# What soapy mistake have you made today?



## lionprincess00

So I figured I'd start this thread to post about our oops (and to make myself not feel quite so bad).

I just left out my olive oil....-20% sf almost as it stands. Off to hot process this *[email protected]#

So annoyed with myself right now!


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## ourwolfden

I have had a week!!!!  I left my coconut oil and shea butter out of a 5 pound batch of soap (it was in the crock pot melting and I completely forgot about it) did notice until the next day when I was getting ready to make another batch and went to melt more.  But that time everything had been cut and was on the curing rack.  Unfortunately I split this batch up and couldn't just rebatch it to add the missing oils.  *Head desk*

Today... oh today...  I went to put my lye water in the freezer like I do sometimes and forgot I had just put my camera on top of the freezer.  I opened the door and the camera fell down into the bucket I was holding and I dropped the bucket.  Lye water everywhere.  I am okay, my hands are sore because I was frantically trying to clean it up.  

Hope this makes you feel better :crazy:


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## Mommy

I need this thread today. I made moonlight pomegranate cupcakes yesterday that were a cream base and maroon frosting and they accelerated majorly so the piping looked like dog poo. That was yesterday.

So today, I chopped them all up and melted it all down for a rebatch. And molded it. And cut it. 
It looks LITERALLY EXACTLY like salami. In every way possible. :crazy:


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## lionprincess00

I literally lol'd the salami...sorry ma!
Wolf, very happy to hear you're alright. That sounds so frightening!


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## not_ally

I am constantly making mistakes.  Yesterday was the triple axel of the mold onto the countertop trick, that was a good one.  Usually don't forget the oils/FO's because I have so many times before that I lay them out and check them off on paper in the same way every single time.   But anything else (colors/additives) is fair game.  

Today's involve stamping, I got my beautiful Omar stamps and lots of mistakes in getting it right, stamping is not as straightforward as *^^ Seven makes it seem   I have the planer on standby to skim off layers and try again.

Wolf, I am glad to hear that you are OK too.  Scary.  I hope the camera survived as well.  Mine keeps getting smudged w/batter, am pretty sure that cannot go on forever.

Mommy, there is probably a *very* good market for your salami soap   I bet there is someone out there happily raking in the cash from naughty soapgoods ...


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## lenarenee

Mommy said:


> I need this thread today. I made moonlight pomegranate cupcakes yesterday that were a cream base and maroon frosting and they accelerated majorly so the piping looked like dog poo. That was yesterday.
> 
> So today, I chopped them all up and melted it all down for a rebatch. And molded it. And cut it.
> It looks LITERALLY EXACTLY like salami. In every way possible. :crazy:



Hey! Now you can invent the "hoagie" soap!!


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## SplendorSoaps

Thanks for starting this thread, lionprincess! It's nice to know that I'm not the only one having those forehead slapping moments. Mine was a couple of days ago when I have a really cool idea for a layered lavender lemongrass soap. I couldn't decide if I wanted to use lavender ultramarine or alkanet root for the purple color, so at the last moment I chose manganese violet. Huge mistake - I never seem to use enough of it to get anything more than a wan, greyish color out of it. It ruined an otherwise nice batch. The worst part is that I swear I've made this mistake with the manganese violet THREE TIMES now! Ugh! Hopefully I'll learn this time.


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## gigisiguenza

Man I can't tell ya how I needed to read this thread tonight LOL.

So I decided to do my second ever batch of soap. I've been trying to make it for days but life kept getting in the way, so tonight was my first chance. Plus my friend was here and eager to see how it works.

Big mistake having an audience cuz it distracted me and I made mistake after mistake... ugh!

First, I'm setting up and I've got my recipe written down etc, all my tools assembled, and I go to make the lye water. I realize as I'm mixing it that I've forgotten about my goggles so I stop and grab them, go to put them on, and they slip out of my hand and fall right into the friggin lye water. I fish em out and drop them in the cold water bath my lye pitcher is sitting in cuz I'm obviously not going to be putting them on after that :/

Next I put it in the fridge to continue to cool while I melt oils. I go to grab the pitcher from the fridge and almost knock it out of my hand as the fridge door hits my arm on its back swing to close. Scares the living begeebers outta me cuz I'm still nervous about the lye part of soaping and I'm standing frozen in place as I stand there saying ten million thank yous to the soap gods for not dropping it or splashing I it all over the kitchen and myself lol

Then after I add my lye to the oils and pulse the SB a few times, I toss in my FO , pulse some more, and put the SB in the now empty lye pitcher to sit while I separate portions of the soap batter into cups to be colored with the natural colorants I made. I reach for another measuring cup and my elbow knocks the SB and the lye pitcher over, **** near taking the pitcher of remaining soap batter with it.

I'm standing there swearing at it and checking to be sure that no residual lye water got on the carpet or me, and I turn back to disconnect the blade segment of my SB so it's not so top heavy and won't fall over again and I drop the soap covered blade portion on the carpet.

About this point I'm doing a crazy combo of laughing at the stupidity of the whole thing, swearing in frustration, and beginning to feel discouraged.

So I take a calming breath and I soldier on and I add my color to my cups then go to stir them up only to realize they are all thickening up very quickly - grrrr! - and whatever plan I had to do a very very simple pattern is so not gonna happen now - double grrr!! - I keep on going though, and plop the stuff on as best I can considering the thickness and hope for the best. I look at it and think **** that is gonna be some butt ugly soap but I guess it will have to do LOL. I figure, screw it, I'll put it up and see how the ploppy looking stripes come out when it's set up. 

But as go to pick up the mold, it slips in my hand, and there is a moment of comical juggling as I contort like a noodle to prevent the mold from hitting the floor or flipping. I manage to get it securely only to realize in my attempt to save the mold I have buried three gloved fingers of one hand smack dab in the middle. 

Cue lots - LOTS - more swearing as I plop the mold on the table and stare at it with my hands on my hips growling.

It is at this point that my friend, who has been very quiet throughout this process so far, erupts in laughter, pointing at my face, and says "holy cow, G, I wish I had video taped that whole thing, and girl you have serious ninja catching skills!"

I lost it and **** near peed my pants laughing, which was good, cuz it made me less likely to take the mold full of butt ugly, hand printed, deeply gouged soap, and launch it at high speed out the door. LOL

So...in the end I stuck a plastic spoon in it, did some wackado scoopy type moves and said [email protected]$ it, it is what it is, I'm not meant to soap tonight it appears. Then I tossed all the sloppy gear into a box, shoved it in the closet to be wiped down when it's dried up, lit a smoke and looked for the last of the wine hahahaha.

I am not defeated, I will conquer the soap dammit LOL. I just wish I knew what made it thicken up so stinking quick. The FO specifically said it didn't discolor or accelerate. Oh well, live and learn. Will try again tomorrow night if I can figure out what to do to keep it thin enough for longer, to allow me time to play with a simple pattern.


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## not_ally

Well, you've got the first gremlin-laden soap out of the way, welcome to the club!


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## gigisiguenza

not_ally said:


> Well, you've got the first gremlin-laden soap out of the way, welcome to the club!



Hahahahaha NA.... I had no idea there was such a thing a gremlins laden soap


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## not_ally

Oh yes, the soap gremlins just lurk for when you are least expecting them.  Sometimes you just have to acknowledge their evil power, recognize that there will be many next times, and hope that serendipity will kick in (we should have a term for soap angels, those sometimes preside when you are doing everything *wrong* and things still work out!)


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## gigisiguenza

not_ally said:


> Oh yes, the soap gremlins just lurk for when you are least expecting them.  Sometimes you just have to acknowledge their evil power, recognize that there will be many next times, and hope that serendipity will kick in (we should have a term for soap angels, those sometimes preside when you are doing everything *wrong* and things still work out!)



Well heck I sure do know they exist geez... they were all over my soaping tonight, wreaking havoc like crazy LOL. And I hope some soap angels find their way here for tomorrow night, cuz I could really use a success after tonight's sitcom style failures LOL.


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## Jstar

"Contort like a noodle"..I almost lost my Dr. Pepper on that one hahaha!

Welcome to the wonderful world of soaping!


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## ArtisanDesigns

Oh my goodness this is going on my blog soon. I am trying to make a soap. One with loofah sponge cut into 1 inch pieces laid out in the log mold. I have done this with melt and pour and love it but wanted to do it in cold process. 
I used the fragrance oil Monkey business I think it is also called Monkey farts. I made 2 different colors. a pale yellow and pale pink. I know they will darken up because of the color but figured I would see what happened. Well what happened is rapid acceleration. I put down the first layer and put the loofahs in the mold. I should have stopped there. I thought oh I can still pull this off. 

Then what I had was a loaf mold with soap batter on top and bottom of sponge. I cut it then thought maybe I can still save it the next day so I made even more soap and colored it pink with no scent. I tried to pour it thin to fill in the holes while it was laying down. Nope batter everywhere, Thickened it up some and filled in and covered up one side of the whole soap with pink and tried frosting it like a cake. Well the top and bottom now look like a frosted pound cake and I am ok with that but the middle is still messed up and the back side looks horrible. Now I have 15 lb bars of soap that are awful and stuck to loofah sponges. I do not think I can even give them to family. I am going to be stuck with this crazy soap for the next year. I will post pics in the ugly soap thread in the next few days when I get up the guts to do it LOL. My soap cred will be ruined :thumbdown:


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## dneruck

On Sunday I was finishing up the last of a cupcake soap order and was soooo happy to be done with it as I was sick of making cupcake soap. Then when I was cleaning up, I realized that I'd forgotten to add the fragrance.... Sigh


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## dibbles

I made some laundry stain sticks in guest size molds. Didn't think to look at the molds because they are stored in a covered plastic bin. There is dog hair in every single one. Oh well, it's just for laundry.


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## LittleCrazyWolf

Gigi, I'm sorry but I laughed all the way through your post! You sure have a way with words, I had no problem seeing that whole thing play out in my head. Hopefully the gremlins feel like they gave you a hard enough time and leave you be for a while.

I love this thread. I luckily haven't had any mishaps recently but not so long ago I made two batches of unsalty salt bars because I forgot the salt two days in a row! I also managed to knock over a bowl of soap that I had just brought to emulsion, I was frantically cleaning, I was certain that it was going to eat through the floor. Klutz.


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## gigisiguenza

Jstar - I will consider myself thoroughly initiated lol

Artisan - I feel ya LOL I'm gonna be stuck with this butt ugly soap too... it's too **** ugly to give away, so it will become kitchen sink soap so it doesn't get wasted lol 

Dneruck n dribbles.... I'm dreading those mistakes, cuz I just know I will make similar down the line

LCW - unsalted salt bars ....hahahaha... and believe me I feel ya on spilling emulsion... when I dropped the heavily coated bottom of the SB on the floor, all I could think was "oh ship! I'll never get my deposit back if I kill the carpet with lye!" LOL


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## snappyllama

This didn't happen today, but I want to post it as gremlin's bane!

First time making HP... all finishing and sitting in the mold.  I was super impressed with myself over how smooth I kept it and imagining what the pale yellow would look like with the hot pink ribbon I managed to swirl inside. As I started to cleanup, I noticed my superfat still sitting in it's container. Sigh. I slopped out my pretty design, stirred in my SF and got it back into the mold. This is what it looked like when I unmolded it... raw meatloaf!  







The funny thing is that I actually LOVE how this soap feels and smells.  If only it wasn't so ugly...


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## Jstar

I actually think it looks pretty cool Snappy


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## nsmar4211

What's the scent on the meatloaf one?  Cool looking, but def. meatloaf LOL


When using half a batch to pour some testers, I intended to use the other half to make some unscented colored soaps. Oooo I'll do allspice and paprika and plain!
Two measuring cups.....wait...that should've been three. Already blended in the spices before realizing I didn't leave any plain. Orange and brown seashells anyone? Well, there's always confetti....


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## snappyllama

nsmar4211 said:


> What's the scent on the meatloaf one?  Cool looking, but def. meatloaf LOL




Goldilocks from Daystar.  It's a Lush dupe for Porridge, but I have no idea how close it is to the original.


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## lionprincess00

Thx you all for chiming in and making me feel not alone on this!
I introduce my hp fix.

Brain gray matter. You can see it better from the side view. Eww.


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## not_ally

I don't think the color is bad at all.  You could plane the top and call it Mediterranean Clay Mine or something, I find renaming in my own mind helps the step-children soaps a great deal   Also, I think the texture looks *great* for HP.

ETA:  now that I renamed it, I don't think you even need to plane it, see


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## Viore

Today's soapy adventure started with washing the glass thermometer, then breaking it when I shook it dry over the sink. Luckily nothing else went wrong!


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## snappyllama

I think it just looks like clay... not ugly at all!


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## kumudini

my mistake wasn't made today. was probably 2 months ago when I ordered 2 gallons organic red RSPO palm oil from soapers choice without realizing how bright orange it would make my soaps. Another mistake was not ordering any regular palm oil, which is easier to correct but haven't done that yet. today I made a favorite, lavender and orange soap with calendula infused olive oil, that has ground orange zest and calendula petals. I thought TD would soften the color a bit and lend a creamy look. didn't happen, well I had a little over 18% of that bright orange oil in the recipe. At least its an orange scented soap and it smells orange in the whole house. The ground zest really anchors the EO and gives a sweetness to the scent.
 I am really wary of making my mint and star anise soap or litsea and eucalyptus soap with the PO I have.


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## not_ally

OMG, K, I made exactly the same mistake w/red palm oil.  I only got a couple of lbs of it, but it makes the soaps so darn orange you can only use a teeny bit of it.  I will never get through it before it goes off, I am not that much of an orange fan.  You are going to have to become the world's expert on orange themed soaps, my poor RPO beleaguered friend


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## nsmar4211

Does the orange color stay or does it fade? Because I'd like some orange colorant...hrmmmm


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## not_ally

Nsmar, I have heard that it fades after a while, although my first ones (after 4 mos maybe?) are still pretty fricking orange, and I did not mean them to be.  You only want a tinge of orange in OMH, not a butt-load.  I might have used to much RPO (maybe 15%?) and I think people usually recommend stopping at 5% before it takes over and starts becoming a staining/bleeding juggernaut.


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## TeresaT

I just bought six 3 liter bottles of olive oil at Costco (2 bottles for $26.99). When I got home, I figured out I ended up actually spending .447 per ounce.  Not quite the deal I thought I was getting.


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## not_ally

I still find it cheaper than any other non-bulk source, but have probably not been good about comparing as well as I should w/r/t on line ones.  If you do, would you post, Teresa?


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## TeresaT

Sure thing, NA.  When I bought it, I was freaking out over the deal.  It is only .133 per FL oz.  However, when I converted it to mass, that's when I discovered it wasn't all that inexpensive after all.  Then again, maybe everyone lists OO in fluid oz instead of mass.  If so, BOY DID I GET A DEAL!


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## Jstar

You could always start on Halloween themed soaps with all the orangey goodness


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## kumudini

TeresaT said:


> I just bought six 3 liter bottles of olive oil at Costco (2 bottles for $26.99). When I got home, I figured out I ended up actually spending .447 per ounce.  Not quite the deal I thought I was getting. ��



Teresa, I think the math actually comes out to 14 cents an ounce or 2.25$ a pound. Much cheaper than any other place.

ETA: just saw your correction. Although I don't actually know how much a fluid oz of OO  would weigh, I just weighed my empty OO bottle and a full 3 lt bottle, the weight was 2765gms, a little over 6 lb. So I would think the fluid ounce and weight ounce are pretty much same. So it is still an awesome deal.


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## MorpheusPA

Olive oil's listed density has a range--800 to 920 g/L.  Water is 1000 exactly.

So worst-case $0.133 per fluid ounce would be 0.133 / 0.800, or $0.166 per (edit) mass ounce (although in American measurement, the proportion still applies).  Best case, $0.133 / 0.920, or $0.145.

Either way, that's a pretty good deal.


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## TeresaT

Vkumudini said:


> Teresa, I think the math actually comes out to 14 cents an ounce or 2.25$ a pound. Much cheaper than any other place.
> 
> ETA: just saw your correction. Although I don't actually know how much a fluid oz of OO  would weigh, I just weighed my empty OO bottle and a full 3 lt bottle, the weight was 2765gms, a little over 6 lb. So I would think the fluid ounce and weight ounce are pretty much same. So it is still an awesome deal.



Really?  I knew I sucked at math, but I didn't realize I sucked that bad.  1 liter OO weighs 2.013 lbs.  one bottle = 3 liters = 6.039 lbs x 2 bottles = 12.078 lbs  (Oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh:   $2.24/lb  $0.14/oz.)

OK.  I divided 12.078 lbs by $26.99 and came up with .447 per ounce.  Because I thought 2.24 per "ounce" was not correct.  Uh, yes, that is not correct and this is proof positive that I suck at math.  :lolno:

Thanks, V!  I'm doing a happy dance right now.  You are awesome!

Edit:  thanks to you, too, Morpheus.  We can all agree I definitely suck at math.  (And Costco has a great deal on OO.). So, I guess I should move my posts from here?  LOL.


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## MorpheusPA

TeresaT said:


> Edit:  thanks to you, too, Morpheus.  We can all agree I definitely suck at math.  (And Costco has a great deal on OO.). So, I guess I should move my posts from here?  LOL.



Just call today's soapy mistake a minor math error and call it a day.


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## raingarden

Hi,

I'm new to this forum.  Had a horrible soaping day as well.  Got a new FO from sweetcakes to make my lemon kitchen soap.  Used to use Lemon Balm FO from Sweetcakes, but since it is discontinued, I purchased their Lemon Zest.  All was going well: oils/lye mixed, had dried lemon zest and poppyseeds mixed in.  Once I added the FO it was a disaster.  Soap turned into oatmeal and I barely got it in the mold.  Nyone have any problems with this FO?  I have been soaping for 15 years and never had such a horrible seizing problem.


