# Soap not hardening...Help!!!



## Menny (Mar 7, 2019)

Hi everyone,
Last night around 1am did a small batch, 350 g of oils:
Coconut oil 25 %
Palm oil 25 %
Almond oil 30 %
Sunflower oil 15 %
Castor oil 5 %
Distilled water 36 % of oils
Lye 48 g.
I added 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp salt to distilled water and stir till salt and sugar dissolved in water. Then add the lye. I kept accurate temperture of oils and lye around 110 f. Mix them all and it looks great, trace came after 4-5 minutes. I poured it into the mold. Check this now and its too soft...it was 12 hours ago....attached a foto.
What might be the reason it has not harden?
I looked at my recepie, and it seems to me there's too much water in it, that might be a reason? 
The lye concentration is too low? 
Maybe I used too muc almond oil?
Can I rebatch it?
Waiting for your help, Menny.


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## shunt2011 (Mar 7, 2019)

@Menny   Did you gel your soap?   If not with the amount of water you used it could take several days before you will be able to un-mold it.


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## Menny (Mar 7, 2019)

I didn't, what is it? How do you gel your soap?


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## Menny (Mar 7, 2019)

shunt2011 said:


> @Menny   Did you gel your soap?   If not with the amount of water you used it could take several days before you will be able to un-mold it.


Shunt, can I rebatch it somehow? I mean, say I will add oils and lye without water to reduce the water percentage (with a lye calculator of course) You think it might help?


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## penelopejane (Mar 7, 2019)

Water as a % of oils = 36% is equivalent to lye concentration of 26. That’s a lot of water. Next time try lye concentration at 30%. 

Just wait. The soap will be fine it will just take quite a few days to harden enough to unmold and a few extra weeks to cure than normal.


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## Susie (Mar 7, 2019)

Before you try to rebatch, you need to figure out what went wrong.  So just hang on a bit.

Can you convert that recipe to actual weights you used, please?  It makes troubleshooting ever so much easier.

Did you use a lye calculator for this recipe?


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## Menny (Mar 7, 2019)

Thank you Penelopejane, I'll wait. 
Susie I've  attached a foto of the lye calaulator in my first call take a look at it.


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## Clarice (Mar 7, 2019)

Patience grasshopper. 

I have learned the hard way (every pun intended) that putting soft goo out of reach of my prying fingers and “finding” them again a week later yields soap.


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## Dawni (Mar 7, 2019)

Yep, that's what I do and the boys find it hard to believe - hide soap from myself lol

@Menny it might help do a bit of research on water amounts, for your future recipes. Sometimes even if you use less water, soft soap that takes more than a day to unmold depends on your recipe, weather, etc.


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## shunt2011 (Mar 7, 2019)

Menny said:


> Shunt, can I rebatch it somehow? I mean, say I will add oils and lye without water to reduce the water percentage (with a lye calculator of course) You think it might help?


I wouldn't re-batch it.  I would just let it sit and see what happens.   Time in this case is your friend. If it doesn't harden, there may be something else going on.  Measurements, etc.


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## Menny (Mar 7, 2019)

Thank you all!
As far as I'm understanding from reading your replays, there must be an issue with the quantity of the water I used in relation to the quantities of the oils, I've used too much water and therfore it will take time for hardening and curing. 
My question is, is there anything I can do now to speed up the process? I need to get rid of the extra water right? So, do you have any idea? Right now the soap is outside in the open air and there's a good cool northern wind,  but is it enough? maybe I should warm it a bit?


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## cmzaha (Mar 7, 2019)

I also would not rebatch it, just let it sit uncovered and it will harden. Your recipe really looks to be okay. Even though you have a lot of soft oils it is really the water keeping it from setting up quickly. If you want one that will set up faster you can up your palm to 30-40%. The more palm the quicker it sets up. Patience ! Soap has a way of teaching patience. I use 45% Palm in one of my recipes but it does not give a lot of swirl time

The water will evaporate during cure time. Next time you can type in "lye concentration", using 30-33%. This is not the water as percent of oil weight choice. I am not sure how it is listed in the calc are using, I use Soapee


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## Donee' (Mar 7, 2019)

Hide it from yourself as Dawni says


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## dixiedragon (Mar 7, 2019)

Menny said:


> Thank you all!
> As far as I'm understanding from reading your replays, there must be an issue with the quantity of the water I used in relation to the quantities of the oils, I've used too much water and therfore it will take time for hardening and curing.
> My question is, is there anything I can do now to speed up the process? I need to get rid of the extra water right? So, do you have any idea? Right now the soap is outside in the open air and there's a good cool northern wind,  but is it enough? maybe I should warm it a bit?



https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/gel-phase/

Here are some pics of gel phase. This is not a requirement - there is nothing wrong with what you did, it just takes a bit more time.

