrewerGeorge]

My ribbon pour is soft too but we're having a heat/humidity wave right now. Is your weather also doing the season changing weirdness?

I'm also only counting 90% with your recipe. Did you miss an oil or miscalculate one?

Just mis-stated the percentages

 

[CaraBou]

I have not had problems with peppermint EO though I've always blended it with something else (rosemary, lavender, etc).

The common denominator I identified for my 2 or 3 batches of soft soaps was the citric acid I was using (even though I always added appropriate extra lye, and I didn't have problems with every single batch I included it in). I didn't understand why it would present inconsistent problems, but I stopped using it for a long while just in case I was right. I finally used it again this weekend and I got soap on a stick without any fragrance :wtf:. Why would it give soft soap a few times and seized soap another?? I have no idea, but I finally chucked it. I'm tired of it messing with my soap!

Bottom line I guess is to keep your eye on your additives even if they seem to behave in some circumstances. Good luck figuring it out and let us know if you do.