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## kumudini

TeresaT said:


> Really?  I knew I sucked at math, but I didn't realize I sucked that bad.  1 liter OO weighs 2.013 lbs.  one bottle = 3 liters = 6.039 lbs x 2 bottles = 12.078 lbs  (Oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh:   $2.24/lb  $0.14/
> 
> Thanks, V!  I'm doing a happy dance right now.  You are awesome.



Lol, I just thought that the .447$ price looked a little steep, so I calculated and recalculated so I can actually be correct while I'm correcting your math .  We all have those moments, no need to beat yourself up. I second MorpheusPA's suggestion, call this a soapy mistake and move on.


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## gigisiguenza

I finally took pics of the butt ugly soap from my disaster soaping session that I posted about the other day. It's awful on a scale that defies description Lmfao

It looks like vegetable soup mashed up and plopped down on top of potatoes .... good god it's ugly...  smells good though Hahahahaha


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## MorpheusPA

Or vegetarian pizza.

Mmmm.  Pizza.  Excuse me.


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## gigisiguenza

Morpheus -LOL I hadn't thought of that
Ally - oh no, that awfulness is going nowhere except right on the bookshelves so I can see it every day and be reminded to slow down, triple check recipes, and not soap when I'm distracted, tired, or drinking wine hahahaha


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## raingarden

Thanks for the welcome.  I feel so much better knowing that I am not alone on my failed batch with the Lemon Zest.  I was so looking forward to a nice lemon soap.  Forgive my ignorance, but what is SSRB?  I am not up on the soap lingo, and am also struggling on how to navigate on this forum.  I guess I'll get the hang of it!


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## kumudini

Soap scent review board, a place where I can't register yet.


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## not_ally

K, you and I both have big Halloween batches in our future ...



raingarden said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm new to this forum.  Had a horrible soaping day as well.  Got a new FO from sweetcakes to make my lemon kitchen soap.  Used to use Lemon Balm FO from Sweetcakes, but since it is discontinued, I purchased their Lemon Zest [....] Soap turned into oatmeal and I barely got it in the mold.  Nyone have any problems with this FO?  I have been soaping for 15 years and never had such a horrible seizing problem.



Welcome, Raingarden.  Just checked SSRB for SC Lemon Zest and both people who reviewed it reported exactly the same thing, trouble shot in advance b/c a new FO, soap on a stick, they thought there was no getting around it.  So some comfort there, if only in shared misery


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## not_ally

Oops, sorry, Raingarden, deleted and reposted quoting you so that it would show up on your dashboard thingie and you would not miss it, I really did want you to know to avoid using again in CP.    SSRB is the Soap Scent Review Board, v. useful resource that basically just deals w/people's experiences with FO's/EO's.  Also, we have an excel chart w/reviews here, go to the FO forum, and click on the link in the sticky.


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## kumudini

not_ally said:


> K, you and I both have big Halloween batches in our future



Yes B, we both do and I will make way more than you will and in that process drive my hubby crazy, buying up all the Costco OO.


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## not_ally

K, so far I have done OMH - mistake, as noted, carrot, orange, and pumpkin.  I am kind of running out of orange-y soaps.  I did like the carrot one, there might be a lot of people in my life and in shelters taking showers w/that


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## kumudini

How about a poppy fields one with or without poppy seeds sprinkled on top? If you could keep red palm at about 6-7% and use the regular palm or something else for the rest, you could produce a creamy dreamy yellow with a bit of TD. Then you could make yellow soaps with it.


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## not_ally

That does sound really nice.  Thoughts percolating ...


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## kumudini

The bottom layer is what I'm talking about.


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## not_ally

Ooh, I do love that yellow.  Is that the base color and you added colorants as swirls to the rest?  

Aside, I am sitting outside on my patio and the police helicopters are swooping low enough that one of my dogs has run under the bed.  Gotta love LA, the good and the bad.


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## kumudini

That's the base color with added TD. The other yellow is the base color. These are from the extra half loaf from my challenge soap, the soap batter was so thick by then that I just had to plop the different colors in and call it a day.


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## not_ally

I'm surprised that nice yellow was the one w/the added TD.  I am terrible at trying to lighten my swirl batchlets w/TD, it always somehow goes wrong and makes them murky/less pretty (plus I use a lot to begin with, so worry about glycerin rivers - and sometimes get them - where I don't want them).  Just one of those soapy deficits that I have come to accept


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## not_ally

My mistake for the day - and several to come I guess - is letting myself run out of lye.  I ordered 27 lbs a couple of weeks ago from the Lye Guy, and it appears to be stuck in FedEx limbo, also the LG has not answered my emails, so I am kind of stuck on figuring out how/when to find another quick source (will probably just stick w/NG , going forward, the pricing was v. close, I just wanted to check something new.) 

I did just order 3 lbs via Amazon Prime, but it will not get here until Monday.  That is way, way too long.  They may find me, dead from soaping DT's, at that point.  Hopefully the pups will not get hungry enough to eat me by then


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## Viore

I have a soaping mistake that involves one of my dogs. Last week I got a bunch of natural colorants from WSP (allkanet root powder, pumpkin powder, spirulina, etc). I happy made up 10 mason jars of oil to infuse the powders in. After getting the powder into each jar and storing the jars in the cupboard, I went to take a shower. 

10 minutes later I'm toweling off and hear one of my dogs getting into something. I went back to the living room to find Midnight happily tearing into her 8th bag of the powders! She had first opened the pumpkin powder bag (which smells exactly like pumpkin bead) and licked it clean and was rooting through the other bags to see if they tasted as good! I did manage to salvage most of the powders and now keep them individually ziplocked and stored in the highest cabinet. But the poor carpet has some weird tie-dye look to it from the spirulina powder and the beet root powder that Midnight had licked into the carpet fibers. Lesson learned!


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## gigisiguenza

Ally - I got mine at Lowe's ...it wasn't cheap, but it's a quick fix until your order arrives... we can't have you dying from DTs LOL

Viore - holy cow ... good thing the powders are natural... They're going to be pooping rainbows Lmao


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## not_ally

Viore, don't get mad, but I did laugh at your post.  That is *exactly* what my little stinkers would have done.  You kind of accept/expect some stuff - it will probably be a really, really long time before I buy underwear anywhere than the dollar store, due to um, depredations in that area.  But soaping ingredients, really muppets?  I wrote off my security deposit about a month after I got Fred 

Gigi, Lowe's does seem to be the place to get locally sourced lye if one is close to you.  I am still trying to figure out whether to go get some there or just wait.  Have to make the NG order (this part is irritating, I placed an NG order a couple of day's ago.  I wish they weren't quite so bad at shipping fast,_'_


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## gigisiguenza

Ally - my last dog was an underwear thief too lol. I hope you get some lye soon... I could try teleporting you some


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## nsmar4211

My lowes didn't have lye, but I got it at Tractor Supply. $14 for 2 lbs.... but it's lye 

I'm now having visions of pizza soap and dogs pooping rainbows...and I just got up.... LOL.... after breakfast going to check last nights batch for unmolding


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## Viore

N_A and Gigi, I was laughing about it too! Well, the next morning. In the heat of the moment, I was more mad at myself for leaving the powders within reach of the dogs.

I'm really surprised the dogs haven't gotten into more of my soapy stuff. My weim can reach anything on the counters but she seems to leave soapy dishes and even the soap in the mold alone. Wooden spoons sticking out of a pot are fair game though...

Okay, done hijacking the thread! Back to soapy mistakes!


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## not_ally

I was worried about, this, too Viore, w/r/t to soap batter drips on the floor.  Mine are completely uninterested in ingesting them, which is such of a relief.  I keep my oils on the floor, and there is a lot of licking going on there.  But I don't worry about that b/c it can't hurt them in those amounts


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## raingarden

not_ally said:


> K, you and I both have big Halloween batches in our future ...
> 
> 
> 
> Welcome, Raingarden.  Just checked SSRB for SC Lemon Zest and both people who reviewed it reported exactly the same thing, trouble shot in advance b/c a new FO, soap on a stick, they thought there was no getting around it.  So some comfort there, if only in shared misery


Thanks for the info.  Slept better last night knowing there was probably nothing I could have done to prevent this.  I will live to soap another day.


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## raingarden

not_ally said:


> My mistake for the day - and several to come I guess - is letting myself run out of lye.  I ordered 27 lbs a couple of weeks ago from the Lye Guy, and it appears to be stuck in FedEx limbo, also the LG has not answered my emails, so I am kind of stuck on figuring out how/when to find another quick source (will probably just stick w/NG , going forward, the pricing was v. close, I just wanted to check something new.)
> 
> I did just order 3 lbs via Amazon Prime, but it will not get here until Monday.  That is way, way too long.  They may find me, dead from soaping DT's, at that point.  Hopefully the pups will not get hungry enough to eat me by then


Ally, I just started buying lye from bulkapothecary.com .  They are in Aurora, OH.  Shipping is cheap for me since I live near Pittsburgh.  Not sure to ship to LA.  They are fast and I love the lye, castor oil, palm oil.  Hope this helps.


----------



## jules92207

I still just buy lye at my local ACE, it's not as cheap as bulk but I don't make a buttload of soap all at once so I like knowing only a little lye is exposed to air at a time. It is 3.99 a lb.


----------



## Jstar

What brand do you get at Ace's Jules?

I get mine at Lowes and its $14.00 for 2 lbs...your deal sounds much better


----------



## gigisiguenza

Jstar I paid the same at Lowe's... major rip off but it's what I had available so what ya gonna do :/


----------



## tbeck3579

Snappy, I think it looks like ground beef.  I know a lot of guys would love that.  Was the soap HP?  I tried HP but I didn't like the way it turned out.  I should have took a pic because a ground beef appearance would have been a drastic improvement.


----------



## umeali

Thanks for providing a shoulder to all new soap makers :clap::clap: I am upset I made my milk oats honey soap yesterday but  even after 24 hours it sticky and soft enough ,I do not know what to do now ? I am  upset ,all my soaps that I made yesterday are not good looking or set yet .


----------



## not_ally

Umeali, how soft *are* they, actually gooey or set up Ok but too soft to unmold?  Ie; is there any reason to think that they will not harden acceptably with some more time?  I would give them another day and reassess at that point.  If still super soft then I'd come back and post your formula/process (actually that is always a good idea w/problem soaps, it just saves the round of replies from all of us which will tell you to do that .


----------



## not_ally

Jules, $3.99 is a great price for something locally sourced.  Even for not locally sourced, most of the suppliers charge more than that ("WSP, why is your lye so expensive?") if you are not buying in bulk.


----------



## Jstar

gigisiguenza said:


> Jstar I paid the same at Lowe's... major rip off but it's what I had available so what ya gonna do :/



True that..I used to buy my lye at Essential Depot, but since they have gone up on their prices I wait for sales..until then I buy Roebic brand at Lowes..fairly high, but I avoid shipping charges. so that helps a bit


----------



## umeali

not_ally said:


> Umeali, how soft *are* they, actually gooey or set up Ok but too soft to unmold?  Ie; is there any reason to think that they will not harden acceptably with some more time?  I would give them another day and reassess at that point.  If still super soft then I'd come back and post your formula/process (actually that is always a good idea w/problem soaps, it just saves the round of replies from all of us which will tell you to do that .


Thank you ,but I think it need more time .I checked it . thanks again


----------



## SunWolf

If you have a Rural King, they have lye for $9.99 for two pounds:  http://www.ruralking.com/ropebic-drain-opener-crystal-2-lbs-lye-hd-cry-6.html


----------



## jules92207

Jstar said:


> What brand do you get at Ace's Jules?
> 
> I get mine at Lowes and its $14.00 for 2 lbs...your deal sounds much better



It's Rooto. It is a darn good deal, if I go anywhere else it's at least a dollar more a lb.


----------



## MorpheusPA

I just made more laundry soap (the first pound went over well except "could it bubble a little more").

This one was 55% palm, 40% coconut, 5% castor (in the hopes of getting a few bubbles).  Processing went well, but I probably should have used more than 25% water...

Pouring...the stuff stiffened up while I was pouring it (no color, no scent), and immediately started to crack and (weakly) volcano.  Gel phase flew like a wave through the soap.

If I cared what it looked like, this would be a failed batch.  Since I don't, and it's laundry soap anyway, I just hope it isn't lye heavy or something.


----------



## KristaMarie

Just made a batch scented with orange and litsea EOs and attempted an ITP swirl with paprika. Between sugar turning my lye solution brown and the orange color from the EO, everything looks kinda blended together right now. We'll see if I have any swirls tomorrow, but I'm thinking no...


----------



## spenny92

Not really a mistake, but I had to throw out a batch of honey beer soap today. I've been waiting weeks for it to harden, and it's just doing nothing. I can squidge it between my fingers like fudge, it's such an odd consistency. I think I messed my quantities up as it was such a small batch - so not quite as heartbreaking to throw it out!

Impatiently waiting for the postman to arrive with my soap supplies, I hope! It's been DAYS since I've soaped. I've resorted to making enough mini bath melts and lotion bars to keep a small army well-moisturized for a year - not quite, but you get the point! I now have to head off into the miserable, bucketing down rain to go and feed 100 calves down the farm. Waaah.


----------



## not_ally

OMG, calves, so cute!  100, I can see why you might want to just put a bunch of buckets down, hope they feed themselves, and lie down in the strawy calf-ness until was over.  Know it does not work that way, sorry


----------



## MorpheusPA

My laundry soap has plate tectonics, seismic and volcanic activity, and a molten core.  It's radiating heat like a newly-formed planet and I'm expecting life to evolve soon if comets impact, bringing water.


----------



## not_ally

You are a goof, Morph.  That is all


----------



## jules92207

Seriously Morph, you are a riot! As a geology student in my former years I now need to see this planet birth by photos at least!


----------



## gigisiguenza

MorpheusPA said:


> My laundry soap has plate tectonics, seismic and volcanic activity, and a molten core.  It's radiating heat like a newly-formed planet and I'm expecting life to evolve soon if comets impact, bringing water.



Lmfao oh I seriously need to see pictures of this new planet in formation. Too funny.


----------



## TheDragonGirl

so I got hungry and went to the kitchen to go get food, but my sugar was low and I've been thinking about the new soap challenge all morning..so instead of food I made soap 

It only occured to me that I wasn't in there to do with that when I started leaving the kitchen again, so I put my food in the microwave and turn around-

and my soap has managed to overheat in under five minutes,  it has turned into an angry looking soup instead of soap, so then I had to scoop and chunk and pour that back into a bowl and blend it into submission and glop it back in its mold.

See I had decided that if I needed to get to thick trace and set up really quickly to do the inverted stamp I should use a recipe I knew for sure would accelerate, spicey fo plus goats milk and honey

Normally I put this recipe in the freezer immediately, but I had neglected to this time- and its real danged hot in the kitchen, because we've been canning tomatoes and making apple butter all weekend, and we dont use central air.

although I feel like that combination of scent and sugars probably would have overheated in the freezer, that certainly didn't help at all


----------



## Saponista

Tried out some new sugar plum fragrance. The idea was a deep plum coloured soap with sugar on top. What resulted was a really fast trace, I wasn't expecting it as the fragrance supplier didn't say it was a problem, so I had my colourants ready but added fragrance first to the whole batch. I got soap on a stick immediately, so I then had to wait for it to gel and try and mix one single purple colour in then put the sugar on top. So disappointed


----------



## galaxyMLP

Saponista, that sounds so disappointing! I'd still like to see what it looks like though. The sugar on top sounds like a nice touch. Does it smell good at least?


----------



## not_ally

The deep plum color sounds beautiful, though, Saponista.  It might even be nicer monocolored b/c of that ...


----------



## Saponista

It would have been a lovely colour had I had chance to add all the colourant, as it stands it is a horrible pale lilac. I still put the sugar on top to hide it, but it is the worst soap I have made in a long time. On the up side it does smell nice. I think I will have to mix a deep plum colour into the oils next time then combine everything and stir by hand the just dump it into the mould and put the sugar on top.


----------



## MorpheusPA

jules92207 said:


> Seriously Morph, you are a riot! As a geology student in my former years I now need to see this planet birth by photos at least!



Alas, this recipe hardened in record time (2 hours) and passed the zap test at the same moment.  I had to unmold and cut into bits before it hardened too much to get the knife through--my food processor is small and won't handle large pieces of soap.

I'll grind to bits today and lay it out to dry for a week or so before turning it into six pounds of laundry detergent.


----------



## skayc1

I smelled a FO sample that came with the patchouli EO my friend sent me...was a big mistake, it smelled like a hamster cage & an hour later (even though I left to come to my moms to babysit my niece in the morning when my dad has surgery) I can still smell it...it won't leave my nose..


----------



## Dahila

Buttermilk an rose kaolin, freezing the mold and then putting into freezer for two hours , had done the trick not overheating today )


----------



## nsmar4211

I added up how much soap I need to make for Christmas gifts.... mistake....
What am I thinking....

Everyone's getting less than planned LOL 

Then I counted how much unscented soap I've made and can use...ok got the unscented end covered.   (that was a happy moment).

Then I realized I dont' need to make any more unscented. Sad moment. And I have to wait till sept to make the rest. Sadder moment. Ok, what crazy soap can I try before then hrmmmmm


----------



## zolveria

The Soap behaved badly..

Same recipe
different scent and colorant   and it was soft that my cutter left visible blade cut.  Kitten Love.. is what i said.  smh


----------



## MorpheusPA

skayc1 said:


> I smelled a FO sample that came with the patchouli EO my friend sent me...was a big mistake, it smelled like a hamster cage & an hour later (even though I left to come to my moms to babysit my niece in the morning when my dad has surgery) I can still smell it...it won't leave my nose..



In the future (since the hamster has probably left your nose by now), try smelling a good, strong citrus scent to clear your nasal passages.  It tends to wipe out other scents and leave you with that "lemon fresh" feeling in your nose as well.