But if you want to hurry things along...Put your soap mold in a glass baking dish, or on a baking tray covered with wax paper or parchment paper. Pre-warm your oven to 150 or so, whatever  your lowest temperature is. Turn off the oven, put your soap mold in there, and leave. This process is trying to gently force gel stage. Sometimes I get very impatient and do "twice baked soap" - if my soap has gone through gel but I am still struggling to unmold, then I'll do this and it will harden it up more. 

the reason I suggest putting the mold in a baking dish is that sometimes you can get a soap volcano and you don't want that all over your oven. 
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/soap-behaving-badly/

Soap will react with aluminum, which is why I suggest a glass baking dish or a baking sheet covered with something. I've never had it happen to me (in my oven, I've had a baby volcano or two in my soaping career) but better safe than sorry!


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## Menny (Mar 7, 2019)

I have one more question on another issue so I'll take advantage on this thread and ask you here: 
If you want to write the name of your lover for example on the soap, how do you do it? 
I've attached a foto of soap that I made and try to write on it. I wrote wite a match and it doesn't look as accurate as I expected...


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## Dawni (Mar 7, 2019)

Menny said:


> I have one more question on another issue so I'll take advantage on this thread and ask you here:
> If you want to write the name of your lover for example on the soap, how do you do it?
> I've attached a foto of soap that I made and try to write on it. I wrote wite a match and it doesn't look as accurate as I expected...


Best to open a new thread for this, people might have excellent ideas and they might miss seeing it here.

But I think what you did actually looks nice. Most people use stamps on soap, could be graphic or text but while soap is still soft I imagine your match wasn't a bad idea, or maybe the end of a thin paintbrush would work too haha


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## dixiedragon (Mar 7, 2019)

If you look on Etsy you can find people who will make custom acrylic stamps if you want to make dozens of bars with the name on then. I think what you did looks pretty good! It might be a case of experimenting until you find the right tool and right soap firmness. 

This might help:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...lenge-carved-soap-designs-entry-thread.71503/

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/sept-2018-smf-challenge-carved-soap-designs.71286/

One option might be to mix some mica with glycerin and paint it on.


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## amd (Mar 7, 2019)

I soap with a higher water content (such as used in OP's post) and I can usually cut within 18 hours, however whenever I have used Sweet Almond Oil or Sunflower oil in recipes they take longer to setup, I haven't used a combination of the two in a soap (shocking...) so I would guess it's probably a combination of the oils and the water content. You can preheat your oven to the lowest temp it goes to (For me this is 170°F), turn off your oven, and put your soap in there overnight. This is called CPOP. I do it quite often with a soap that is setting up too slowly for my patience. ... DON'T forget to put a sticky over the controls on the oven so that everyone in the house knows there is soap in the oven.


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## Dean (Mar 7, 2019)

amd said:


> I soap with a higher water content (such as used in OP's post) and I can usually cut within 18 hours, however whenever I have used Sweet Almond Oil or Sunflower oil in recipes they take longer to setup, I haven't used a combination of the two in a soap (shocking...) so I would guess it's probably a combination of the oils and the water content. You can preheat your oven to the lowest temp it goes to (For me this is 170°F), turn off your oven, and put your soap in there overnight. This is called CPOP. I do it quite often with a soap that is setting up too slowly for my patience. ... DON'T forget to put a sticky over the controls on the oven so that everyone in the house knows there is soap in the oven.



Good tip on CPOP.

I use AO in much higher amts w0 any softness.

I wonder if his water measuring was off.


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## amd (Mar 7, 2019)

Dean said:


> I use AO in much higher amts w0 any softness.
> 
> I wonder if his water measuring was off.



It may depend on what other oils are in combination with the Sweet Almond Oil I suppose. I've noticed that different recipes yield different results, so your results may vary from mine. The higher water content in combination with sweet almond oil may be causing the slow setup time, either way, CPOP will help speed that up - the extra water going off and encouraging the saponification rate of the oil.


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## dibbles (Mar 7, 2019)

Also remember @Dean uses a high amount of soy wax, which would make a difference.

I agree with the others that gelling your soaps will help them firm up faster. I use a heating pad and wrap the mold on the pad in a thick blanket rather than use the oven.


