What went wrong?!

[nutterly_uts]

First attempt at a milk soap..what's gone wrong?! Have used the soap dye before but in purple and it behaved (although did go funny colors at first as per my previous thread). Only new add in otherwise is some Castor oil along with the milk. Milk was frozen and at thick slushy when mixed with the lye. Fragrance added to the oils and didn't appear to do anything strange.
Recipe is 40% lard, 20% coconut oil 20% olive oil, 15% mango butter and the add in of 5% Castor, taken away from the previous 45% lard. Did the exact same recipe just before with a different fragrance and no milk and it's doing what I expected. All looked ok in this one til it went in the mould and very quickly started to go as per the pics. Was stick blended to trace that was almost custard so I could play with some colors.

Have put this in the freezer because I didn't quite know what else to do with it?!
The red fairies are from the exact same batch but colored pink/red and seem to be fine which is confusing me more?

 

[Arthur Dent]

Is it separating out? Oil floating on top?

 

[DeeAnna]

I'm betting on "false trace." I get the feeling you soaped on the cool side since you mention it was a milk soap, and you have a recipe high in solid fats. False trace happens when the lard and mango butter were cool enough to solidify, giving the illusion of trace. When poured into the mold, the batter warmed up, the apparent emulsion (trace) failed, and your soap batter separated.

If this is the problem, I'd hot process the batter so it will saponify. If you don't, it may never make soap.

 

[cmzaha]

How long did you SB before hitting the medium/custard trace? If you obtained the trace quickly it could have been a false trace, which can happen soaping to cool with lard because it tries to re-solidfy, resulting in seperation when it starts to heat up.

Did you pour the fairies before or after pouring the main batch and did you add in any additional sugar, honey etc? If the fairies were poured after the main batch if would have probably heated enough to get out of a false trace and if you stirred it at all it would go back to a stable emulsion.

The main batch looks like severe seperation from overheating, but usually does not happen immediately. You can fix it by pouring it all into a crock pot on low, sb until it comes together and cook as a rebatch or pour into the mold and let it finish saponifying on its own. Sugars and Goat's milk tend to heat quickly into gel, but not usually immediately unless a heating fo is added

DeeAnna typed faster than me!!

 

[nutterly_uts]

Is it separating out? Oil floating on top?

Yes sadly

 

[DeeAnna]

Even if I beat you to the punch, I'm glad you posted -- you always have wise advice to offer, Carolyn, and I always learn something from you!

 

[nutterly_uts]

How long did you SB before hitting the medium/custard trace? If you obtained the trace quickly it could have been a false trace, which can happen soaping to cool with lard because it tries to re-solidfy, resulting in seperation when it starts to heat up.

Did you pour the fairies before or after pouring the main batch and did you add in any additional sugar, honey etc? If the fairies were poured after the main batch if would have probably heated enough to get out of a false trace and if you stirred it at all it would go back to a stable emulsion.

The main batch looks like severe seperation from overheating, but usually does not happen immediately. You can fix it by pouring it all into a crock pot on low, sb until it comes together and cook as a rebatch or pour into the mold and let it finish saponifying on its own. Sugars and Goat's milk tend to heat quickly into gel, but not usually immediately unless a heating fo is added

DeeAnna typed faster than me!!

Fairies were poured from what was left of the red mix right at the end.
From another forum it seems I added the lye to the milk too quickly.
I was stick blending for about 15m all in, stopping to mix it inbetween. Used cold milk but the oils were pretty warm as I was too impatient to wait for them to cool down too much. No sugar or similar added. FO is from a new supplier and is pink hibiscus and fig.

Its gone 10.30 at night so I'm running out of time to do anything to do it until tomorrow. I'll get it out the freezer and see what its done in the morning. Will I be able to re-batch it then or will it be best to chuck it and try again do you think?

 

[cmzaha]

Fairies were poured from what was left of the red mix right at the end.
From another forum it seems I added the lye to the milk too quickly.
I was stick blending for about 15m all in, stopping to mix it inbetween. Used cold milk but the oils were pretty warm as I was too impatient to wait for them to cool down too much. No sugar or similar added. FO is from a new supplier and is pink hibiscus and fig.

Its gone 10.30 at night so I'm running out of time to do anything to do it until tomorrow. I'll get it out the freezer and see what its done in the morning. Will I be able to re-batch it then or will it be best to chuck it and try again do you think?

Yes you will be able to rebatch it tomorrow. Almost all soap can be rebatched.

With 15 min of stick blending, which is a long time, I am guessing the fo is a heater upper. Florals, some figs and coconut fo's can certainly overheat. I have a coconut fo I love but cannot also get in the freezer in time to stop it from overheating in a chilled mold. That would explain the immediate overheating up. The little fairies will not generate the heat the larger batch will. Never chuck soap batter until you at least try to fix it, since 99% can be saved.