Woody scents are particularly famous for hanging around.  I personally like cedar scent, but it can be a bit annoying when it clings.


----------



## kchaystack

skayc1 said:


> I smelled a FO sample that came with the patchouli EO my friend sent me...was a big mistake, it smelled like a hamster cage & an hour later (even though I left to come to my moms to babysit my niece in the morning when my dad has surgery) I can still smell it...it won't leave my nose..



People who depend on their sense of smell (perfume makers, wine QA testers) use coffee as a 'palate cleanser".  And it is a good excuse to make coffee!


----------



## shunt2011

skayc1 said:


> I smelled a FO sample that came with the patchouli EO my friend sent me...was a big mistake, it smelled like a hamster cage & an hour later (even though I left to come to my moms to babysit my niece in the morning when my dad has surgery) I can still smell it...it won't leave my nose..


 
I even keep a container of coffee on my tables at shows.  Once someone smells too many scents they all start to smell the same.


----------



## Stacyspy

Well, I forged ahead and made a 3lb. batch of Cranberry Orange Marmalade soap. I decided to go the standard rate on oil. Everything went fine until fragrance...stirred it in, and it turned yellow. Lemon yellow. Sigh... so the orange is off, and the red is off. Unwrapped today, and the yellow has thankfully mellowed, but the red and orange still looks weird, and the scent, while good, is really, really strong...made my eyes water strong...so worst comes to worst, I'll rebatch, and have a single color soap.


----------



## skayc1

MorpheusPA said:


> try smelling a good, strong citrus scent



what other than citrus do you recommend? I'm allergic to citrus & have to be very careful with it. Coffee sounds like a good Idea.


----------



## shunt2011

skayc1 said:


> what other than citrus do you recommend? I'm allergic to citrus & have to be very careful with it.


 
Just sniff coffee grounds if you have it.  Will clear your smeller for sure.


----------



## traderbren

I love this thread. 

My latest soapy mistake was not today, but I have time to ponder it today.

I made a Castile a few weeks back and put it on a rack with my hubster's home brew ingredients (they are all wrapped in vacuum sealed bags, and MOST are in plastic bins with lids). They are in our basement (we have a dehumidifier down there). I knew we had a mouse, as it seemed to like my wooden soap mold and left evidence. I caught a mouse while on vacation last month. We still have sticky traps and a battery powered mouse trap down there.

I was awakened the other morning by the strangest sound which wound up being my cat with one of the sticky traps stuck to her foot, tearing through the house.

Mousey seems to have eaten through a sealed bag of two-row malt, and left nibble marks in my Castile. I moved it to my work table today, where I've had no incidents with other soaps yet (knock on wood), but I'm trying to figure out my next step.


----------



## Viore

Traderbren, at the summer camp I worked at we had a mouse problem too. One solution was to buy a stainless steel table and put all our food on that. The mice didn't scamper or jump onto that table!


----------



## Littlewifey1

Adding to this post to vent frustration. Forgot to add my castor oil to a lovely sandalwood vanilla pap today. Such a rookie mistake. Worse thing is I checked twice too and missed it both times.


----------



## Mommy

not_ally said:


> Today's involve stamping, I got my beautiful Omar stamps and lots of mistakes in getting it right, stamping is not as straightforward as *^^ Seven makes it seem   I have the planer on standby to skim off layers and try again.
> 
> Mommy, there is probably a *very* good market for your salami soap   I bet there is someone out there happily raking in the cash from naughty soapgoods ...



i mean real salami like deli meat, not a euphemism  meanwhile I just read this and realized that is a BRILLIANT tip for stamping!! Peel the layer off and try again?! Where has this tip been all my life?


----------



## not_ally

Probably you have yet to run across someone who needs as much practice as me


----------



## amd

Unmolded from the new loaf mold the amazing bf made for me. It all looked good until this happened.


----------



## Jstar

Ohh noooo mica line separation


----------



## MrsSpaceship

Was making a small test batch today and had planned on a pink and white ITP to go with the peony FO.  It was beautiful, everything came together perfectly, I could see a lovely pattern emerging.  Then, as I was filling my second to last mold, I looked over on the counter an saw my FO sitting there. *Sigh*  Back into the pot it all went, and my once pretty pink swirl is now reminiscent of Pepto Bismol. :cry:


----------



## gigisiguenza

My Soapy mistake today?

I went to make a pizza in my oven and realized that the silicone mold I had put the leftover green soap batter in had been sitting in the oven, forgotten, for days LOL. Thankfully the little daisy shaped soaps came out fine and the mold was no worse for wear. I kept staring at the tray laughing cuz I'm a dope and almost baked my little leftovers daisy soaps 

<---- is well known for faux pas of this sort LOL


----------



## gigisiguenza

amd said:


> Unmolded from the new loaf mold the amazing bf made for me. It all looked good until this happened.



Ugh that stinks, sorry. This would have surely evoked what my adult kids call "mega mad drunken sailor swearing" if it were me. Can you salvage it somehow?


----------



## amd

I don't know... This is my first line - probably why it got so heavy. I was wondering if I could make a new line if soap between the two? I only cut one bar off the log.


----------



## kumudini

Nowadays I'm bringing my end cuts together by brushing some water on either surface and line them up properly then leave them together. After sometime, they are stuck together. May be you could try that with the one bar you cut and see how it goes. It might be different because there's that mica line, but it doesn't hurt to try.


----------



## nsmar4211

Okay, today's mistake: When using skewers individually in an individual mold for testing, don't put them in before pouring the soap into each spot. Otherwise you end up with batter covered skewers. Prepping ahead is good but THAT doesn't work!!


----------



## TeresaT

I made my first try at the inverted stamp August challenge today.  The batter was too thin when I poured and when I stamped, so I didn't get a good impression.  To make matters worse, I dropped the biscuit cutter into the batter when I was trying to take a photo of it.  Madame butterfingers.  (Or, my **** butterfingers.) Oh well, like Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day."


----------



## amd

Vkumudini said:


> Nowadays I'm bringing my end cuts together by brushing some water on either surface and line them up properly then leave them together. After sometime, they are stuck together. May be you could try that with the one bar you cut and see how it goes. It might be different because there's that mica line, but it doesn't hurt to try.



I tried that with the alcohol tip. So far they are holding. Curious to see if they hold up after a good cure and into using them. Figured there was no harm in trying it!


----------



## nsmar4211

Could've been a bad mistake, but was ok....

Took off my gloves and then decided to poke the top of the soap with fingers in the mold to make a fancier top. Ummm you took off your gloves dummy! Oddly enough, no damage done to my fingers or the top of my foot I earlier dripped some raw batter on.... either it was further along than I thought or I have tough skin LOL. Note to self: No using fingers.......no.


----------



## CTAnton

Just wanted to share and alert you fellow soapers...
Several months ago in the local ethnic market they had what was labelled pomace oil for super cheap. I stocked up needless to say.It's clearly labelled pomace oil and the low cost I attributed to what a small chain of grocery stores can offer in terms of price.Well, as the old adage says, "If it's too good to be true, chances are it isn't".....try for 95% soybean oil with 5% extra virgin olive oil added...here I thought I was somehow protected by the proper labeling laws in this country. I guess it's another adage that applies here...buyer beware.
On another note, I'm sure I'm not unlike a lot of you with a plethora of soaps at my bathroom sink. Some are bars, some are scraps of ends of log molds.
So there's this quarter inch scrap at the top of the pile that I grabbed the other day.I think you know where this is going...it's fabulous!!! Great lather, leaves my skin feeling great. And I have no idea what soap batch it came from without probably an hour trying to match it up with hopefully the rest of the batch curing...I will say I probably checked that batch at the 6 to 8 week curing mark and wasn't as impressed as I am now...which only goes to show; some things do improve with age!!
Soap on!:wink:


----------



## dibbles

I've been wanting to make a rainbow swirled soap (like this http://www.modernsoapmaking.com/tutorial-rainbow-elemental-swirl-soap/). So I came up with a recipe and to test trace, made a one pound batch. It seemed to be slow enough, so decided to go ahead and try it. Recalculated the recipe for my log mold. I decided to weigh my soft oils and water, and mix the colors the night before so I'd be all ready to go in the morning. Okay, time to make soap. Weigh the lye and add to the water, and started weighing the hard oils. Hmmm, something is not right here - and then I noticed I had put the sheet for the 1 pound recipe on top of the other. Added more lye to the water and all was going well. I was so worried about the batter getting thick I poured it all too soon and the colors all kind of ran together, leaving very little white. I was expecting clown puke. Cut it today. It's kind of pastel clown puke. Bummer. It smells good though.


----------



## Mommy

lol pastel clown puke! 
I thought I'd stop by with pictures of my salami soap from page 1- ignore the stamp and just appreciate the salami:


----------



## shunt2011

Made soap on a stick then tried to save it.  Plopped into my mold and into the oven set at 170 turned it off after 10 minutes. Went to check it after 30 and it had overheated. Back into the pot and hp'd it. I now have 16 bars of really ugly soap. At least the other 4 turned out.


----------



## ArtisanDesigns

I thought I would let you guys see how my soaping failure from the other day progressed from bad to worse
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yJ18sDYmvg[/ame]


----------



## lionprincess00

I love everyone's mistakes! It reminds us no one is free of imperfections (concerning soap at least ;-))


----------



## ArtisanDesigns

To me it tells how much effort we put into research and development of recipes. Lots of effort here LOL


----------



## Deedles

I have a very good friend who's been teaching me to make soap. We usually do it at her house across town because it's just more fun with a friend! She's in the process of moving so on Saturday we decided to soap all day and try to use up the rest of her supplies so she doesn't have so much to move. That was her excuse....like we needed one, right? First we grated the rest of the Castile soap we made a couple months ago and make laundry soap and some liquid soap. 

Since she's moving I decided to make my next batch of goat milk soap all by myself. We've always tag teamed it with one of us melting the oils and one mixing the lye so I wanted to do it all to get used to the timing by myself. On top of that I had gotten a free sample of some grape purple oxide and some TD so I wanted to do a white and purple spoon swirl. Now, being new to all this I've read so much from so many places my brain is full of soapy stuff with no memory of where I read what. I had it in my brain that I needed 1 tsp of colorant ppo, so for my recipe I needed 3 tsp of color. So following a video I had seen recently, got 3 small cups with 1 Tbl of glycerine in each. I then mixed 1 tsp TD in one, and 1 tsp grape in each of the other 2 and mixed it well with my nifty little mini mixer. It was so pretty! When the soap got to a light trace, I seperated it into 3 equal bowls, added the colors and mixed well with a whisk then the SB. So good so far except....it wasn't purple! It was a really intense dark blue...kinda like blueberries! I had intended to layer it purple, white, purple but for some reason added the white first. So it ended up white, purple, purple. I did the spoon swirl thing and was so proud of myself...it looked great! So into the oven while we took a break and started the clean up and visiting. After a couple of hours I needed to get home. Ooh look...it's changing colors! Now it looks like raspberries!

This is the second time I've used the 5lb loaf mold so I didn't think anything about moving it, it was OK the last time! Of course, last time I moved it it had been set up about 4 hours. Sure enough when I put it on the floor of my truck I noticed some movement. I was thinking I sure hope I didn't have to slam on my brakes! Well, it didn't take slamming on the brakes, just your normal slowly stopping and going around curves does some strange sloshing in a loaf mold! As I watched the top of that loaf undulate and finally slop over the edge a bit, I could just imagine what it was going to look like. On top of being so dark as to look almost black instead of a nice medium blue/purple. 

As I unmolded it on Sunday I was surprised to see some definite streaks so was still hopeful that maybe a bar or two would look OK, even if the top was a bit caved in along the middle. I sliced it today and was really pleasantly surprised, I had swirls...of sorts!

After seeing how dark it was, it did cross my mind that maybe I had used too much color powder so I went to the website where it came from and the only thing I could find as far as directions on how to use it was a note that if the lather wasn't white, you used too much! I had a few pieces of the 'spillage' so this morning I lathered it up and sure enough, blue bubbles! But it smells devine! So more research is defintely in order! AND notes taken instead of depending on my rotten memory!







Oh, and upon closer look, I noticed some...graininess on the dge of some of the white parts. I don't know what made that, maybe the glycerin?


----------



## Jstar

Oh my AD..thats terrible for you  ....however I had to laff a bit because I could very well imagine that being me.

@Deedles, those are really bright blue and look awesome..too bad about the blue bubbles tho..I have some that are purple...yup...purple bubbles...I used a bar to wash my truck..very bad idea since I was wearing a white t-shirt. 

Oh and that looks like glycerin rivers and maybe some TD speckle, but I think it looks cool myself


----------



## gigisiguenza

Lol Deedles, I feel your pain. It sure is pretty though. Truck soap. I love it. LOL


----------



## cgawlik77

Hey all.. I know its been a verrrrrry long time since I posted,  but we all know how life is.. thought I would share my first EPIC FAIL. Happened yesterday, after almost 2 years soaping.  

It started with high anxiety.  My biological sister is at my house trying to get her life together ( meanwhile turning mine upside down) what better to do than ease frustration than make soap? 
Mistake one.. soaping while frustrated
I need some shave soap..
Mistake 2.. not finding the thread I based my SUPER AWESOME SHAVE SOAP OFF OF, trying to do it from memory
I had the recipe wrote down how hard can it be to remember the steps I took... UGH
I weigh everything out.. mix my koh with water
Mix my naoh with ice cubes
Go back to my koh... the freaking container is leaking.. (normally don't follow the "rules" and mix on top of the counter.. this time THANKFULLY I had it in the sink... WHOO HOO GO ME
So I pour it over into another measuring cup, weigh it.. im 50g light.. I think ok I can fix it.... YEAH RIGHT
I only have 8 or so grams of koh left so I add a bit of water dump the remaining koh in and just go for it..
Yep I guess that was uber mistake 3.. 
5 hours cook time on high in the crock, I still have zappy soap.. 
I had added more water, more oil.. then more water and more oil.. I finally gave up, said F it. Plopped it in my mold, and went to bed.. wish I had had a bottle of wine to end it with.. 
I don't even know if I can attempt to rebatch it or what.. I don't know that I want to... someone please come get my gremlins.. I don't like them


And the gremlin remains.,
Today's batch
Lard/coconut/castor
Mix everything,  seperate it out.. add my pink/purple mica I already had mixed.. instant curdles.. only in that portion.. my white was fine.. grrrrrrrrrrr. I have stick blended till my sb got super hot.. guess I should put the soapy stuff up for a bit, until I get my nerves in check.. but then what do I do for self therapy


----------



## umeali

I made another batch of soap two days before but still it is very soft ,I am wonder what  I have done wrong ? The remaining part in a small container is bit  harder than the big one in my wooden mold.I used shea butter very first time  ,Iam attaching the picture where you can see the jelly type yellow soap ,The lid made this .
I used soadium lactate also to harden it .
My recipe was 500 gms soap with almond oil ,coconut oil,caster oil ,bees wax and shea butter .it was exfoliating bar so just added orange peel 1 tea spoon .


----------



## not_ally

Umeali, what does the soap look/feel like under the plastic wrap (it looks like you have some on top?)  Is it sweating?  If you can post your recipe, all the amounts, for everything - you always should if you have questions - maybe someone will have useful advice.  It is hard to even guess, otherwise.  

It looks like it might be fine/good if you take off the plastic and let it dry, but it hard to tell without knowing what went into it and what your procedure was.  I always like your posts and that you are so good about doing them even though you have to translate in your head (my parents are non-native English speakers, as well), I know that it takes more time, but I think it is worth it!


----------



## umeali

not_ally said:


> Umeali, what does the soap look/feel like under the plastic wrap (it looks like you have some on top?)  Is it sweating?  If you can post your recipe, all the amounts, for everything - you always should if you have questions - maybe someone will have useful advice.  It is hard to even guess, otherwise.
> 
> It looks like it might be fine/good if you take off the plastic and let it dry, but it hard to tell without knowing what went into it and what your procedure was.  I always like your posts and that you are so good about doing them even though you have to translate in your head (my parents are non-native English speakers, as well), I know that it takes more time, but I think it is worth it!



Not ally thanks a lot for your nice words ,the soap is looking brown but where the lid touched it it is uneven and yellow jelly like substance is visible which is even after 4 days is still soft .
I used 
50 g almond oil
175g coconut oil 
175 g olive oil 
50 g caster oil 
20 g bees wax 
30 g shea butter 
1 g sodium lactate ,orange peel .
only the sides of molds are sealed with plastic wrap ,its a flash of my cell fone .
Plz some one help me ,how to harden it now?


----------



## not_ally

Umeali, I just did the math in my head, so there could be some mistakes.  That percentage of beeswax seems a bit high from what I have read, but I would think that would make the soap harder (and harder to work with), not softer.  Hopefully someone else who knows more about it will chip in.  The only other thing I can think of is maybe reduce the castor a bit?  

10% is quite high, although usually not enough to make it that soft (4 days to unmold is a long time).  I am wondering if there is something in your process or in the environment there - high humidity or something - that is making the soap wonky in general, it seems like you have had a consistent problem with the soaps hardening?


----------



## shunt2011

You said the lid touched where you are having the problem, could it perhaps be a reaction between the wood and the soap?   Just a guess.  Maybe something in the wood reacting with the soap?


----------



## umeali

not_ally said:


> Umeali, I just did the math in my head, so there could be some mistakes.  That percentage of beeswax seems a bit high from what I have read, but I would think that would make the soap harder (and harder to work with), not softer.  Hopefully someone else who knows more about it will chip in.  The only other thing I can think of is maybe reduce the castor a bit?
> 
> 10% is quite high, although usually not enough to make it that soft (4 days to unmold is a long time).  I am wondering if there is something in your process or in the environment there - high humidity or something - that is making the soap wonky in general, it seems like you have had a consistent problem with the soaps hardening?