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## Dean (Mar 7, 2019)

dibbles said:


> Also remember @Dean uses a high amount of soy wax, which would make a difference.
> 
> I agree with the others that gelling your soaps will help them firm up faster. I use a heating pad and wrap the mold on the pad in a thick blanket rather than use the oven.



I've always used AO w/o softening issues, even with low to no soy wax in the recipe.   The exception is if I gel or HP.  AO may preform differently with heat.   I did a 80% AO, no SW, CP recently that was rock hard the next day.   I really think its too much water that is causing the softening, which AMD's solution should remedy.


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## dibbles (Mar 7, 2019)

Dean said:


> I've always used AO w/o softening issues, even with low to no soy wax in the recipe.   The exception is if I gel or HP.  AO may preform differently with heat.   I did a 80% AO, no SW, CP recently that was rock hard the next day.   I really think its too much water that is causing the softening, which AMD's solution should remedy.


I will agree with you then. I’ve not used almond oil in that high of an amount.


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## Menny (Mar 7, 2019)

View attachment 37296
View attachment 37296
View attachment 37296


amd said:


> I soap with a higher water content (such as used in OP's post) and I can usually cut within 18 hours, however whenever I have used Sweet Almond Oil or Sunflower oil in recipes they take longer to setup, I haven't used a combination of the two in a soap (shocking...) so I would guess it's probably a combination of the oils and the water content. You can preheat your oven to the lowest temp it goes to (For me this is 170°F), turn off your oven, and put your soap in there overnight. This is called CPOP. I do it quite often with a soap that is setting up too slowly for my patience. ... DON'T forget to put a sticky over the controls on the oven so that everyone in the house knows there is soap in the oven.


Amd that's a great idea, thank you,  I'll do so! And by the way, me as well, just like you do, usually I use around that content of water but with differebnt oils. I've checked  a soap recepie that I did last week and I find out that the water content was 38 %, Lye was 27.7  with SF of 10 % and the soap was hard enough for cutting after around 20 hours ( I've attached a foto of that recepie ).



Dean said:


> Good tip on CPOP.
> 
> I use AO in much higher amts w0 any softness.
> 
> I wonder if his water measuring was off.


Dean dear, you use these abbreviations I can hardly understand what you mean... Please explain to me


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## Menny (Mar 7, 2019)

Dean said:


> I've always used AO w/o softening issues, even with low to no soy wax in the recipe.   The exception is if I gel or HP.  AO may preform differently with heat.   I did a 80% AO, no SW, CP recently that was rock hard the next day.   I really think its too much water that is causing the softening, which AMD's solution should remedy.


Dean, what was the amount of water you used for that 80% AO? or, what makes it to be rock hard the day after? I generally want to learn how to harden the soap so it could be of use for long time.


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## Dean (Mar 7, 2019)

Menny said:


> View attachment 37296
> View attachment 37296
> View attachment 37296
> 
> ...



CPOP...Cold Process Oven Process.  Putting it in a warmed oven (turned off) to gel.    AMD suggested it.  I think it the oven would dry it out which was u need to do.

AO...almond oil


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## dibbles (Mar 7, 2019)

Here you go Menny - this might help with the abbreviations
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/the-acronym-and-abbreviation-definition-thread.51841/


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## Dean (Mar 7, 2019)

Menny said:


> Dean, what was the amount of water you used for that 80% AO? or, what makes it to be rock hard the day after? I generally want to learn how to harden the soap so it could be of use for long time.



The rock hard bar used @Zany_in_CO' a faux sea water at 1.7:1.

Don't confuse hardness with longevity.  Coconut oil (lauric and myristric acids) makes a hard bar but is soluble.  For longevity (insolubility) you need palmitic and/or stearic acids.  They also make a bar hard.  You are getting those acids from palm.


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## Menny (Mar 7, 2019)

Dean said:


> The rock hard bar used @Zany_in_CO' a faux sea water at 1.7:1.
> 
> Don't confuse hardness with longevity.  Coconut oil (lauric and myristric acids) makes a hard bar but is soluble.  For longevity (insolubility) you need palmitic and/or stearic acids.  They also make a bar hard.  You are getting those acids from palm.


Dean, as allways,  your tips are a gold mine for me! Thank you! By the way, is there a recommended amount of palm oil to use in CP soaping?


dibbles said:


> Here you go Menny - this might help with the abbreviations
> https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/the-acronym-and-abbreviation-definition-thread.51841/


Thanks dibbles


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## Dean (Mar 7, 2019)

Menny said:


> Dean, as allways,  your tips are a gold mine for me! Thank you! By the way, is there a recommended amount of palm oil to use in CP soaping?



