My soap won't set!!!!

[SimplyBea]

I have made this same formula several times now and it has been good so I thought I would add an FO (frangipani) for the first time and I also added salt & sugar as in THIS thread........ and it is still soft after 16hours!

Should I despair or bite my fingers off until 6pm tonight!!!! :confused:

The recipe

• Coconut 25%
  
• Olive 45%
  
• Rice Bran 20%
  
• Castor 10%
  
• FO 56gm/kg

I should have stayed with the tried and true unscented recipe!!!! but my girlfriend who loves the basic soap I have sent her also loves frangipani and I thought I would try and make one batch up for her!!!!

What can I do if it doesn't set! Can I still save this batch somehow?

[Jeana]

I ran your numbers through soap calc, and this is a really soft recipe.

Have you tried to take a bit of it to see if it lathers? If it lathers then you'll probably be fine, but it will take a really long time to cure it. I've never had an fo or eo make my soap not become soap, so it shouldn't be the scent making it soft.

Is it oily at all?

[SimplyBea]

Hi Jeana

I took another look and it looks firmer now! I have no explanation - it has been sitting in the esky (that's where I put my soaps over night) and this morning it was still soft in the mold.

It was only about an 90minutes ago that I peeked at it and panicked - it might still be okay later tonight.

yes - it is a soft recipe but it actually hardens up quite nicely within 10 days and I love the feel of it. I have made 3-4 batches now and they have all come out okay but this was the first time I had added an FO so I was really nervous.

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly and I will post the final result when I take it out of the mold.

[Meridith]

• Coconut 25%
  
• Olive 45%
  
• Rice Bran 20%
  
• Castor 10%
  
• FO 56gm/kg

Actually, from the looks of your recipe (I didn't run the numbers), I think it will be a nice hard bar in time. OO takes a bit of time to harden up but with that amount of OO and with the CO, I think you will be fine and it won't be a real soft bar. It just will need some time.

Did you soap with full water? Soaping with more water will also add to the time it takes your soap to get hard.

[SimplyBea]

Hi Meredith

The previous bars from this recipe are nice and hard - just takes a bit of time.

Update on this batch - it still won't come out of the wooden mold this morning but it has at least hardened. I will wait until this evening and worse case scenario might have to use a knife on the edges to get it out. It feels firm enough at this stage...... *keeping fingers crossed*

[Carrie]

I'm confused. Did you just pour the soap into a wood mold or did you line the mold with paper first?

[SimplyBea]

Carrie - I line my wood mold with greaseproff paper.

Folks, I 'solved' the problem....... the soap has saponified and is now out of the mold (2 nights ago but I have not been online since) - it was the paper I used to line the mold. It is thinner than the previous roll, I thought I had bought the same sort but must have made a mistake. It got really soggy and was actually hard to see once I got the block out of the mold. Spent ages trying to get the paper off the soap.

It is now curing and looks like the other batches.......... *relief*