Again  thanks for   a quick reply,this was  my first large batch 500 g .I told you earlier the extra soap I put in a small container is  bit harder than this soap .The soaps I made before did not  had this problem except honey oat milk soap  that took 4-5 days to harden .


----------



## umeali

shunt2011 said:


> You said the lid touched where you are having the problem, could it perhaps be a reaction between the wood and the soap?   Just a guess.  Maybe something in the wood reacting with the soap?


Shunt when I was removing the lid after 24 hours it slipped and touched the soap and from that place it is yellow looking but the other part where nothing touched color is brownish .I touched the yellow part which is creamy even to day I checked both ,soap in a small container is much better now though soft but not as soft as it was 2 days back but the soap in mold is the same creamy  and soft and even the part  of the soap on the lid is as creamy .What should I do now?
wait for few more days?
or throw it ?
What people do if they face something wrong ?As most of people are here new like me .


----------



## Obsidian

I wonder if it overheated a bit and started to separate on top? I would toss it in a crock pot and rebatch.


----------



## not_ally

Umeali, pretty much the universal advice, unless there is clearly something wrong w/the recipe (I did not check the lye/water, I am assuming you did that carefully, but otherwise yours looks OK) or if it oozing like crazy/does not start to dry after a few days, is to let the soap sit for as long as you need to unmold (within reason). 

Unmold when you can, then check it for zapping/too much lye.  If it is OK in that respect, put it aside and then just check it every once in a while to see how it is doing.  Sometimes a soap which seems awful right after you make it can be v., v. nice after a cure.  Don't throw it away.

If it is lye heavy after waiting for long enough - the zap test just means touching a piece of the bar w/your tongue, zapping is the feeling you get if you do that w/a battery - then you may need to give up and rebatch, but that is a whole different issue.   I don't like doing it b/c it is more work and the soap is not as pretty afterwards.  W/your soap, the way it looks right now and sounds, I would just wait and see what happens.

ETA: cross post w/Obsidian.  That is the problem w/helpful people, you do get a lot of opinions, and sometimes they vary    But they are generally good/worth thinking about, if they are from a regular here.


----------



## umeali

Thanks for all replies I must wait for one more week and then try to learn how to re batch it  and interesting thing is that ,soap which stuck with lid is as creamy.:think::think::think:


----------



## TwystedPryncess

This story isn't from today either, but it was a pretty phenomenal fail. I'd decided to work with 3 colors, a behaving FO, a slow-moving recipe, and play! So that's what I did! And it came out beautifully! So beautifully, that I was so amazed, and impressed, and in awe. I was like, wow, I dinked around forever with that, no soap thickening after that first light trace, I plinked and plopped my colors here and there and hand mixed them and wishy-washed etc...got all my mess in the mold and happily went to finish off to CPOP.

Then something Happened.

I checked on my CPOP'ing soap about 20 minutes in and noticed that oils were oozing out from the mold all into the pan I had it set on! All my lovely barely traced soap had just come un-traced and was separating and flowing gookily about, becoming liquid in the mold. Hmm.

Now, I'm madder than a wet cat that all my dinking around has for some as of yet unidentified reason been all for naught, but there is no time right now to be mad as a wet cat, so I yanked it out of the oven and tossed it all into the crockpot, dripping oils from the pan and all (Cause we need those too, right?)  At this point I'm just not wanting to waste ten or fifteen dollars of materials if at all possible.  Spatula blended the mess back together,in a panic added a few tablespoons of water (in hindsight, now knowing that was a total no no) then stick blended it to a thick trace this time, my beautiful brick red, dusk yellow and deep black all turning into...a murky glop. Sigh. 

But it worked. After some time in the crock pot, I made soap. I determined later that either I didn't light trace, and just emulsified, or I false traced. Cleaning up my crock pot told me I made soap, zap testing my spatula told me I made soap, but it was soooooofffft. I dumped it into a mold and thought 'Well, soft hardens up over time'.  I saved it, it's soap, and I have mechanics. They are like the Mikeys who eat anything---they will wash their hands with anything.

I am still waiting on that mess to harden up. I cut it into small bars two days ago so that the middles could cure out. The ends though, about an inch in on each side, are good, and it did make a lovely soap--wash wise. Somehow. I also had added some walnut shell powder as exfoliant to it, so it should be a pretty good soapy fail for the boys to use, although I expect it to be used up quickly once I turn it loose. Pretty sure I did this like, 3 months ago, and it's still moist in the middle--as in it clung a bit to the soap knife when I cut it. 

I did let myself cheer in happiness that I saved the materials, and then be madder than a wet cat that my playing around went for naught. Then, I promptly made a duplicate batch. That batch turned out just fine. Yay!


----------



## Viore

Yesterday I was adding tumeric infused oil and orange powder infused oil to make a yellow & orange soap. I shook up the mason jar of orange oil, measure out a tablespoon, and added it to half of my batch. Shook up the tumeric jar and the lid flew off, splattering me and the kitchen with bright yellow oil! I cleaned everything up as best as I could right then, and I'll have to scrub down the counter some more when I get home from work. Definitely don't want yellow stained counters!


----------



## galaxyMLP

Oh No Viore! That sounds like a nooooot fun mess... 

I had a soapy mistake yesterday. Soaped a little too hot and found out that my "well behaved" FO was not well behaved at all and causes acceleration/ heating... I'll cut the soap when I get home. I sorta just plopped/spread it in there. It had the consistency of coconut butter spread that I've had before (the sweetened kind, sooo yummy!)

I added my picture in! It doesn't look as bad as I thought from the cut. You can see where it thickened right away and didn't let me add color though. I'm not getting this FO again even though it smells good and sticks. 

This soap was my inspire me game soap.


----------



## spenny92

So, I made an OMH batch a few days ago, one which I've made a good few times before without a hitch. I'm sitting here on the couch chilling out and reading some old threads on here, when I come across photos of someone's OMH soap. BAM - a lightbulb just went off in my head signalling that I forgot to add the ground oats to that soap! Annoying mistake, but at least it wasn't something really crucial that I missed out.


----------



## traderbren

I have been out of face lotion for a few days, so I had a moment before dinner and started weighing things out. Same recipe I have used in the past, but I want to add lemongrass EO to it, and lavender hydrosol. I added my water to my heated oils, and realized my ewax must not have been all the way melted. Too late now, so I blended til it cooled a bit, took it downstairs to add the cooldown phase and realized I didn't mark how much lemongrass eo to add. Poured a little, decided it needed more, poured a little more. Moment of insanity, I guess.

I washed my face last night and went to try it out before my shower. A few minutes in, and I felt like Gollum crying out "It burns us!" as my face was on fire. Promptly washed my face well, and dumped the lotion down the drain.

Today I am remaking my lotion, with proper lemongrass eo amounts noted.


----------



## hlee

I made a batch of pumpkin soap with pumpkin the other day . I forgot to watch for overheating and next thing I knew it had a big crack on top. I threw it in the freezer quick and of course now I have a partial gel soap. Just the edges didn't gel so luckily it doesn't look to bad and it still smells great.
I have not had a chance to make much soap lately but have made 4 batches in the last couple of days. I feel a little rusty.


----------



## TwystedPryncess

I am teaching myself mica lines now.  So of course,  I screwed that up.  Pictures later.


----------



## JayJay

This is my soapy mistake.

Not sure what caused this. I am guessing that I got it too hot in the oven. 

100%OO


----------



## gigisiguenza

Did the whole process of separating out and coloring, pouring, getting everything all done - only to realize I totally forgot to measure out my FO and add it LOL. So even if it comes out well it won't smell yummy. What a blonde moment LOL.


----------



## Sonya-m

JayJay said:


> This is my soapy mistake.
> 
> Not sure what caused this. I am guessing that I got it too hot in the oven.
> 
> 100%OO




Was it a silicone mould? I know other soapers have gotten the bubble effect from silicone


----------



## jojosmama

My soapy mistake...

Yesterday I made a batch of salt bars and about an hour after I poured into the mold I realized that I hadn't put in the salt  

I made another batch with salt - that time I kept saying salt over and over again so that I wouldn't forget.


----------



## lionprincess00

I too would say silicone mold too hot. Cheaper silicone does this at lower temps. I've he broken in good silicone do this afterone super hot session....then it tends to do it every time in the same spot. 
Looks like pock marks from here, so that's why I too suggest heat + mold.


----------



## JayJay

Sonya and lionprincess:

Yes it was a silicone mold and my first time putting it in the oven. I baked it at 170 degrees F for about 40 minutes. I wanted to avoid partial gel. 

I was also getting dressed for date night at the same time. I kept running back to the oven but it looked like nothing was happening for the longest time. I probably left it unattended for too long. 

Thanks for the help! I will be more careful next time.


----------



## gigisiguenza

Unmolded the soap I made last night and am staring at it wondering if I like the way it looks LOL. It was my first time using a silicone loaf mold and I struggled to unmold it. It was not a nice clean unmolding, lemme tell ya. It peeled away from the sides in an unpleasant way that left the surface looking sorta glue-y. I had already begun peeling it off, so figured in for a penny, in for a pound, and finished removing it.

So I've got a less than smooth kinda glue-y looking unmolded loaf, cut into bars, with no FO cuz I forgot to add it when I was making the batter, with crooked stripes (the batter was too thick when I poured thanks to over enthusiastic SBing LOL) with colors that aren't quite what I expected.

I'm too tired to get up and take pics right now of this quirky looking batch (just got in from a 13 hour shift about thirty minutes ago) but once I've slept some, I'll take a pic and show you the poor little things LOL.

My sincere hope is that the cure will pretty them up some, color wise, and a good planing will fix the lack of smooth sides once the bars firm up more.

I'm not sure I like silicone molds if they make gloppy sided loaves that need fixing later. Not sure what I did wrong in the unmolding. I was afraid to leave it in too long and have the loaf firm up too hard to cut cleanly. 

I had such visions of loveliness when I planned this batch LOL


----------



## gigisiguenza

Yanno why I love this thread? 

Because it reminds me that things don't always work out as planned and to not be so critical of my mistakes


----------



## LazyUmbrella

I'm preparing for my second farmers' market (yay!) this Sunday and while I'm short on stock, I did have a new batch of 10 soap bars that was curing for about 6 weeks.
Finally I get to share with the world my perfect soap from perfect me!

Even though I am perfect, I always test my soap with a zap test as well as a shower test. I don't need to because I'm perfect, but I do anyway.

So I do the zap test, and no za... wait a minute what was that? Let's try again. It's probably my electric personality that's throwing me off. 
I try again. So no _zap _per se, but I have to admit, it does feel like a _zing_!

I read up on AlchemyAndAshes' Zap Test Guide, and read about how I should rerun my numbers in a lye calculator. How silly. Why would I do that? I'm perfect! I do things perfectly the first time. In fact, let me run my numbers in the SoapCalc tool just to show you how perfect I am.

So I run the numbers and get a NaOH content of 127.9 g (1000 g batch, 5% SF). I then open my notes to see how much NaOH I used in the actual batch. I also ask myself why I'm wasting my precious time since I'm sure I'll see the same number staring right back at me. See that? Right there: 137.9 g. Just as I thou...

Wait, what? I used 137.9 g in the batch? Bu.. but that's *10 grams more* than needed! That's a *minus 5%* superfat!
That's not perfect! That's not perfect at all!!

So I just discovered that I added too much lye to my soap. 6 weeks later. And one week before I was supposed to bring this to the farmers' market.
While I always double and triple check my numbers, I must have done something wrong. Maybe my fingers slipped and I typed in a 3 instead of a 2? Who knows.

What I do know is that I can't do much with this soap other than give the trash collectors more to throw into the truck.
And I'll have even fewer batches to display at my table. 

I know - maybe I'll sell air soap - Ladies and Gents, it's the latest trend all the young kids are raving about - why use real soap when you can use air soap? I guarantee it's 100% hypoallergenic and is so mild you'll feel like you haven't used any soap at all!


----------



## kumudini

My soap calc numbers for lye are not exactly true as I've been adding CA to my soaps and manually calculate the extra lye to be added. You could have done that but didn't note that down, may be not. Even my super lye Castile wasn't zappy after 4 weeks and that's a 40% lye excess. 
Are you sure that was a zap you felt? If yes, you could just give it more time to mellow out.


----------



## LazyUmbrella

Vkumudini said:


> My soap calc numbers for lye are not exactly true as I've been adding CA to my soaps and manually calculate the extra lye to be added. You could have done that but didn't note that down, may be not. Even my super lye Castile wasn't zappy after 4 weeks and that's a 40% lye excess.
> Are you sure that was a zap you felt? If yes, you could just give it more time to mellow out.



CA = Citric acid?
No, I didn't add that. No excuses for me!

To be honest I'm not sure that it was a zap, but I'm not 100% certain that it isn't zappy, so I'm erring on the side of caution.

Maybe I won't throw it, and will keep it for research purposes. But I definitely won't sell it or give it away...


----------



## dibbles

I decided to make a batch of salt bars. Everything was fine, but I needed to warm my oils up a little bit. My soaping space is in the basement, but I have to go up to the kitchen for the microwave. On my way up, I caught my rubber soled slipper bottom on a stair tread. Slopped a good amount of the oils on not one, not two, but 7 carpeted stairs (carpet is only about 6 months old). Only 2 stairs got the worst of it. So I spent the better part of an hour cleaning that up. Of course, the lye water is waiting patiently. So I remeasured and melted the oils and went on my merry way. Time to add the salt, and as I'm pouring it in, clumps!! I noticed them when I weighed it to be sure I had enough, and knew there would be time to break up the clumps while waiting for the lye to cool. So who knows what I'll have. DH hasn't seen it yet.

I do have a question, though. Not all of the original oil spilled. Since the oils were stirred together before any spilled (80% coconut/20%olive), can I assume that this is the ratio of what I have left and still use it? Or should I just toss it?

And I have jury duty.


----------



## LazyUmbrella

NOT GUILTY!
(sorry, just practising my jury-speak)

First of all, if you are working with less oil than what you started with, *you need to make sure that you used a lot less of the lye solution *as well!

How confident are you with the mixing? If you melted the CO thoroughly and mixed it well, then I guess the spilled oil should also be an 80-20 CO-OO ratio, and the remaining oil should also be an 80-20 ratio.

Just for fun, let's experiment: Let's say that you wanted to make a 1000 g batch (10% SF) and lost 200 g of oil in the spill:

- 1000 g batch of 80% CO, 20% OO, with 10% SF = 156.32 g NaOH originally required
- Let's say 200 g of OO fell out, so 800 g of 100% CO with 10% SF = 131.94 g NaOH required
- Let's say 200 g of CO fell out, so 800 g of 25% OO, 75% CO with 10% SF = 123.34 g NaOH required
- Let's say 200 g of an 80-20 ratio of CO-OO fell out, so 800 g of 20% OO (160 g), 80% CO (640 g) with 10% SF = 125.06 g NaOH required

Based on these quick calculations, in this example, i would think that as long as you use less than 123.34 grams of NaOH (considering a 800 g batch), you're OK regardless of what type of oil fell out.


----------



## LazyUmbrella

_Based on these quick calculations, in this example, i would think that as long as you use less than 123.34 grams of NaOH (considering a 800 g batch), you're OK regardless of what type of oil fell out._

Actually, that assumes you want to maintain a 10% SF.
You can use up to 137.04 g of NaOH for the example above and still remain in the superfat zone - though with that much CO, might make a very drying soap!


----------



## Susie

LazyUmbrella said:


> CA = Citric acid?
> No, I didn't add that. No excuses for me!
> 
> To be honest I'm not sure that it was a zap, but I'm not 100% certain that it isn't zappy, so I'm erring on the side of caution.
> 
> Maybe I won't throw it, and will keep it for research purposes. But I definitely won't sell it or give it away...



Don't toss it.  Hold on to it for 3-4 months.  That extra lye will eventually go away, and you will have good soap.


----------



## dibbles

LazyUmbrella said:


> NOT GUILTY!
> (sorry, just practising my jury-speak)
> 
> First of all, if you are working with less oil than what you started with, *you need to make sure that you used a lot less of the lye solution *as well!
> 
> How confident are you with the mixing? If you melted the CO thoroughly and mixed it well, then I guess the spilled oil should also be an 80-20 CO-OO ratio, and the remaining oil should also be an 80-20 ratio.
> 
> Just for fun, let's experiment: Let's say that you wanted to make a 1000 g batch (10% SF) and lost 200 g of oil in the spill:
> 
> - 1000 g batch of 80% CO, 20% OO, with 10% SF = 156.32 g NaOH originally required
> - Let's say 200 g of OO fell out, so 800 g of 100% CO with 10% SF = 131.94 g NaOH required
> - Let's say 200 g of CO fell out, so 800 g of 25% OO, 75% CO with 10% SF = 123.34 g NaOH required
> - Let's say 200 g of an 80-20 ratio of CO-OO fell out, so 800 g of 20% OO (160 g), 80% CO (640 g) with 10% SF = 125.06 g NaOH required
> 
> Based on these quick calculations, in this example, i would think that as long as you use less than 123.34 grams of NaOH (considering a 800 g batch), you're OK regardless of what type of oil fell out.




Thank you for your reply. I am sure the oils were well mixed. I will probably just make another batch of salt bars (20% SF) and recalculate the lye once I weigh the remaining oil. Still too mad at my klutzy self to do it yet.


----------



## amd

Made a batch of green tea honey apricot soap. Decided to use real green tea - completely forgetting that it will turn poop brown as soon as the lye hits it. Hoping that it won't cure as bad as it looks.


----------



## TwystedPryncess

Yeap,  did that once!  Totally threw a wrench in that design plan!  It became a poop brown soap loaf fragranced in an FO my fella had picked out.  Least he got his soap.  Haha.


