Misadventures in Soapmaking Chapter 1

[WanderlustSoaps]

  So this weekend I finally was able to set some time aside and get back to making some soap, or so I thought.  I have been playing around with the recipes for three weeks and trying to decide exactly what I wanted out of the soap and what I wanted it do do.  First batch should have been simple it was to be a test of what I was hoping (and might still hope, we'll see) to be my base recipe and then for a challenge I was also going to attempt an acne-ish soap for my daughter that has both witch hazel and activated charcoal. 

 

  On the first batch I dont know what was going on, I guess my head was just not in a happy place and what I intended to do was soap at near room temperature, an nice cool ~70F.  Got all my oils mixed and let them cool on the counter.  Got my lye into the water and was amazed when after two minutes the thermometer said it was down to 70, the glass bowl still felt warm but I figured it was glass and had just trapped some heat and would cool as well.  I sure as hello wasnt gonna stick a finger into the solution to verify the temp but let it go.  Then I checked the oils temp and they were way low, didnt know what was going on, maybe the ac had kicked on and them being near the vent they cooled some, so quick trip to the nuker and they were back up to the same temp as the lye solution, cool, lets do this.

 

  And here the fail shows itself, almost as soon as the lye solution hit the oils it came to a light trace, quickly I added 0.5oz fragrance oil (low for 2.5ish pounds of soap but it was just for experimentations sake) and then mixed with a spatula to make sure it was incorporated.  Just in case I hit it with the stick blender two or three times for about 3 seconds and wow, now I have thick pudding, crap lets get this to the mold.  Ok got it in the mold, tapped it on the counter a lot, I think I got the air out, smoothed the top down and put a nice design in it, ok good to go, now into the oven that was cool and only had a light on for the last ten minutes. 

 

  Twenty minutes in the oven with the light on (sitting at around 85F) and the top develops what looks like wax with a giant crack down the middle, the center and all the way up to the top 1/4 inch is in full blown gel phase.  Stupid me thinks maybe I can mix the waxy looking layer back into the gell and it will all be ok, hahahaha frell no that didnt work.  So ok, I have seen this HP a couple hundred hours or so on youtube, guess we can try to rebatch / HP some CP soap that is going into a satanic hellish gel phase.  So I scooped it all out of my mold and into a stainless steel pot (thank you emiril legassi for making good stuff) added a little water and whipped the crap out of it, ended up adding a touch of oil and continuing to whip.  After 15 minutes or so it all looked nice and uniform again and did not look like it was gellin any longer, molded it and cut it the next day.  After 24 hours it was still pretty soft but I cut it anyway, after another 24 hours on a drying rack it still feels about like modeling clay, I hope it sets but if not, chalk it up to other lessons learned.

 

  Oh speaking of lessons learned, any idea what happened... You guessed it, Im an idiot and was looking at the C side of the thermo not the F side so instead of soaping at the 70 I was thinking I was actually going at the 150ish range.  Lets not try to recreate this.  So unfortunately I didnt get any pics when I was freaking out and trying to save my soap, however here is the pics I took once it was cut.

 

Ken

 

 

[Sponiebr]

On 10/18/2016 at 6:42 PM, WanderlustSoaps said:

First batch should have been simple it was to be a test of what I was hoping (and might still hope, we'll see) to be my base recipe and then for a challenge I was also going to attempt an acne-ish soap for my daughter that has both witch hazel and activated charcoal. 

 

We've been over this already. Alcohol BAD! Alcohol make BAD PITA mess. Alcohol belongs in soap maker not soap making.   

 

Quote

  On the first batch I dont know what was going on, I guess my head was just not in a happy place and what I intended to do was soap at near room temperature, an nice cool ~70F. Got all my oils mixed and let them cool on the counter.  Got my lye into the water and was amazed when after two minutes the thermometer said it was down to 70, the

 

70F should be decidedly cool. I would be surprised if your CO and Soy Shortening would stay clear at that temperature to be honest. The CO alone has a melting point of 76F. When I was using Criso I was in the 112F range. to get everything nice and melted. I generally like to keep it below 100F if I can, but I'll be honest, I haven't used a thermometer on a batch of soap in probably 2 years.   
 

glass bowl still felt warm but I figured it was glass and had just trapped some heat and would cool as well.

 

Stahp! Hold it! You're mixing your lye in a glass container? Ok, now I know some will disagree with me, but I was taught, and have heard it from other sources as well that it was bad mojo to mix lye in a glass container (even Pyrex). I was implicitly told to get a cheap clear polyethylene pitcher (that's the soft waxy plastic stuff that feels like a milk jug but heavier) and mix my lye in that. Apparently lye will cause little micro cracks in glass and might eventually fail on you. The worst that a poly pitcher will do is melt on you, and it won't do that because the water will boil out in an eruption before the plastic melts.  I'm not saying at all that you can't mix your soap in an oven safe glass bowl, just not the lye solution.  

