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newbie first batch woes


scrochet

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Hi everyone, i finally made my first and second batch of cp soap. I made a oatmeal, milk, and honey using goats milk , honey and i forgot to put in the oatmeal but thats not the problem. I made the batch a week ago and i dont know if i cut it too soon or if recipe is off. The bar is not smooth where the cut is. It did start to gel as soon as i poured into the mold. Here is the recipe i used:

Cocoa Butter 2.5%

Cocout Oil 15%

Shea Butter 2.5%

Olive Oil 30%

Palm Oil 15%

Palm Kernel Flakes 17%

Rice Bran Oil 13%

Castor oil 5%

I ran the recipe through soapcal and used half of the water in the lye solution and the other half i used goats milk and added at a light trace. i also added honey

oatmealmilkhoney012.jpgoatmealmilkhoney010.jpg

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Honey heats thing up drastically but I don't think it looks bad. I do what I can to keep my goats milk soaps from gelling. My workstation is in my basement so I can set usually set it on the cooler floor and that works but have in the past set my mold up on a cake pan cooling rack and put a small fan on it (can't fit my molds in the fridge or freezer). If it's cool outside you can even set your mold outdoors...I do this a lot in the winter.

On your batch, I'd cut all the bars set it up to cure and give it some time. It should be OK even if it did overheat some. I CPOP and have forgotten a batch in the oven before, it overheated and got bubbles all over the top, wasn't pretty soap but other than look, it was OK. We just used it at home.

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first of all thanks for your help. I think i will do as you suggested and let it cure for awhile.

Another question, when using any milk (ie coconut milk) should i not gel?

I added gm at light trace, should the gm be frozen and what temp should i mix my oils and lye solution?

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I did not catch that you used honey. As has been said, honey is an accelertor too so when using it with milk, your soap will try to heat up. I try not to let my milk soaps gel so it won't over-heat. Some do let it gel though. It really is a matter of preference.

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I am not nearly the expert of some that has already given advice...

I have made GM and honey soap too..and it does heat up..

and I too put it in the frig..

But could you have unmolded to quick?

I have unmold to quick a few times, and

get somewhat what your bars look like..

What I mean..do you knowtice that for a ways down your bar

looks smooth, then it starts looking rough..like it is sticking to

your cutting knife and then causeing it to drag? Hope this make sence?

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1st thing...coconut milk is not really a milk so it's different, doesn't heat up the same as animal milks. It's like Meridith said, it's really a matter of preference. If you're going to freeze you milk as far as I know that's done if you're adding the lye directly to the milk to keep it from scorching. If you add it at trace it should be fine at room temp or cold. I have switched to powdered milk so I don't have to worry about a lot of this. As for what temp to mix oils/lye I want to say 90-100 degrees if I remember correctly.(I haven't checked temps in a very long time) HTH

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