----------



## kumudini

dibbles said:


> I decided to make a batch of salt bars. Everything was fine, but I needed to warm my oils up a little bit. My soaping space is in the basement, but I have to go up to the kitchen for the microwave. On my way up, I caught my rubber soled slipper bottom on a stair tread. Slopped a good amount of the oils on not one, not two, but 7 carpeted stairs (carpet is only about 6 months old). Only 2 stairs got the worst of it. So I spent the better part of an hour cleaning that up. Of course, the lye water is waiting patiently. So I remeasured and melted the oils and went on my merry way. Time to add the salt, and as I'm pouring it in, clumps!! I noticed them when I weighed it to be sure I had enough, and knew there would be time to break up the clumps while waiting for the lye to cool. So who knows what I'll have. DH hasn't seen it yet.
> 
> I do have a question, though. Not all of the original oil spilled. Since the oils were stirred together before any spilled (80% coconut/20%olive), can I assume that this is the ratio of what I have left and still use it? Or should I just toss it?
> 
> And I have jury duty.



My soap making area situation is similar to yours dibbles, I worry about tripping but hubby won't let me have an induction cook top in the basement even though I have plenty of space. So I just have to be real careful for now. 
I think you got good advise on what to do with remaining oils. I would definitely not throw it, if not soap, you could use it in a body butter as winter is not very far.

I had a small scare today. I was using my PVC 'mold' today and I had traced my single color batter pretty thick. So, planned on stopping after pouring a little, tap it down, pour again, tap again and so on, so I won't end up with big air bubbles inside. After the initial pour, I started smacking it on the floor with my face right over it and, after a particularly rough tap, the batter came flying on my face. Lucky me, had the bigger goggles on, immediately ran to the sink and washed it off. After that, just finished the pour in one go, capped and smacked it real hard. Hoping for the best.


----------



## not_ally

That is scary, K, I am glad you were wearing big goggles.  Is everything OK? Your post and dibbles', they are good examples of why anyone w/good sense is careful not to let lye batter approach anything they do not want to lose, like your eyes/vision.  

I have reconciled myself to little batter dots/burns here and there b/c I cannot figure out how to entirely shroud myself while soaping   But the eyes are non-negotiable.


----------



## kumudini

Thank you n_a, I could wash the splash really quickly, so no burning or damage that I could see.
I always wear my goggles. I had bought two pairs initially, not knowing which one would be a good fit, ended up liking the simple looking and cheap one, but it's not a closed one, I don't get all sweaty in my face. But today luckily I could only find the bigger ones, less comfortable but more protection I guess, the batter stopped right at the edge of my goggles. 

All my master batched lye is in the basement, on the floor in a far corner, so hopefully no lye spills for me.


----------



## dibbles

I'm glad everything is OK. So many things can "happen" when soaping, even when doing something for the 100th time. Thanks for posting. And thanks for your reply to my question as well.


----------



## nsmar4211

I don't care how tempting that drop of honey is that spilled when you are measuring it out for soap...do NOT lick your finger. NO. BAD. Because said (gloved) finger has soap batter on it. I don't care that you cannot see it and the glove looks dry and you checked. It's there. BLEHHHHH. I did learn I can turn into an instant drool factory! Good thing I like the taste of vinegar. A mouth rinse with a vinegar chaser and tongue is fine. Pride is a tad injured though. Note to self: No more soaping when hungry. Eat first!


----------



## commoncenz

I soaped today. I shouldn't have. First of all, my uncle passed yesterday and there was traffic through the house all day. (No, not "that" uncle. His brother). I had been repairing the deck and it rained suddenly. So, I wasn't able to sweep up the sawdust. Of course, it seemed like people went out of their way to step clear across the deck and track sawdust into the house. I confess that I was pretty much ticked about that.

Cleaned up after the family when they left. Still kind of ticked. So, since I hadn't soaped in over a week, "why not try out that Autumn Wreath from The Candlemaker's Store?". I opened the bottle and .... WHOOOEEEE ... smelled like moldy leaves and candy corn. I hated it. I got a headache. And yet, I was going to soap with it because ... well ... I'm stubborn. 

Got all the way to mixing in my lye water. Then stick blended too much and the batter started thickening as I was mixing in the colors. So, I started pouring it into the mold as fast as I could before it got too thick to swirl. (Yeah, right). I attempted a butterfly swirl anyway. However, it seemed like I was pulling my gear tie through quicksand, so I abandoned the swirl and tried to salvage what I could.

This will be an ugly soap. 

Oh well, at least I've progressed enough to know that it will be ugly because of the mistake I made (stick blending too long), rather than something inherent in the ingredients, temperature, etc.


----------



## Wyredgirl

Not my mistake but, told my hubby that I was soaping and was mixing lye outside, he let my dog out who promptly took a lick of the lye water. 

Ugh called my vet who advised inducing vomiting with hydrogen peroxide...little girl is fine, but her tongue is well...



We have a system now of "when I soap I make sure to take care of the dogs" and no lye outside, it all is done in the kitchen with the door open now.


----------



## not_ally

Oh my god, that is so scary.  I cannot imagine how I would feel if I saw  that on one of my monsters.  They never come into my soaping area, but  this makes me want to make sure that they never, ever can.

ETA:  Like Patrick, I so hope she gets better soon.  Also, I did not  mean to imply that I thought you are careless, I do not think that you  are.  Your post just made me worried that *I* am, without realizing it.


----------



## commoncenz

Poor pup. That looks painful. Hope she gets back to 100% quickly!


----------



## galaxyMLP

Oh my! I hope your pup heals swiftly!! That is very scary!


----------



## Wyredgirl

She is doing well, just drooly, definitely a lesson for hubby, he didn't understand why I got "suited up" for soap making. And she is his baby. We had a long talk about dog safety and the reason I don't let them in the kitchen when I'm working. He assumed it was because of dog hair... I'm just thankful she didn't spill it on herself and that we were able to act quickly. 

I've gotten hot soap on me (HP in the gel phase) and it burned but I can't imagine straight lye water.


----------



## nsmar4211

Poor pup! Out of curiosity, was it hot lye water? Wondering why she would slurp hot water that stinks...or had it cooled?


----------



## Wyredgirl

It was probably around 100* 

I use DW ice and by the time I was finished with her my water was around 80. But this of course had to happen when my vet was closed (luckily I have his cell). 

She is a lab and if you know labs they  put their mouths in everything! 

She is doing better just very drooly


----------



## not_ally

Wyredgirl said:


> We had a long talk about dog safety and the reason I don't let them in the kitchen when I'm working. He assumed it was because of dog hair....



Dog hair, pshaw!  I remember posting about this at some point,  I pretty much assume all my soap has some kind of doggie dna in it (I don't sell, though) and EG jokingly suggested it was like using silk.  Weirdly, that made me feel better


----------



## Wyredgirl

Lol! I think it's funny because I got a hair in my water I was putting lye in, the lye completely dissolved the (organic) hair.  But yes maybe a felted soap with the name "hair o the dog!" And a cigar and cognac smell...


----------



## not_ally

Wyredgirl said:


> Lol! I think it's funny because I got a hair in my water I was putting lye in, the lye completely dissolved the (organic) hair.  But yes maybe a felted soap with the name "hair o the dog!" And a cigar and cognac smell...



Add a picture of a luxe leather studded chair, you could call it "Gentlemans' Club".


----------



## Wyredgirl

not_ally said:


> Add a picture of a luxe leather studded chair, you could call it "Gentlemans' Club".




Lol YES!


----------



## nsmar4211

Hrm that means any hair in my soaps didn't fall in the lye...LOL. Glad the pup is doing better!

My soapy mistake: trusting the stick blender to stay standing upright. *cringes*. Well, it still works but I think I bend the shaft slightly because it leans when standing up. And I know better.


----------



## dibbles

I made this, and then totally messed it up. :sad: 
Added cut picture. All is not lost.


----------



## not_ally

Dibbles, that is absolutely gorgeous!  What happened?


----------



## kumudini

Yes Dibbles, how did you mess that up?


----------



## dibbles

First, thank you ladies. This is a mold from Nurture, with the clear cover. I made sure I could get the cover on, carefully...carefully... No problem. But I wanted to be sure this soap gelled, and I soap in my basement. So when I picked it up to bring it upstairs...yep...the soap was still very fluid and sloshed just enough to hit the top in 2 places. So, of course I slid the cover off, destroying the rest. I did have a little batter left over to sprinkle on and swirl. It doesn't look bad, but still so disappointing. 

Glass half full - at least I have had a slow trace until it was in the mold.

All I can say is this puppy better gel!


----------



## shunt2011

Dribbles, that's lovely looking.  How was it messed up?


----------



## kumudini

I'm sorry your soap doesn't  have that gorgeous top anymore but hoping the current version is pretty close. Also, your posts keep warning me about the issues that could come up with soaping in basement. My basement is pretty cold too, guess I've to retire some of my fleece blankets (to my soaping area).


----------



## dibbles

shunt2011 said:


> Dribbles, that's lovely looking.  How was it messed up?



Thank you. I posted the mishap above. I fixed it - kind of - but it will remain a disappointment. Poor thing. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.


----------



## dibbles

Vkumudini said:


> I'm sorry your soap doesn't  have that gorgeous top anymore but hoping the current version is pretty close. Also, your posts keep warning me about the issues that could come up with soaping in basement. My basement is pretty cold too, guess I've to retire some of my fleece blankets (to my soaping area).



At least this time there wasn't any actual damage to the house. And the dumbest thing is - it's pretty cool here today so upstairs isn't really much warmer than the basement.


----------



## not_ally

That *totally* sucks, Dibbles.  I would have been so sad if I had gotten such a beautiful top (it really is stunning) and then had it go awry.  I really am sorry, but glad that you got a picture of it first, though.


----------



## snappyllama

Bummer dibbles, that was so pretty and not over-swirled at all. You must have good impulse control.


----------



## umeali

Hello I am.new soap maker ,few months back I made my first exfoliationg soap bar and gift it to my sister whi is now complaining that her complexion is becoming darker .Did it happan to any one else? It was my first soap so I dont remember the recipe but it was just one bar .
Regards


----------



## not_ally

I've never had this happen, umeali (nor read about it) w/soap.  It doesn't make sense, really, since soap washes off, there is nothing that will remain to react with, eg, sun, to make her darker.  

I would guess that she is seeing the result of something else (more time in the sun?), or just being a sisterly pain in the butt


----------



## shunt2011

I can't imagine any reason soap would make someone's complexion darker. 

There have been folks asking how to make skin lightening soap. However, not sure how that would work either in a wash off product.


----------



## BlackDog

Ahhh! Just made my first big mistake. I was cleaning up after soaping and noticed that I had grabbed ho canola oil instead of olive oil! $h!t.....here's my recipe - experienced soapers, how badly have I mucked up?

12.6 Oz lard
7 Oz olive oil (which I replaced with canola, apparently)
5.6 Oz coconut oil
1.4 Oz Shea Butter
1.4 Oz castor oil
10.1 Oz coconut milk
3.91 Oz lye


----------



## lionprincess00

umeali said:


> Hello I am.new soap maker ,few months back I made my first exfoliationg soap bar and gift it to my sister whi is now complaining that her complexion is becoming darker .Did it happan to any one else? It was my first soap so I dont remember the recipe but it was just one bar .
> Regards



Did you use an eo with bergaptene sp? Like bergamot? Think that causes Sun sensitivity or something...


----------



## not_ally

LP, would that be true w/soap?  I thought about adding a caveat to my post about photosentivizing scents, but then thought that they were really only an issue w/oil based (e.g) B&B products that would remain on the skin.


----------



## lionprincess00

not_ally said:


> LP, would that be true w/soap?  I thought about adding a caveat to my post about photosentivizing scents, but then thought that they were really only an issue w/oil based (e.g) B&B products that would remain on the skin.



Girl, couldn't say. With all the manufacturer warnings I read including soap queen reminders, this forum, I thought it something to mention. I am madly in love with bergamot fragrances regarding eau de toilette I wear. I haven't sprung the funds for the eo yet, however, so I'm no expert on it. Hopefully a more knowledgeable source will chime in.


----------



## lionprincess00

HTML:
	






dibbles said:


> I made this, and then totally messed it up. :sad:



I did something eerily similar to this recently with a piece of cling wrap on a great cakes DNA swirl challenge...sorry! If curious scroll down to seet the odd fix I did.
Edit, you need to c and p. I couldn't link for some odd reason...
amberwavesofsoap.blogspot.com/2015/02/dna-helix-swirl-soap.html


----------



## dibbles

LP, your soap turned out nice in the end. I cut the soap fail today and the inside is nice. The top is really lacking but I think I'll just leave it alone. I should post an 'after the fail' picture. Maybe tomorrow.


----------



## galaxyMLP

BlackDog said:


> Ahhh! Just made my first big mistake. I was cleaning up after soaping and noticed that I had grabbed ho canola oil instead of olive oil! $h!t.....here's my recipe - experienced soapers, how badly have I mucked up?
> 
> 12.6 Oz lard
> 7 Oz olive oil (which I replaced with canola, apparently)
> 5.6 Oz coconut oil
> 1.4 Oz Shea Butter
> 1.4 Oz castor oil
> 10.1 Oz coconut milk
> 3.91 Oz lye


I just plugged in your recipe with HO canola vs. Olive oil and got the you needed 3.89 oz lye instead of 3.91. I wouldn't call that a significant difference and I wouldn't worry. It's just going to be a smidgen less superfatted. Should be just fine.


----------



## umeali

lionprincess00 said:


> Did you use an eo with bergaptene sp? Like bergamot? Think that causes Sun sensitivity or something...


NO not at all it was mu first soap so there was no essential oil .


----------



## umeali

not-ally and shunt thanks for the reply .I am satisfied now .


----------



## BlackDog

galaxyMLP said:


> I just plugged in your recipe with HO canola vs. Olive oil and got the you needed 3.89 oz lye instead of 3.91. I wouldn't call that a significant difference and I wouldn't worry. It's just going to be a smidgen less superfatted. Should be just fine.



Thanks Galaxy! I had looked up the SAP values and they didn't look too far apart, but I was too busy cussing myself to think about running it through a calculator. Duh!  Hopefully I won't end up with DOS! The wait begins....


----------



## TheDragonGirl

I thought I could let my omh soap gel next to a fan, nope, it overheated. I should have put it in the freezer but I wanted to be able to cut it sooner; got myself a big cavern full of oil and lye crystals, bluh. Into the crockpot!


----------



## lionprincess00

umeali said:


> NO not at all it was mu first soap so there was no essential oil .



Then I would take it as family anxiety over new soaper. I've had something similar happen.
My mom recently said my dad, early on in one of my first soaps, got a red rash on his arm (he never mentioned it). She told him, "It was one of her first soaps that probably had too much lye in it. They're fine now!". Um, no ma...I've never made soap with too much lye. It's always has fully dissolved lye with an added superfat. 
So they thought it was lye heavy...it could've been co sensitivity, the fragrance, or heck it could be he got a freaking bug bite for all I know. The paranoia of family towards new soaper making a mistake causing a new odd symptom happens. 

I'd bet she is probably is over exaggerating it and is a little mental/concerned about using your new  homemade product, and your soap did no such thing as to darken her complexion (if I were guessing).

Did you see a difference in her complexion?


----------



## snappyllama

Did your recipe have sea buckthorn oil in it?  I haven't used it in soap (pretty expensive for that), but I've heard it can orangify you in leave on products.  I have a small amount for playing with in lotions/balms and have been careful to keep my percentages low so I don't look like an oompa-loompa.


----------



## umeali

lionprincess00 said:


> Then I would take it as family anxiety over new soaper. I've had something similar happen.
> My mom recently said my dad, early on in one of my first soaps, got a red rash on his arm (he never mentioned it). She told him, "It was one of her first soaps that probably had too much lye in it. They're fine now!". Um, no ma...I've never made soap with too much lye. It's always has fully dissolved lye with an added superfat.
> So they thought it was lye heavy...it could've been co sensitivity, the fragrance, or heck it could be he got a freaking bug bite for all I know. The paranoia of family towards new soaper making a mistake causing a new odd symptom happens.
> 
> I'd bet she is probably is over exaggerating it and is a little mental/concerned about using your new  homemade product, and your soap did no such thing as to darken her complexion (if I were guessing).
> 
> Did you see a difference in her complexion?


No difference felt .:evil:


----------



## umeali

Desperately I needed this thread today 
I made my new batch today and in 600 g recipe forgot to ad 40g caster oil which was  the part of recipe  now just worried what will happen  tomorrow ?when will un mold my soap :shock:roblem:


----------



## not_ally

Umeali, post the whole recipe for us so that we see what the other oils were and can run it through a calc.  That will be helpful in figuring it out.


----------



## umeali

I am new and just make a very small batch but now with learning  here to day i tried to make a 600 g recipe .
lye 90.37 g 
water 228 g 
150g OO
150g CO
shea butter 15 g
bees wax  5g 
almond oil 40 g
canola oil 100 g 
sunflower oil 100g
caster oil 40 g 
Now  worried about the soap.
I was very conscious but unfortunately to add 40g casteroil


----------



## not_ally

What was your intended SF amount?  Your castor is at 6.67 % of the recipe.  If your SF was higher, you will be OK, but it will be a drying/stripping soap (esp. b/c the CO amount is relatively high - 25% - but it at least it is balanced with some conditioning ones).   If the SF is lower, it may lye heavy so that you will have to rebatch and add oil.  I ran this through soapcalc and tried to cut and paste so that it was easier for people to see in % form, but it wouldn't work.  

The recipe itself is too low in hard oils, I think it will make a soft soap.  I  know that you are trying to balance that by adding shea and beeswax in  non-lather killing numbers, but I think the balance (w/beeswax at .83% and shea at 2.5%) will not work for  that.  If you can figure out a way to get some lard or tallow rendered, that would help so much.

I think you should think seriously about using fewer oils.  This is too many for me, it would make it harder to troubleshoot for me, even now with a bit of experience.  As a beginner it would have been worse.