 

I sure as hello wasnt gonna stick a finger into the solution to verify the temp but let it go. Did you now? You just skipped the whole finger test in the near boiling caustic eat the end off your digit solution? No merit badge for you!  

Then I checked the oils temp and they were way low, didnt know what was going on, maybe the ac had kicked on and them being near the vent they cooled some, so quick trip to the nuker I just LOVE those things and how conveniently they warm up my oils!  and they were back up to the same temp as the lye solution, cool, lets do this.

 

  And here the fail shows itself, almost as soon as the lye solution hit the oils it came to a light trace, quickly I added 0.5oz fragrance oil (low for 2.5ish pounds of soap but it was just for experimentations sake) and then mixed with a spatula to make sure it was incorporated.  Just in case I hit it with the stick blender two or three times for about 3 seconds and wow, (Stick blender!? WOW IS RIGHT!!! Man I feel my pulse racing just reading about YOU doing this! How EXCITING!!! Generally speaking if your soap is kicking a stick blender is going to make the situation worse, (there are exceptions).

now I have thick pudding, crap lets get this to the mold.  Ok got it in the mold, tapped it on the counter a lot, I think I got the air out, smoothed the top down and put a nice design in it, ok good to go, now into the oven that was cool and only had a light on for the last ten minutes. 

 

Twenty minutes in the oven with the light on (sitting at around 85F) and the top develops what looks like wax with a giant crack down the middle, Yep full on gel phase! That waxy looking stuff? If it is white is soda ash and if it is translucent is just the gel phase. It looks just like Vaseline  the center and all the way up to the top 1/4 inch is in full blown gel phase.  Stupid me thinks maybe I can mix the waxy looking layer back into the gell and it will all be ok, hahahaha frell no that didnt work. This is gold  So ok, I have seen this HP a couple hundred hours or so on youtube, guess we can try to rebatch / HP some CP soap that is going into a satanic hellish gel phase.  So I scooped it all out of my mold and into a stainless steel pot (thank you emiril legassi for making good stuff) added a little water and whipped the crap out of it, ended up adding a touch of oil and continuing to whip.  After 15 minutes or so it all looked nice and uniform again and did not look like it was gellin any longer, molded it and cut it the next day.  After 24 hours it was still pretty soft but I cut it anyway, after another 24 hours on a drying rack it still feels about like modeling clay, I hope it sets but if not, chalk it up to other lessons learned.  Gel phase freaked me out too. It CAN become problematic BUT it isn't necessarily a bad thing at all. A fully gelled soap is harder, and colors are brighter, and (at least for me) it's good to go as soon as you cut it.  If I had to guess, I'd say that the alcohol in your witch hazel probably contributed to it going into gel, those high temperatures tho... Yeah. Another thing is that crack unless it splits more than maybe 1/4 inch deep will pretty much close back up as the soap cools back down. You'll have most likely noticed a hump forming around that crack? That hump will usually shrink back down again. That crack is actually cooling the soap down so that it doesn't volcano on you. 

Maybe next time, just let it do it's thing and see what happens? I'm willing to bet you'd get a pretty darn nice batch if all it did was go through gel. 
 

  Oh speaking of lessons learned, any idea what happened... You guessed it, Im an idiot (nope you're not! It just happens sometimes. Idiots don't make soap, they make trips to the ER.) and was looking at the C side of the thermo not the F side so instead of soaping at the 70 I was thinking I was actually going at the 150ish range. (ouch!)  Lets not try to recreate this.  So unfortunately I didnt get any pics when I was freaking out and trying to save my soap, however here is the pics I took once it was cut.

 

Ken

Cool post man! I was in your shoes not very long ago... Actually... Thinking of the Ghost swirl, I'm still wearing those shoes pretty regularly. 

Edited October 20, 2016 by Sponiebr

[Shari]

It looks like it turned out okay.  The reason it's soft is because you added more liquid to it than was already in there more likely.  It will just need a good long cure.

 

Also, as for using glass for lye stop now.  People have had their glass shatter.  Use stainless or plastic with the number 5 or 2 on the bottom of the container in the triangle.

 

Soaping too cool with a lot of solid oils can give you false trace because they solidify and are not really reacting with the lye mixture.  I highly recommend you keep your oils at a point where they are just clear at the very least.  Lye can be any temperature.  I generally use room temp lye as I masterbatch it.

 

We all have freak out moments.  Just breath and have fun.

[iansmommaya]

Looks good to me.

 

I've used alcohol is CP soaps a number of times and never had a problem.