For environmental reasons, I use soy wax instead of palm for hardness and longevity.   Vegan commercial soap is typically 80% palm.


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## Dawni (Mar 7, 2019)

I'd up the Castor and superfat slightly, and/or add one conditioning oil if it were me soaping that. More than minimum cleansing and minimum conditioning won't work for me and mine.

Just to confuse Menny more lol


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## lobosolo (Mar 8, 2019)

I thought sugars slow down the Lye's sopanification, I wonder if thats the issues here.


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## Dawni (Mar 8, 2019)

lobosolo said:


> I thought sugars slow down the Lye's sopanification, I wonder if thats the issues here.


And I thought the opposite lol.

I thought that since sugars create heat, they'd sort of help gel along in some way and therefore, would harden faster... Not sure how I arrived at that thought though lol


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## amd (Mar 8, 2019)

@Dawni I think you're right! Sugar makes heat which speeds up saponification. The sugars in honey soaps or milk soaps get hot, which is why some soapers will put those types of soaps in the fridge or freezer. There's a way better explanation than I gave here, but I'm crunched for time so can't go into it. A search on the forum will yield the full answer.


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## Dawni (Mar 8, 2019)

amd said:


> @Dawni I think you're right! Sugar makes heat which speeds up saponification. The sugars in honey soaps or milk soaps get hot, which is why some soapers will put those types of soaps in the fridge or freezer. There's a way better explanation than I gave here, but I'm crunched for time so can't go into it. A search on the forum will yield the full answer.


Great! My common sense and logic must be in top shape tonight lol

Lemme go find those explanations.....


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## Donee' (Mar 8, 2019)

Sta


Menny said:


> I have one more question on another issue so I'll take advantage on this thread and ask you here:
> If you want to write the name of your lover for example on the soap, how do you do it?
> I've attached a foto of soap that I made and try to write on it. I wrote wite a match and it doesn't look as accurate as I expected...


Start out with a soldering iron - its like a pen but just hot


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## Menny (Mar 8, 2019)

I'm quite excited to inform you all that the soap seems like going in the right direction! Last night I listen to amd suggestion and put in in the warm (turned off) oven till morning. Wake up early to check it I found out it became much harder then it was. Took it out and let it sunbathe for the rest of the day as it was a sunny springlike day in Israel. So now its much firm then it was yesterday but still needs its time to harden.


Dawni said:


> And I thought the opposite lol.
> 
> I thought that since sugars create heat, they'd sort of help gel along in some way and therefore, would harden faster... Not sure how I arrived at that thought though lol





amd said:


> @Dawni I think you're right! Sugar makes heat which speeds up saponification. The sugars in honey soaps or milk soaps get hot, which is why some soapers will put those types of soaps in the fridge or freezer. There's a way better explanation than I gave here, but I'm crunched for time so can't go into it. A search on the forum will yield the full answer.



Dawni and amd, I used 1 tsp of salt as well, is that tsp of salt in addition to the soft oils and the big quantity of water might be one of the reasons to this delay?


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## amd (Mar 8, 2019)

Menny said:


> Dawni and amd, I used 1 tsp of salt as well, is that tsp of salt in addition to the soft oils and the big quantity of water might be one of the reasons to this delay?


No, salt will actually make your soap easier to unmold.


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## Menny (Mar 9, 2019)

Cut it today and set it down for cure.
Thank you all 
And hey, as far as I'm a new beginner in soap making, I'de love to do as much as aoaps as I can for  experimenting and learning and I was wondering what size of batches were you doing as a beginners? You see the smallest batch I did was around 450 grams. As far as I'm learning I'de like to do smaller ones.


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## Dawni (Mar 9, 2019)

That looks good! 

That's a nice small batch for most. If your scale is the kind that can weigh very small quantities accurately I guess you can go even smaller but there might be more room for error.


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## Menny (Mar 10, 2019)

Dawni said:


> That looks good!
> 
> That's a nice small batch for most. If your scale is the kind that can weigh very small quantities accurately I guess you can go even smaller but there might be more room for error.


Thanks Dawni  , well yesterday I bought a small stick blender and made the smallest batch I've ever done. 70 g of oils  . I'll attach fotos as soon as I'll be back home.


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## Dean (Mar 10, 2019)

Menny said:


> Thanks Dawni  , well yesterday I bought a small stick blender and made the smallest batch I've ever done. 70 g of oils  . I'll attach fotos as soon as I'll be back home.