----------



## umeali

My SF is 5% only I  also used sodium lactate 5 g .
I usually use OO CO and almond oil but today I just wanted to use those oils which were  almost  finished so I made a recipe  to clean the shelf .:thumbdown::thumbdown:
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 now its a lye heavy soap  ,if I un mold it tomorrow and re batch it just adding 40g caster oil ?will it work?
I did not use tallow and lard yet in my soap making journey .


----------



## kumudini

Your recipe is lye heavy to begin with. With the castor oil missing, it's about 12% lye excess. This is my soap calc app on the pad, could be wrong but I doubt it. Lye excess does get neutralized if you give it enough time provided there is enough water in the recipe and I think it does. It will also lather better with time. You have to decide if you want to wait 4 months+ or re batch.


----------



## umeali

Vkumudini said:


> Your recipe is lye heavy to begin with. With the castor oil missing, it's about 12% lye excess. This is my soap calc app on the pad, could be wrong but I doubt it. Lye excess does get neutralized if you give it enough time provided there is enough water in the recipe and I think it does. It will also lather better with time. You have to decide if you want to wait 4 months+ or re batch.




Being a newbie I would like to follow the advice  of my seniors and experts  here.:clap:


----------



## not_ally

I would rebatch, although I have only done it a couple of times (I hate doing it, and the soap is not pretty) so will defer to others in terms of the best way to do it.  The reason I would is that even if you let the lye neutralize so that it is not lye heavy/dangerous, the SF will still be low, it would not be a very nice feeling soap to me.  I would rather have it feel good and not look so good than the other way around


----------



## umeali

Thank you so much ,I will re batch it  today after un molding .:yawn::yawn:


----------



## JuneP

*Straining goof*

Forgot to strain my lye after adding tussah silk. :-(


----------



## dibbles

JuneP said:


> Forgot to strain my lye after adding tussah silk. :-(



Me too! First time using it. I had the strainer right there and still forgot.


----------



## JuneP

I had two strainers sitting right there on my prep area. I was so engrossed with doing my first soaping video and worrying about the fact that I had already added my kaolin, oats, cream, etc before I realized that I didn't have the camera on.

Tomorrow I need to start reading the manual some more. At least I did get it working; but now I can't seem to get the video to upload on to my computer using the USB connector. Photo Shop Elements keeps telling me that it can't find the camera! :-(


----------



## sudsy_kiwi

Doing the post-soaping dishes and feeling pretty chuffed with myself for doing my first "proper" swirl successfully...when what should I notice out the corner of my eye but a wee brown bottle of FO, mocking me with it's un-opened-ness.  Yep, I was so focused on maling sure the consistency was just right, pouring at the right stage, and doing the swirl...I completely skipped over the "adding fragrance" step 

So, my christmasy candy-cane soap looks the part but smells like...soap _le sigh


_


----------



## umeali

this is the soap I discussed yesterday that forgot to add caster oil ,as not-ally said it is a soft bar ,I have no ph tester now to check the PH (urgently need to buy )
Now I  want to know how to re batch ? Just cut into pieces  or grate it ? 
add caster oil (the missing quantity 40g )?


----------



## kumudini

umeali said:


> this is the soap I discussed yesterday that forgot to add caster oil ,as not-ally said it is a soft bar ,I have no ph tester now to check the PH (urgently need to buy )
> Now I  want to know how to re batch ? Just cut into pieces  or grate it ?
> add caster oil (the missing quantity 40g )?



First, rerun your recipe in the soap calc, and find out how much oil you need to add to take it to a 5% SF. Would the  40gm castor be enough or not, I'm thinking it won't be. Since you don't want all the extra oil to be castor, come up with something else.

Also, open google and type ' how to rebatch ', along with other blogs, the forum will pop up with a list of most relevant threads. Read as many as your time will permit. You'll learn more that way.


----------



## snappyllama

umeali said:


> this is the soap I discussed yesterday that forgot to add caster oil ,as not-ally said it is a soft bar ,I have no ph tester now to check the PH (urgently need to buy )
> Now I  want to know how to re batch ? Just cut into pieces  or grate it ?
> add caster oil (the missing quantity 40g )?



pH testers aren't really recommended for testing soap (notoriously unreliable plus what you're looking for is free lye - not pH).  You'll get better information about the safety of your soap by zap testing it. There's a sticky in the beginner section that shows  the how-to.


----------



## soapysandie

*hot pro.mess*

Well I decided to make some hot process green tea and Jasmin soaps.I made up lye solution & added green tea leaves.All goes well till I found  there was no Jasmin frag left !!.So switched over to making it into Chamomile soap.Got rid of the lye solution as it had gone a yukki dark brown color and made some fresh lye solution.So far so good.
Mixed my oils & lye ok and put it to "cook" using my double boiler on stove method.Works every time !
Then 20 mins into the cook I realised I´d forgotten the chamomile tea leaves ,sooo I opened the pot and stirred them in. Result; a few mins later the soap batter volcanoed all over the stove & work top.What a mess.:sad:
I managed to salvage most of the batter and continued the cook.Soap turned out fine. Learnt a valuable lesson there.Never open the lid to stir till the batter is more or less ready (1 hour approx).


----------



## kumudini

I have done hot process a few times now, I also added KOH to glycerine and boiled till fully dissolved, nothing ever rises up, boils or threatens to boil over. The soap just goes to gel in the double boiler. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, lol! Although my guess is the low low temps I use. But then, how does it go to gel under 20 min? Just how???


----------



## galaxyMLP

VK, I believe its heat and recipe dependent. My HP castiles never volcano even with extremely high heat. However, my soaps that I used to make that contained 20-30% CO used to threaten to volcano all the time and actually did once or twice. But, that was when I had left the room and wasnt watching it like a hawk.


----------



## Krystalbee

Glad to see the bad days get passed around! 
I reworked a recipe I have been using for the last 6 months to increase the soft oil amounts so I can swirl more. Trying to be super organized I had my lye with coconut milk ready on an ice bath, micas premixed with oil, fragrance and additives poured. Just finished measuring and pouring my oils, grabbed the handle  of the bucket to liftproblem and half my liquid oils ended up on my floor :Kitten Love:. 
Cleaning 20+oz of oil off a laminate floor is not fun. Needless to say I learned my lesson that day...


----------



## TeresaT

I had on a t-shirt and long pant, but it's hot as heck, so I changed into a tank and shorts.  I wear safety gear (I have gloves, an apron and disposable plastic sleeves), I'm A-OK because I've done it like this before when it was even hotter.  Today is the day I splash myself all over with FO and the batter.  Above the plastic sleeves.  Right in the spot my t-shirt covered.  Lesson learned.


----------



## CTAnton

just a tip on dissolving tussah silk I learned from Irish Lass...pull it to fine threads and allow it to soak in your fluid before you add the lye....I used silk for the first  time yesterday in a batch and I think I let it soak for roughly 20 minutes...worked like a charm!


----------



## umeali

I tried to make baby soap last night but today when I un mold  it there  was something in the middle of soap ,I dont know what is  that ?plz help me . I made with soap queen recipe and used  olive oil and coconut oil .


----------



## Sonya-m

JuneP said:


> Forgot to strain my lye after adding tussah silk. :-(




I never strain my lye and I always add silk. Any floaters I can see get fished out but I keep the rest and it's never been an issue?


----------



## rparrny

My coffee soap looks like puffed wheat cereal...


----------



## snappyllama

umeali said:


> I tried to make baby soap last night but today when I un mold  it there  was something in the middle of soap ,I dont know what is  that ?plz help me . I made with soap queen recipe and used  olive oil and coconut oil .



The picture is pretty fuzzy to me... could you try to take another and post it? 

Also, soap really isn't recommended for babies. I don't know if you're just calling it "baby soap" or if your intention is to use it on babies.  You might want to do some research if it's the former. Babies have such delicate skin, and you wouldn't want to hurt an infant.


----------



## CritterPoor

ordered an owl mold to make soap for my niece & nephew.  It arrived today and man is it small.  Those are bite-sized soaps


----------



## LazyUmbrella

CritterPoor said:


> ordered an owl mold to make soap for my niece & nephew.  It arrived today and man is it small.  Those are bite-sized soaps



you can try to make some embeds. there's probably a better way, but this is how I've been experimenting:

Make a batch of soap whose height is a little less than the thickness of your mold
Once the soap hardens, use the mold to cut out the shapes
Allow to harden
Place these hardened soaps in a mold
With a lightly traced soap mix, fill the mold with the shapes, but be careful not to go higher than them
Allow to harden and cut out your soaps with a larger mold (for example a ring cutter)

Does this make sense? Anyone have a better way?


----------



## seven

Ha! I had this splendid idea to make a half gm half salt bar in 2 layers. The bottom layer i nearly forgot to put the shea butter, the top layer was the salt soap, and it was a bit crumbly... Yikes!


----------



## nsmar4211

Made a batch of soap, got interrupted twice. Left out the fragrance oil...realized it in time to dump the whole mess back in the bucket and remix. Whew! Buuuuuut then once it started hardening again in the mold, realized I left out an oil.  Ran to the soapcalc, ran numbers, it'll be fine but not what I wanted. Griped at interrupties to never interrupt me again.


----------



## Ruthie

nsmar4211 said:


> Made a batch of soap, got interrupted twice. Griped at interrupties to never interrupt me again.



Reminds me of a soaping mistake from long ago.  I was pouring into the mold with hubby's son talking to me.  Missed the mold and poured it down the outside of the cabinet.  After that he was not allowed to talk to me while I was soaping. lol

Yesterday's mistake was a bit less messy.  Read the Shampoo Bar recipe wrong.  32% water to oil rate does not mean 32 oz. water.  It will take a while for those to dry. (Recipe called for 20 oz.)  I'd like to HP it, but gotta get my Christmas soaps made first.


----------



## rparrny

Made a loaf for my niece who loves sunflowers...used all the colors of a sunflower in a white base...Vibrance Green, Vibrance Yellow, Maya Gold, TD black and used the new BC sunflower FO.  The FO accelerated really fast so it was more of a spooning than a pouring...I CPOPed this loaf for the first time ever hoping maybe the heat would settle down the batter a bit.  I pounded the hell out of it to get air out.  I'll post pics of the loaf out of the oven later...


----------



## rparrny

Okay, here's my loaf after an hour of CPOP at 180...I'm hoping once slices it doesn't look so horrible...how soon can I unmold and cut with CPOP?  BTW, that's clear glitter you see not unmixed dye...


----------



## osso

rparrny said:


> Made a loaf for my niece who loves sunflowers...used all the colors of a sunflower in a white base...Vibrance Green, Vibrance Yellow, Maya Gold, TD black and used the new BC sunflower FO.  The FO accelerated really fast so it was more of a spooning than a pouring...I CPOPed this loaf for the first time ever hoping maybe the heat would settle down the batter a bit.  I pounded the hell out of it to get air out.  I'll post pics of the loaf out of the oven later...



Ha, kinda similar to my soap batch today. Planned a four color swirl with a FO I knew may thicken up fast on me. It did. I separated the batter anyway. Ended up with a three color plus natural plop. I was just gonna make a quick batch before we went out for the day...I should always plan more time to soap. It may end up looking silly, but at least it will still be nice soap.


----------



## gigisiguenza

I love this thread .... it makes me feel better to read that experienced soapers have the same issues I do


----------



## rparrny

The top of the loaf looks like my grandson did it, but I couldn't take the suspense anymore and unmolded and cut it...it doesn't suck...


----------



## osso

Very pretty, doesn't suck at all


----------



## rparrny

Cut the rest of the bar and it got prettier as I got further into the loaf.  Here's the other end piece...


----------



## Kamahido

I made cucumber soap a day or so ago... this may end badly...


----------



## jules92207

rparrny said:


> Cut the rest of the bar and it got prettier as I got further into the loaf.  Here's the other end piece...



That turned out gorgeous!


----------



## gigisiguenza

rparrny said:


> The top of the loaf looks like my grandson did it, but I couldn't take the suspense anymore and unmolded and cut it...it doesn't suck...



Oh no that doesn't suck at all, it's very pretty


----------



## Lbrown123

I love reading all of your stories! Some had me laughing hysterically. I don't feel so bad about my raw soap stupid moment. The bad thing is I have done it before! I got a round mold from BB. I used it today. I have a habit of tapping to get air bubbles out. I did it as usual, tap, tap, tap, and the bottom cap comes off. Soap all over the counter! I slammed it into the cap and saved some but DUH! This happened last time I used this mold! The devil made me do it because I know better!


----------



## Wyredgirl

Was trying to do a two color chopstick swirl and it ended up two layer because of extreme acceleration I'll get to cut it tomorrow... At least it'll smell great


----------



## gigisiguenza

Wyredgirl said:


> Was trying to do a two color chopstick swirl and it ended up two layer because of extreme acceleration I'll get to cut it tomorrow... At least it'll smell great



 yep several of mine did that and I look at them, shake my head and remind myself that at least they smell good


----------



## rparrny

Wyredgirl said:


> Was trying to do a two color chopstick swirl and it ended up two layer because of extreme acceleration I'll get to cut it tomorrow... At least it'll smell great


Same happened to my loaf and it came out much better than I expected...so ya never know.
I also CPOPed my loaf hoping that the heat would help prevent air bubbles (does that even make sense?) and I wanted to see the difference with the colors.  I loved the fact that I could unmold and cut it in a few hours...gonna do that method more often.


----------



## Wyredgirl

rparrny said:


> Same happened to my loaf and it came out much better than I expected...so ya never know.
> I also CPOPed my loaf hoping that the heat would help prevent air bubbles (does that even make sense?) and I wanted to see the difference with the colors.  I loved the fact that I could unmold and cut it in a few hours...gonna do that method more often.




I thought of doing CPOP but I had dinner in the oven. So no go there. But yeah I can see the preventing air bubbles thing... I'm anxious to get home and cut, I think I'm gonna use my new crinkle cutter since it's a more plain soap....


----------



## afbrat

Well. Nothing went right for me today . I had everything all ready to go, mold lined, colors ready for batter, was going to try my hand at the hidden feather swirl. First problem; I forgot to add my castor oil. Second problem; I added my FO and it accelerated, which is what made me realize I had forgotten the castor oil. Added the castor oil and blended like my life depended on it. Which of course made me way past anything other than glopping into the mold. However, I did manage to get some of my color mixed in before it turned into a brick. We'll see what happens, but it seemed like my batter was going into gel right in my mixing bowl, so idk...


----------



## BlackDog

I made a batch to split and test some new fragrances.  Exciting, right?!

Well as I was pouring my lye into the water, I realized I forgot to dissolve my sugar. And instead of just letting it go, I cussed myself the rest of the process about it, only to look over after I poured my molds and see my little cup of EDTA solution, sitting there staring at me.  AUGHHH.  Of course the soap will be just fine, but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!  It's a wonder I got ANY of the blasted ingredients into the mold!


----------



## lionprincess00

BlackDog said:


> I made a batch to split and test some new fragrances.  Exciting, right?!
> 
> Well as I was pouring my lye into the water, I realized I forgot to dissolve my sugar. And instead of just letting it go, I cussed myself the rest of the process about it, only to look over after I poured my molds and see my little cup of EDTA solution, sitting there staring at me.  AUGHHH.  Of course the soap will be just fine, but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!  It's a wonder I got ANY of the blasted ingredients into the mold!



I left my fo out once and hand stirred it into the mold. It became a cursed gremlin and I almost forgot my fo the two times after that! So sorry to hear, it is so frustrating!


----------



## HoneyPunch

Not today, but my last batch a couple days ago i decided to try dusting the top of my soap with mica, instead of doing an oil swirl.

I stood and looked at my strainer and thought "These holes look too big, i should probably not try this" but despite this my hand still put some mica in and gave the strainer a shake. Yup, the holes were too big, less a dusting and more of a blanketing.


----------



## clairissa

Okay today was a really bad soaping day for me.   I spent 3 hours planning, executing a gorgeous soap for the upcoming holiday with one of my own very  special essential oil blends.  I poured it into my mold and finished the top, stood back and admired my beautiful soap, imagining what the swirls would look like tomorrow when I can cut it.   I started cleaning up to get ready for my next batch when I saw it.  My essential oil blend.  Yup! I forgot to add it.  So I will have a beautful scent free soap, 7 lbs of it.  After that I decided to make a new beer soap which I had the beer all ready for.  Everything was going smooth until ... I added the fragrance oil.  Of course it was new and I had never tested it.  And it seized in seconds.  The worst seize I had ever seen.  After cleaning up, I decided to it was time to quit for the day.  Two epic fails in one day.  Oh, well tomorrow is a new day of new successes, I hope.


----------



## houseofwool

Yesterday I made a test batch of soap with a new blend of bay and cedar EOs with a touch of lime. I don't know what happened. It smells like nasty plastic. I'm hoping that it evens out in a day or two otherwise I will be chucking it.


----------



## GrantLee63

Started a batch of lye-heavy Andalusian Castile that has still not gotten to trace after an hour-and-a-half of hand-stirring!


----------



## Wildcraft_Garden

I got a new scale that I was so excited to use. I made two batches and it went well. 

Last night I made a custom batch I had ordered specific supplies in for a customer. The scale was acting really strange, and I was worried something was up. I replaced the batteries, and verified a few weights with my old scale (with a lower max weight, which is why I needed a new one). 

Everything seemed to be going well again until I was pouring my batter into the molds. I was short, noticeably short of batter. I  knew all the oils were in there but the quantities must have been off.I feared the worse and it's been confirmed this morning. Crumbly, lye heavy soap.  

I need to reorder the fragrance now, and see if I can salvage some of the embeds. Boo!


----------



## Steve85569

Second attempt at the January challenge. For some reason the soap gremlins decided to have the heavy lard recipe accelerate. Nice grey swirl though.

It's still soap just not what I had planned. Back to the original thought. Make a black pour for embeds and then make a white batch.


----------



## SplendorSoaps

I have some argan oil that needs to be used soon, so I found this awesome recipe from Kenna at Modern Soapmaking the other day for an argan & avocado facial soap (http://www.modernsoapmaking.com/tutorial-argan-avocado-soap/). The recipe went really well, but I added a few grams too many of sweet basil EO to the mix, and now my soap smells far more earthy than I had anticipated. Good thing it's just for personal use, but I'm wondering how great that scent combo would have smelled if I had just had a lighter hand. That teaches me to add all the EOs to one container instead of weighing them individually!


----------



## SuJac

*SuJac*

It is so reassuring to find that experienced soap makers have huge fails.  I am still a novice soaper and recently tried to make a "manly" soap with my own blend of essential oils.  I made a test 1 lb. batch.  I did a faux funnel pour using white, green and black. It turned out beautifully; problem was I forgot to add the EO's.  So, on to the next batch.  I used Tangerine FO as I ran out of Lemon EO, and added Tea Tree, Eucalyptus and Patchouli.  Turns out I added way too much of the "herbal" scents. The whole house smelled like a hospital.  And there were all these white specks in the soap.  They almost look like unsaponfied lye specks.   It looks great, just smells awful.  So I think I'll put the idea of making my own EO blends on the back shelf and go back to using commercial FO's.


----------



## houseofwool

Making your own EO blends isn't that difficult. I've found it best to make a mock up of the blend by putting the bottle caps together so I can smell the combination. Once I find one I like, I then refine it by dipping a qtip into the EO and putting it into a ziplock. One end of a qtip for each part of the blend. A 1:1 ratio has 2 ends in the baggie. A 3:2 blend has 5, etc. Then I let is sit for a day or 2 to blend. This way I can tweak the blend as needed. 

Once I am happy with it, I make a sample batch. I don't want to waste a bunch of ingredients if it doesn't come through the lye the way I anticipate. 

It isn't fast, but, I'm rarely completely disappointed either.


----------



## cinnamaldehyde

Dropped a bottle of spearmint EO and it shattered!  It must have hit my tile floor at just the right angle.  My whole house now smells like chewing gum.


----------



## LisaAnne

I stayed up late into the night playing with the neon mica samples I got free. 
Now I remember why they were in the bottom of the drawer. Yikes!


----------



## SuJac

houseofwool said:


> Making your own EO blends isn't that difficult. I've found it best to make a mock up of the blend by putting the bottle caps together so I can smell the combination. Once I find one I like, I then refine it by dipping a qtip into the EO and putting it into a ziplock. One end of a qtip for each part of the blend. A 1:1 ratio has 2 ends in the baggie. A 3:2 blend has 5, etc. Then I let is sit for a day or 2 to blend. This way I can tweak the blend as needed.
> 
> Once I am happy with it, I make a sample batch. I don't want to waste a bunch of ingredients if it doesn't come through the lye the way I anticipate.
> 
> It isn't fast, but, I'm rarely completely disappointed either.


Thanks for the EO suggestion.  I really don't want to give up so I'll try your idea.  By the way, I just smelled my "herbal" soaps and they're not bad.  I guess with EO's you have to wait a week or so before passing judgement.


----------



## Rusti

LisaAnne said:


> I stayed up late into the night playing with the neon mica samples I got free.
> Now I remember why they were in the bottom of the drawer. Yikes!



What do you mean 'yikes'? I think those look awesome!


----------



## LisaAnne

Lol, well thank you! My soaping is all over the map. Lots of one of a kinds. I can't help myself


----------



## CaraBou

cinnamaldehyde said:


> Dropped a bottle of spearmint EO and it shattered!  It must have hit my tile floor at just the right angle.  My whole house now smells like chewing gum.



What a pain to clean up, huh!  Last week I dropped a tub with a bunch of FOs in it and three of them broke.  Luckily the lid stayed on the tub, and most of the other FOs were protected in ziplock bags.  But it was still a nauseating hassle to clean up.  I had to replace all of the ziplocks, and I handwashed the tub like three times.  Then, like an idiot, I put it through a cycle of the dishwasher along with a bunch of dirty dishes.  They all came out smelling like perfume!  I don't even know for sure which bottles broke; the labels washed out and the blend was indistinguishable.  But in addition to losing precious fragrances, talk about a headache - literally and figuratively!


----------



## houseofwool

SuJac said:


> Thanks for the EO suggestion.  I really don't want to give up so I'll try your idea.  By the way, I just smelled my "herbal" soaps and they're not bad.  I guess with EO's you have to wait a week or so before passing judgement.




I made a new blend last week and while I loved to sample blend, I wanted to gag when I cut it. I figured that it was because of the goat milk I use in every batch. And sure enough, it has settled down and resembles the blend I made. I think the cedar wood didn't come through as strongly as I would have liked.


----------



## Sonya-m

Fab!! Just tried to record the Feb challenge tutorial. First all of my colours morphed - think it was the FO as I've used the colours before. Then when I went to review the video it had only recorded the first 2 minutes!!


----------



## MySoapyHeart

LisaAnne said:


> I stayed up late into the night playing with the neon mica samples I got free.
> Now I remember why they were in the bottom of the drawer. Yikes!



Nothing `yikes` about this, love (!!) the colors!


----------



## nsmar4211

Made a batch of Cucumber Melon..... left out the FO ....realized it AFTER I got everything in the mold. It was HP and still molten so I managed to salvage 95% of the batch (but no pretty molds, just bars)...sheesh.....


----------



## snappyllama

nsmar4211 said:


> Made a batch of Cucumber Melon..... left out the FO ....realized it AFTER I got everything in the mold. It was HP and still molten so I managed to salvage 95% of the batch (but no pretty molds, just bars)...sheesh.....



Isn't that the worst? I learned to keep my FO and any post cook SF container inside of my mold. It's saved my booty on a few occasions. 

There's something about the end of HP cook that makes me absent minded...


----------



## lionprincess00

Sonya-m said:


> Fab!! Just tried to record the Feb challenge tutorial. First all of my colours morphed - think it was the FO as I've used the colours before. Then when I went to review the video it had only recorded the first 2 minutes!!



Oh my gosh NO! I completely empathize with you...so sorry! I'd have pulled my hair out!  

Love everyone keeping this going. Don't like why youve had to post and what happened, I'm just glad I'm not alone. Loss of fo and eo would really irk me as well.


----------



## galaxyMLP

Oh dear Sonya, I'm sorry to hear that! It must be very frustrating!

So that negative SF batch with excess water?? Should've listened to that Castile thread and not CPOPed. The soap was oozing for 24 hours and completely soft. Had to dump it into the crock pot and add extra oils to neutralize the extra lye. Bye bye pretty swirls! I also lost my SB to this batch and a cookie sheet that my silicone molds were on. Pffft. Just goes to show how you can *think* you know what will happen, but you don't...

It was a mess to clean up and my poor BF was over my house this weekend. I had to tell him to get out of the kitchen and not touch anything. On the plus side, my oven is clean.

Oh, and carabou, I know how you feel. I was pulling out a stinky/old ladyish FO as one of the "this is going to go away" ones and I had to have one last sniff (just to be sure I REALLY didn't like it). As I was pulling the cap off, it spilled all over my carpet and my brand new jeans. My room smelled like old lady for a whole week straight. I don't think I slept in there the first night after... I get little whiffs of it every now and again. I think it's been 6 months.


----------



## paillo

Not exactly a 'mistake' but the palm oil bag-in-a-pail has finally pushed me over the edge. Procrastinated a full week filling up oil buckets because I just couldn't deal with the mess from the 5-gal bucket (suppliers other than SC have no-mess buckets which I will order in future). Protected around the bucket with newspaper, stripped down to short sleeves and shorts (mind you it's cold here today), removed all the bracelets and rings, had a glass of wine for fortitude and scooped out a couple gallon-buckets' worth. Never again.

After these four batches are done I have some nice tallow and lard in easy-to-use baggies, going to order palm from another supplier, and never look back


----------



## Sonya-m

Argh!! Attempt #2 of the SMF Feb challenge resulted in soap on a stick - into the slow cooker it went! Keeping everything crossed for attempt #3! If this fails you can all just do what you like!!


----------



## shunt2011

Totally mucked up a batch of salt bars. Tried to soap before caffeine.  Totally lye heave because I forgot my avocado and castor. Was already hard so tried to fix it what a mess. First batch I've had to throw away in a few years.


----------



## Rowan

Sonya-m said:


> Argh!! Attempt #2 of the SMF Feb challenge resulted in soap on a stick - into the slow cooker it went! Keeping everything crossed for attempt #3! If this fails you can all just do what you like!!
> 
> View attachment 19028



Will keep everything crossed for you that batch #3 works ok. It's so frustrating when the soap and video gremlins kick in! Mind you, my mind is now boggling at what the challenge could be?


----------



## penelopejane

Was trying to do a two tier pour.  Mixed the batter to emulsion.  Divided into two lots. Added TD with 1/2 tsp of water to the top layer only hand stirring.  

Added colour to the bottom layer (1/2 tsp liquid colour).  SB'd this layer's batter a bit and poured it into the mold.  Waited, waited, waited for the bottom layer to set a bit so I could do a nice uneven top on it before I put the top layer on.  

Meanwhile the top layer with TD still in the pot started to set.  Really?  Soap is enough to drive you batty.


----------



## LisaAnne

Not sure if I added the shea to my new base recipe I was so kindly given here. Put my CP mold into freezer  and in true form became impatient and decided to cut my getting softer by the second loaf.  I am partial to embeds and I soon had a huge mess. So I took one bar apart, smooshed the batter onto the others and am hoping that when I trim the extra soap off and clean them they will hold together. Too much coffee and start too late at night. The only thing I did do right was take great notes.
In my mind I envisioned a bar with a quilt like top. I don't think that's going to  happen. 
But it was fun and I love being able to share my soaping drama.


----------



## penelopejane

I made a new loaf without the salt so I wouldn't have spots. Looks great except I forgot the vanilla bean seeds and the FO! Back to the drawing board - literally - I am going to put up a pin board in the laundry so I have instructions right where I can't miss them while making soap.


----------



## MsHarryWinston

Ugh. Pretty sure that I totally messed up my ITP swirl today. I just kept moving the stupid spoon. My mind kept screaming "stop mixing", but my hand just kept moving. I'm afraid to cut into it tomorrow and discover that yellow/orange/red/ is just dirty 70s dark puke mustard yellow.


----------



## Sonya-m

Oh **** it!! Attempt #4 of the Feb challenge tutorial failed!! Stupid phone didn't record it!! And I dropped my phone in the soap batter!!! Just the corner thankfully.


----------



## Serene

Ugh Sonya.  So sorry to hear that.   I guess breaking my scale by accidentally dropping it on a concrete floor is not as bad as a phone in soap batter.


----------



## BusyHands

I was so looking forward to starting on an order that I have due mid March. Want the Soaps to cure longer than 4 weeks, but my 2.5 year old won't go to sleep!!! Now it's too late to start. Have to be at work in the morning. I swear he does it on purpose!! Lol


----------



## jules92207

Sonya-m said:


> Oh **** it!! Attempt #4 of the Feb challenge tutorial failed!! Stupid phone didn't record it!! And I dropped my phone in the soap batter!!! Just the corner thankfully.



My goodness girl... This challenge is really challenging you...


----------



## skayc1

weighed out my oils, heavy cream, & distilled water. measured my additives, added water to sea salt & tussah silk....then found out I didn't have enough FO...might just be a happy mistake as I was doing a Lavender Soap...& now it will be a lavender (2 parts)mixed with warm sugar vanilla (1 part). maybe this will be a hvappy mistake!


----------



## Soapsense

Just mixed my TD with Glycerin for a batch.  Thought it was thin, I poured Sodium Lactate instead    Going with it, it actually blended really well, lol


----------



## grumpy_owl

Woke up ready to start anew after yesterday's overheating beer soap fiasco. Prepped everything for my first hanger swirl and...soap on a stick! Seizing! Ricing! Thunder! Locusts! Smog! Glop glop, stir stir, change mind, scooped it into individual molds and packed it in, swearing like a sailor.
Deep breath, tried it again without the TD. It might have been a wee bit warmer than usual but well below 130 degrees. I do blame the TD for this bizarre behavior.
And the funny thing is, the "save" project on the first batch looks kind of awesome, like marble. The picture is a bit fuzzy--I think there is schmutz on my (broken) camera lens, but anyway, the scent is soft black pepper. I'm calling it Marble Halls after I get them cleaned up.


----------



## penelopejane

Sonya-m said:


> Oh **** it!! Attempt #4 of the Feb challenge tutorial failed!! Stupid phone didn't record it!! And I dropped my phone in the soap batter!!! Just the corner thankfully.




February's challenge sounds like mission impossible!


----------



## BusyHands

Ok, so I tried my first round soap in PVC pipe. No liner, no lube. I'm sure you all know what happened...  It didn't come out!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I had to bring it to work so the guys could cut the pipe open. I need to stop believing certain things that I read & just go with my 1st mind. A lot of $ went into that soap! It smells so good too. Sweet orange, tea tree, Eucalyptus & Geranium EO's.


----------



## grumpy_owl

First hidden feather swirl. What do you folks think? Just kidding, it sucks. I used cardboard separators and the weight of the soap spread them before I could save the middle section. Someone described this is a bean pot for gold miners, another as "jello in a cloud." Not my finest hour.


----------



## doriettefarm

grumpy_owl said:


> First hidden feather swirl. What do you folks think? Just kidding, it sucks. I used cardboard separators and the weight of the soap spread them before I could save the middle section. Someone described this is a bean pot for gold miners, another as "jello in a cloud." Not my finest hour.



I'm impressed that you attempted a hidden feather swirl and didn't use a tall, skinny mold!  What 'flavor' is it?  I like the color combo and my brain tells me it should smell like Fruit Loops cereal.


----------



## grumpy_owl

Hey, Doriette. It's Blackberry Sage, so it smells juicy and delicious. I used that FO because it doesn't discolor and I wanted my whites to stay whites for my glorious hidden feather... yeah. That didn't work out. I have two TAS molds my carpenter friend made for me but I think the real problem is the dividers. The cardboard ones don't fit snugly enough and the heavy soap pushes them out to create the fabulous bean pot/cloud jello you see before you.
Funnily enough, I bought a huge bottle of the FO and as it's a best-seller, find that I'm out already. The last two batches with it have been abject fails. I won't make your eyeballs suffer through my first hanger swirl; that would be mental cruelty.


----------



## snappyllama

This weekend I made two batches simultaneously: one for my slab mold and the other for my loaf mold. Each had a slightly different recipe... one had shea and the superfat was different (one had 5% and the other 6%). I water discounted differently as well. Each mold holds about the same amount of batter. So I measure everything out and mark which lye container goes with which oil container and which oil container goes with which batch. I do this *all* the time.

Then chaos descends at the house. The phone rings. The dog will not come in from outside since there is a herd of deer in her way. The deer look at me like I'm an idiot since I do not have a carrot for them and refuse to move. The garage door will not close. Family returns with groceries. Once again, the garage door will not close. Other daughter drops by. Who the heck keeps putting things in front of the garage door sensor and why I am the only one that can figure out why the garage door will not close?!?! The phone keeps ringing. 

My zen is gone.

I mix the wrong lye container into the wrong oil. Argh. Run down to check my calculations... whew, I'm okay. I ended up just about splitting the difference on the superfat. Okay, no biggie. Then I manage to put the wrong FO with the wrong mold. Thankfully I stopped to sniff when I was about to color so my rosemary soap didn't end up pink/orange and my Apple Mango soap turn out green. It was close though.

Oh and the Rosemary soap was for a friend that likes shea. He isn't getting any. Not this week anyhow...


----------



## BlackDog

grumpy_owl said:


> Hey, Doriette. It's Blackberry Sage, so it smells juicy and delicious. I used that FO because it doesn't discolor and I wanted my whites to stay whites for my glorious hidden feather... yeah. That didn't work out. I have two TAS molds my carpenter friend made for me but I think the real problem is the dividers. The cardboard ones don't fit snugly enough and the heavy soap pushes them out to create the fabulous bean pot/cloud jello you see before you.
> Funnily enough, I bought a huge bottle of the FO and as it's a best-seller, find that I'm out already. The last two batches with it have been abject fails. I won't make your eyeballs suffer through my first hanger swirl; that would be mental cruelty.



I love that FO!  Also, if I ever start a rock band, I'm calling it Cloud Jello.


----------



## MsHarryWinston

Aaaaarrrrg! So I had my first soap fail today. I was attempting a new shampoo bar recipe and everything was going WONDERFULLY. And then all of a sudden, BAM separation while stick blending! Oh I was so mad. I was testing a new scent, Blackberry Bordeaux. I want to kick it in the shins. I poured the soap into individual molds so I'll see what happens. I may try to rebatch it tomorrow.
Tomorrow I'm going to remake the recipe but omit the scent and see what happens, just to make sure that was the problem.
So mad! Ack!


----------



## The Efficacious Gentleman

Ouch! When trying anything new, I make sure that I only try one new thing


----------



## MySoapyHeart

_Well, well, well,_ seems I should post here today too...:roll:

I wanted to try the new sniffie I got from Natures Gardens - Green Irish. I _really _love this scent, it is so fresh and clean with a kick of something...well, good!
What happened was NOT the fragrances fault, it was all mine. 

Turns out I was distracted while stickblending, and stickblended way too much. Instead of _stopping _when I got to perfect emiulsion (because I was using three other colors in the design so needed time to work that in) I went overboard and got _medium _trace which of course turned into puddin` really quickly.
Duh... (need to make a meme about this...:think

But luckily managed to get everything mixed up well and plopped in the mold while alternating the colors.
Ok, so managed to save everything and make it somewhat what I`d planned.