I do two bar test batches at bout 185 g of oils.  Ur stickblender must b tiny to make that sm of a batch.  Can u post a pic of the SB next something for size comparison.


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## penelopejane (Mar 10, 2019)

You have to be really careful with your measurements when making tiny batches because a few mls extra water will make your soap soft and a few mls or extra lye might make your soap lye heavy. 

Personally in the recipe above I’d swap the Coconut oil and palm oil amounts and drop the castor to 5%. Over 5% I find castor can make soap sticky.


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## Menny (Mar 10, 2019)

Dean said:


> I do two bar test batches at bout 185 g of oils.  Ur stickblender must b tiny to make that sm of a batch.  Can u post a pic of the SB next something for size comparison.


Hi Dean, the length of the SB is 20 cm, 2 AA batteries. I've attached a foto below. Also attached the silicone mold that I used. Today I did another small batch same size  with full sea water, and  1/3 tsp of turmeric added at trace. It becames much more orange then I thought it would but I like it anyways 


penelopejane said:


> You have to be really careful with your measurements when making tiny batches because a few mls extra water will make your soap soft and a few mls or extra lye might make your soap lye heavy.
> 
> Personally in the recipe above I’d swap the Coconut oil and palm oil amounts and drop the castor to 5%. Over 5% I find castor can make soap sticky.


Hi Penelopejane, yes I know, that's why I try to be as accurate as I can. 
And about the amounts, to which recipe did you mean?


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## SaltedFig (Mar 10, 2019)

Hi Menny,

Could I suggest that you cure your soap in the shade, rather than in the sunshine?

Sunlight can trigger an oxidation reaction in your soap, and with the high superfat (10%) that you have used this might lead to rancidity - best to avoid that by keeping the soap away from metal and sunlight 

Pretty soaps


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## Menny (Mar 10, 2019)

Thank you Saltefig  Is it the heat or only the light of the sun that might lead to rancidity ? Usually I let them cure in a shady place, but in that particular case I wanted to get rid of as much water as I could so I thougt it'll be a good idea to let it warm a bit by the sun.


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## SaltedFig (Mar 10, 2019)

The light is the problem. Possible UV lights inside might have the same problem. If the soap is in the shade, especially if there is a breeze, it will tolerate a wide variety of temperatures
I don't believe the heat is as much of an issue.
It get's hot where I am, and it doesn't seem to upset the soap too much, but if I leave some on a windowsill in the sun, it will go yellow and crack within weeks.


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## melinda48 (Mar 10, 2019)

Menny said:


> Hi everyone,
> Last night around 1am did a small batch, 350 g of oils:
> Coconut oil 25 %
> Palm oil 25 %
> ...


Did you run it through SoapCalc or other calc application? If so, you may just have to wait a day or two or three.


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## penelopejane (Mar 11, 2019)

Menny said:


> Hi Penelopejane, yes I know, that's why I try to be as accurate as I can.
> And about the amounts, to which recipe did you mean?



The recipe in post 24


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## Baqn (Mar 11, 2019)

Well I have had same issue an year before when I started soaping. I didn't use stick blender but blender for frape coffee (I think that is the name of that blender you pictured lately in your post). The result were soft soaps. They actually never harden. That's why I recomend to you to use stick blender untill you get enought experience. Also I think that it's bad idea to add salt and sugar solution to the soap. Salt is used to destroy soap in industrial proocess of producing sodium stearate for example. I have no idea what sugar in solution can cause. Usually salt and sugar are added as crystals and they remain undissolved. They act as scrub.

If you want to save your soap I suggest to put your mould in the oven at about 60 degrees celsius for about two hours. In that way you are goint to promote gelling and you soap should harden at the end.

Also 36% water is not that much but 10% superfatting with almond and sunflower oil might slow saponification too much.


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## shunt2011 (Mar 11, 2019)

@Baqn - Salt added and dissolved to the water before adding lye helps with making a harder soap.  Sugar will add to the bubbles.   They aren't salting out the soap.   Totally different process.  

@Menny  - Using a coffee frother probably isn't emulsifying it as well as it could.


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## Baqn (Mar 11, 2019)

@shunt2011 - I haven't used salt to harden my soap, so excuse me. But isn't a tea spoon of salt too much for that quantity of soap? Also the same question for the sugar. What are the optimal quantities?


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## shunt2011 (Mar 11, 2019)

Baqn said:


> @shunt2011 - I haven't used salt to harden my soap, so excuse me. But isn't a tea spoon of salt too much for that quantity of soap? Also the same question for the sugar. What are the optimal quantities?


I add 1 tsp PPO for my soap when I use them.


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## Baqn (Mar 11, 2019)

Thanks. I will try this.


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## Menny (Mar 11, 2019)

penelopejane said:


> The recipe in post 24


I got you. Is there any particular reason to swap them? any benefits? 


shunt2011 said:


> @Baqn - Salt added and dissolved to the water before adding lye helps with making a harder soap.  Sugar will add to the bubbles.   They aren't salting out the soap.   Totally different process.
> 
> @Menny  - Using a coffee frother probably isn't emulsifying it as well as it could.


You're right. Last night I used it for 20 minutes but the oil won't trace... Decided to use the stick blender, it brought it to trace in less then 1 minute... And I wanted to ask you about the sugar adding amount. Sugar will add to the bubbles right? and it is recommanded to use 1 tsp PPO. Now say I wanna have as bubbley soap as possible, can I add 2? or 3? or 4 tsp of sugar PPO? Or maybe use different liquid added to the Lye like cherry syrup ( I read some soapers use beer as liquid) ? Or... how can I make my soap as bubbley as possible.



melinda48 said:


> Did you run it through SoapCalc or other calc application? If so, you may just have to wait a day or two or three.



?
I did, I allready mold it out.


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## Dean (Mar 11, 2019)

Menny said:


> Sugar will add to the bubbles right? and it is recommanded to use 1 tsp PPO. Now say I wanna have as bubbley soap as possible, can I add 2? or 3? or 4 tsp of sugar PPO? Or maybe use different liquid added to the Lye like cherry syrup ( I read some soapers use beer as liquid) ? Or... how can I make my soap as bubbley as possible.



You may want to check the lather additive article that I posted this am.


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## penelopejane (Mar 11, 2019)

Menny said:


> I got you. Is there any particular reason to swap them? any benefits?



Palm makes a hard long lasting bar. 
Coconut makes a fairly hard bar but doesn’t last as long.
Many people find coconut oil in soap dries their skin. I don’t use it above 10% and often not at all. 

With sugar more is not better.


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## Dawni (Mar 11, 2019)

Baqn said:


> @shunt2011 - I haven't used salt to harden my soap, so excuse me. But isn't a tea spoon of salt too much for that quantity of soap? Also the same question for the sugar. What are the optimal quantities?


It's not too much. I've tried adding more, currently experimenting with amounts. So far no soft bars. There's also salt bars, where you can use up to 100% salt at trace, and brine soaps, where you can dissolve up to 25% salt in the water before lye. My recent one used more. Do a search on salt and sugar, you too @Menny, you'll find loads of threads


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## Dean (Mar 11, 2019)

Dawni said:


> I'd up the Castor and superfat slightly, and/or add one conditioning oil if it were me soaping that. More than minimum cleansing and minimum conditioning won't work for me and mine.



Hi @Dawni.  Ive been thinking bout the conditioning prop lately and remembered ur post.  Are u saying that ur skin feels diff when u wash with low cleansing/low conditioning soap vs low cleansing/high conditioning soap?  If so, what is the diff that u feel?


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## Dawni (Mar 12, 2019)

Dean said:


> Hi @Dawni.  Ive been thinking bout the coditioning prop lately and remembered ur post.  Are u saying that ur skin feels diff when u wash with low cleansing/low conditioning soap vs low cleansing/high conditioning soap?  If so, what is the diff that u feel?


Hmm let's see if I can word it correctly.

After some experiments my latest soaps have all had only about 18% coconut, resulting in (plus or minus 1) 11 or 12 cleansing. Depending on what else I add I've had varied conditioning from 55-64 I think. Will need to check my notes later. I normally do not superfat more than 5% except for the brine soaps.

What I noticed is low cleansing but low conditioning doesn't feel much different from a slightly higher cleansing but also slightly higher conditioning. My face has some problem areas, dry spots scattered here n there and one particularly dry patch under one eye.... With these soaps, my face is tight right out of the shower and that one spot is noticeablely white. All goes back to normal within a few minutes though, the heat here will not leave me dry for long. 

Whereas low cleansing and 59+ conditioning does not cause that spot to look and feel dry. It's rougher than my cheek for example, but not dry n white. Very unscientific but those are my findings. 

I have yet to compare the oils I've used in each of the non drying soaps, but I have to post in the faux seawater thread after this because I did notice something between those soap experiments as well.


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