But you all know what happens to soap (especially overly SB 100% coconut soap w 20% SF...) It starts to gel. Like, fast! So it got into a _serious _gel stage within 10 minutes. (Are.you.kidding.me, that was fast...)

Which made the toppings on the soap to get seepage underneath and you can see how the heated soap starts to move under the embeds. No cracking, just seepage.

It actually gave the soap a cool effect, but that was just dumb luck and nothing I can claim as my doing

Well, I will mark that down as lesson *learned*. I will put up some pictures when it is cut.


----------



## MsHarryWinston

The Efficacious Gentleman said:


> Ouch! When trying anything new, I make sure that I only try one new thing



Bah! Ain't no one got time for that. It's all about controlled chaos. I rebatched it at around 12 hours. The soap is now fine. Once it's cured I'll know if the shampoo recipe performs the way I want it to, and I also know that the blackberry Bordeaux scent is evil so I won't be using it again. And I'll have done it by using only 1lb worth of supplies instead of 2lb.


----------



## MySoapyHeart

MsHarryWinston said:


> Bah! Ain't no one got time for that. It's all about controlled chaos. I rebatched it at around 12 hours. The soap is now fine. Once it's cured I'll know if the shampoo recipe performs the way I want it to, and I also know that the blackberry Bordeaux scent is evil so I won't be using it again. And I'll have done it by using only 1lb worth of supplies instead of 2lb.



I know it is annoying to experience this! I don`t know if you have tried HP soap before, but I have a coupple of fragrances that are *impossible *to use in CP soaps, so I only use them in HP soaps.
That way they don`t get a chance to act up like a tantrum-ridden 5 year old when I add them into the batter:mrgreen:


----------



## MsHarryWinston

MySoapyHeart said:


> I know it is annoying to experience this! I don`t know if you have tried HP soap before, but I have a coupple of fragrances that are *impossible *to use in CP soaps, so I only use them in HP soaps.
> That way they don`t get a chance to act up like a tantrum-ridden 5 year old when I add them into the batter:mrgreen:



When I first started researching soaping I was REALLY torn about whether to do hot or cold process. Hot process looks so cool but I decided to go with CP. After this rebatched though it really made me want to try HP. I rebatched in a double boiler and watching the soap go through gel phase was so cool. Though I have to say that I'm not a fan of how thick and gloopy it is when puting into molds. And here I thought thick trace soap pouring was bad!

I don't feel too badly about this scent acting up though, as it was a scent I didn't really like in the bottle but decided to "give a proper chance" since I was making a new soap that day anyway. Still don't like the scent and now I only have enough scent left for another 1lb batch so it's no great loss.

I do think that I'm going to invest in a simple soaping crockpot now though and do some HP soap. Even though it still has to cure for ages I love that it's technically useable right away. It satisfies my love of instant gratification lol.


----------



## MySoapyHeart

MsHarryWinston said:


> When I first started researching soaping I was REALLY torn about whether to do hot or cold process. Hot process looks so cool but I decided to go with CP. After this rebatched though it really made me want to try HP. I rebatched in a double boiler and watching the soap go through gel phase was so cool. Though I have to say that I'm not a fan of how thick and gloopy it is when puting into molds. And here I thought thick trace soap pouring was bad!
> 
> I don't feel too badly about this scent acting up though, as it was a scent I didn't really like in the bottle but decided to "give a proper chance" since I was making a new soap that day anyway. Still don't like the scent and now I only have enough scent left for another 1lb batch so it's no great loss.
> 
> I do think that I'm going to invest in a simple soaping crockpot now though and do some HP soap. Even though it still has to cure for ages I love that it's technically useable right away. It satisfies my love of instant gratification lol.



If you can invest in a designated Crocpot it will make HP a bit easier to handle than doubble boiler. Well, I found that it did, no extra dealings with doubble boiler and water and cover it with foil etc, because I didn`t have a lid that fitted. Getting a crockpot was bliss!

If you try to HP a recipe, you will find that the soap is not quite as gloppy and lumpy as a rebatch, but it sure is a thick sauce:mrgreen:

 There are things you can add that makes it more fluid, and that helps. I have tried sugar and yoghurt, and I found it helped a bit. But it will only work up to a point as HP is what it is, a thick soapy mess _er_, I mean mass...


----------



## MsHarryWinston

MySoapyHeart said:


> If you can invest in a designated Crocpot it will make HP a bit easier to handle than doubble boiler. Well, I found that it did, no extra dealings with doubble boiler and water and cover it with foil etc, because I didn`t have a lid that fitted. Getting a crockpot was bliss!
> 
> If you try to HP a recipe, you will find that the soap is not quite as gloppy and lumpy as a rebatch, but it sure is a thick sauce:mrgreen:
> 
> There are things you can add that makes it more fluid, and that helps. I have tried sugar and yoghurt, and I found it helped a bit. But it will only work up to a point as HP is what it is, a thick soapy mess _er_, I mean mass...



Oh I have no interest in doing HP in a double boiler, lol but it was actually great for rebatch. No, I want to eventually be able to slap a lid on that bad boy and go take a nap! (No not LITERALLY! Hahaha!) I don't have any plans to switch over to HP completely but I kind of like the idea of using it for shampoo bars. No clue why, just another way to switch it up and make my things feel different. "Oh my body soap is cold process but I hot process my shampoo bars." Just feels nifty.


----------



## paillo

First time out of the gate with tallow soap, and I'm not sure what multiple sins I committed to have made these two sad batches.  Made two batches, one coffee with grounds (Crafter's Choice Coffee Beans FO and 15x sweet orange EO), the other with EO blend of same orange, clary sage and eucalyptus.

Slowest to trace of any soaps I've ever made (really should have broken out the stick blender), like more than half an hour whisking. They are super soft, I'll CPOP and see if that helps, but I suspect I'll have two molds tied up for days and days and days.

30% beef tallow (organically sourced grass fed)
30% olive
20% coconut
10% avocado
5% shae
5% castor

Ugh, forgot to change the lye concentration and soaped at full 26% water (coconut milk and extra-strong coffee, distilled for the other), ugh, will go at least 30% next time.
I THINK I added my usual salt for soleseife, but things were a little crazy at the time and I'm not 100 percent sure. Ugh.
My usual quantities of sugar, silk, clay.

Ugh, ugh, hopefully in a couple of days I'll know whether they can be salvaged. And will tweak the recipe.

Lard tomorrow!


----------



## dillsandwitch

Got impatient and didn't pre-wet my milk powder. Now I have 4 spotty loaves that may or may not have partial gel.  Lesson for today DON'T CUT CORNERS!!!


----------



## Dahila

I was rushing with my GM soaps and forgot to add the fo again ,  I have like 60 soaps unscented and only one person asked for it on market (


----------



## rainycityjen

My most recent blunders:



Making a double batch, measured out half the weight of oils instead of half the weight of batter, and ended up with one mold half-full and the other full to the brim.
Unmolded while warm and the bottom was still mashed potatoes.
Added salt to batter instead of lye-water and ended up with snowy flecks.
Didn't gel a naughty FO and got soap ash alllll the way through.
Didn't burp the stick blender and got lots of froth.


----------



## Saponista

Decided to just use a fragrance without properly testing for acceleration..... It all set up in my squeeze bottles and then the spatula head came off while trying to scrape it out and is now welded to the bottom. I have left it soaking in hot water, I will deal with it tomorrow.....


----------



## penelopejane

Dahila said:


> I was rushing with my GM soaps and forgot to add the fo again ,  I have like 60 soaps unscented and only one person asked for it on market (



You poor thing.  Luckily my DH can ONLY use fragrance free soaps 
So when this happens I say: Look what I made, just for you!


----------



## snappyllama

I have to say, reading everyone's posts here makes me feel much better to know I'm not the only one combating soap gremlins from time to time.



Dahila said:


> I was rushing with my GM soaps and forgot to add the fo again ,  I have like 60 soaps unscented and only one person asked for it on market (



I have done this on more occasions than I care to admit. Now I always put my FO container inside my mold and only take it out after the FO goes into my pot.

Then I started to try to leave out the SF when I was making HP. So now that container goes into the mold also.


----------



## dibbles

Too much party and wine last night - big mistake!! I planned to have another try at the challenge, but no soapiness going on here today. Except maybe washing dirty soap dishes. Penance.


----------



## TeresaT

I didn't do this today, I did this last week when I was doing my tester soaps.  I had pre-measured the correct amounts of NaOH and put them in little disposable condiment containers, there were seven of them.  I premeasured all of my 8 oz Olive Oils and put the appropriate colorants in each one so I would remember which was which.  That left measuring the vinegar and water ratios (or other additives).  So I'm at the blue one, which was 25% vinegar and 75% water.  I'm stick blending this sucker and nothing is happening.  Oh my gosh!  25% vinegar actually SLOWS DOWN TRACE!!  I pour into the molds at what has to be emulsification/thin trace by now and turn to write this fascinating discovery down.  To find four containers of NaOH and three cups of oil on the counter.  There's an extra NaOH.  How did I do that?  I thought I had one for each... Oh, CRAP!!!   Since I was sharing the mold with something else, I had to gently remove my oil/water/vinegar solution and not disturb my actual soap in progress.  Yeah.  Note. To self...make sure you *create* lye solution before you *mix* said lye solution with oils.  Yep.  I really should leave the science to the scientists.  I wasn't going to tell this embarrassing tale.  But it really is too darned funny not to share.  You have no idea how excited I was to discover 25% vinegar slows down trace...


----------



## TeresaT

Dahila said:


> I was rushing with my GM soaps and forgot to add the fo again ,  I have like 60 soaps unscented and only one person asked for it on market (



I like unscented soap.  If you PM me with the ingredients, I might take some of it off your hands.  I like trying other people's soaps.


----------



## Dahila

TT they are coconut milk,  goat mil and avocado soaps )


----------



## Dahila

snappyllama said:


> I have to say, reading everyone's posts here makes me feel much better to know I'm not the only one combating soap gremlins from time to time.
> 
> 
> 
> I have done this on more occasions than I care to admit. Now I always put my FO container inside my mold and only take it out after the FO goes into my pot.
> 
> Then I started to try to leave out the SF when I was making HP. So now that container goes into the mold also.


I had it in the container beside my mold :evil:


----------



## jules92207

Dahila said:


> TT they are coconut milk,  goat mil and avocado soaps )



Oh nice! I bet those are lovely, unscented and all!


----------



## amd

Sigh. The Soapy Gremlins have taken over my mojo. My last three batches have all been oozing oil. All three have been made with masterbatched oils and lye - first time using masterbatched lye, so I'm concluding the error is in the lye. More accurately may be my calculations. I always double check my final oil masterbatch weights to make sure I don't forget anything or have too much of something and this time was no exception.

So masterbatching Lye: I made 12lbs of oil (which is 6 batches 2lbs each) and decided I would masterbatch enough lye for all of it. For this recipe, per batch, I use 12.16 oz liquid and 4.45 oz NaOH both by weight. To make a 50% lye solution I calculated I would need 3x12.16 (representing half of the liquid) and 6x4.45.
3x12.16 = 36.48 oz liquid
6x4.45 = 26.70 oz NaOH

I combined these, using aloe vera juice as liquid, in an igloo water thermos that my family was no longer using (and then labeled it Poison and 50% lye solution so the family would know it wasn't lemonade). I stirred until fully dissolved. That was Friday night.

Saturday I made a batch of soap, cut it Sunday and found it oozing oil. Assumed it was because of separation as I had not brought it to trace, only to emulsion. Made two batches on Sunday, and brought both to trace. I OP'd to gel like normal (heating oven to 170F and turning off before inserting soap), as my house is still a chilly 60degs during the night. I took them out of the oven this morning and they are very oily and mushy, too mushy to unmold.

So when I made my soap I weighed out 6.08 oz masterbatch lye (I aimed for in between 6.00 and 6.10), and then added 6.08 oz remaining aloe vera juice (again shooting for the in-between).

1. Did I masterbatch correctly?
2. Did I use the masterbatch correctly?
3. Other than having a measurement off, any other trouble shooting I can do?
4. Ideas to save the soap and / or masterbatched lye?

Sorry, I know this is a lot in one message and maybe should be it's own thread. I can move it if needed.


----------



## welsh black

amd said:


> Sigh. The Soapy Gremlins have taken over my mojo. My last three batches have all been oozing oil. All three have been made with masterbatched oils and lye - first time using masterbatched lye, so I'm concluding the error is in the lye. More accurately may be my calculations. I always double check my final oil masterbatch weights to make sure I don't forget anything or have too much of something and this time was no exception.
> 
> So masterbatching Lye: I made 12lbs of oil (which is 6 batches 2lbs each) and decided I would masterbatch enough lye for all of it. For this recipe, per batch, I use 12.16 oz liquid and 4.45 oz NaOH both by weight. To make a 50% lye solution I calculated I would need 3x12.16 (representing half of the liquid) and 6x4.45.
> 3x12.16 = 36.48 oz liquid
> 6x4.45 = 26.70 oz NaOH
> 
> I combined these, using aloe vera juice as liquid, in an igloo water thermos that my family was no longer using (and then labeled it Poison and 50% lye solution so the family would know it wasn't lemonade). I stirred until fully dissolved. That was Friday night.
> 
> Saturday I made a batch of soap, cut it Sunday and found it oozing oil. Assumed it was because of separation as I had not brought it to trace, only to emulsion. Made two batches on Sunday, and brought both to trace. I OP'd to gel like normal (heating oven to 170F and turning off before inserting soap), as my house is still a chilly 60degs during the night. I took them out of the oven this morning and they are very oily and mushy, too mushy to unmold.
> 
> So when I made my soap I weighed out 6.08 oz masterbatch lye (I aimed for in between 6.00 and 6.10), and then added 6.08 oz remaining aloe vera juice (again shooting for the in-between).
> 
> 1. Did I masterbatch correctly?
> 2. Did I use the masterbatch correctly?
> 3. Other than having a measurement off, any other trouble shooting I can do?
> 4. Ideas to save the soap and / or masterbatched lye?
> 
> Sorry, I know this is a lot in one message and maybe should be it's own thread. I can move it if needed.[/QUOT
> 
> this is how I do it.
> 
> If you make masterbatching lye you need equal NaOH and liquid.  So you would mix 26.70onz of NaOH and 26.70onz of liquid.  this is your master batch.
> 
> When making your first batch, the recipe called for 4.45of NaOH. 12.16 of liquid
> 
> Weigh 8.9 onz of your master batch  - which is half liquid half NaOH - so you now have 4.45 onz of NaOH
> then make up the liquid to   12.16onz
> there is  already is 4.45 of liquid in that mix, so add. 7 .71of liquid
> I think that's right !!


----------



## galaxyMLP

amd, WB is right. Your masterbatch can be any concentration though. So if you always soap with that lye concentration (4.45 oz NaOH: 12.16 oz liquid) you can make up your masterbatch like that just by multiplying by the amount of batches you want. Then your would weigh out 16.61 oz of lye solution. 

I think you misunderstood what "50% masterbatch" means. I think (from what I read) you tried master batching your solution at 50% of what you normally soap with. It should be 50% concentration weight/weight sodium hydroxide/water. So like WB said it should be 4.45 oz NaOH/ 4.45 oz water. 

To use the remaining masterbatch you have, just weigh 10.53 oz of your masterbatch solution and add 6.08 oz of liquid more to it when you're ready to soap. 

I got the number 10.53 by doing 12.16x3= 36.48 then dividing that by 6 (the amount of batches you're doing)= 6.08 oz then I added that to 4.45 oz of lye to get 10.53.

ETA: I got sidetracked from why I came to this thread... I made my own soapy mistake today. I was a little impatient and soaped 10 degrees too hot. My FO turned to thick batter (like my banana bread this morning...) and I had to mush it in the mold. It's gelled now already though and it bubbles up! So at least it smells great and does what it's supposed to. I'll post a picture when I cut it because it's going to be SO ugly.


----------



## amd

Thanks WB and Galaxy! This does make more sense. Sometimes I have to try things the wrong way to understand the right way


----------



## galaxyMLP

This is the soapy mistake soap






I told my BF it looked like meat and he goes "I don't know what kind of meat you're eating but I don't want anything to do with it". 

It has holes through the entire loaf... This ones going into the "sale soaps" bin... I've used this FO before and it's well behaved so it must have been the extra 10-15 degrees.


----------



## Soapsense

Grrrrrr Made two six pound batches yesterday, one overheated, and I know that fragrance does, and still didn't check it, then I unmold it and drop it on one end completely destroying the end.  Second batch I dropped on the other end.  Just am a klutz today.


----------



## grassyriver

Soapsense said:


> Grrrrrr Made two six pound batches yesterday, one overheated, and I know that fragrance does, and still didn't check it, then I unmold it and drop it on one end completely destroying the end.  Second batch I dropped on the other end.  Just am a klutz today.



I'm sorry you're having a rough soaping day.

I once cut several bars of round soap and placed them on their round edges to transport to the curing rack for some reason. Of course they all rolled right onto the floor as soon as I turned around to walk there.


----------



## MoonStruck

I didn't math. First batch in months and I didn't calculate my mold's volume so I had to very quickly make another half batch, which may or may not have worked. Because this was an EO blend, I didn't feel like I had time to mix up more so it might be really underscented.

Only bright side is that my Chai blend did not accelerate to a significant decree so if I need to repeat it I can plan accordingly.


----------



## amd

Just an update on my masterbatching oops.... I turned on my brain and figured out the math to rebatch with the correct amount of lye (and then had two people smarter than me check it). I now have usable soap! It's not pretty but it will be lovely to use in about 8 weeks.


----------



## soaring1

Forgot to put my PKO in a batch.  Saw it the next morning all weighed out.  Took the soap out of the mold cubed it up gave it a shot of coconut milk and put the missing PKO in and had to rebatch.  It was a charcoal and white soap so it is all gray now.  After I took it out of the mold and beveled, it looked like a gray boulder.with variations in it.  So thats what I am going to call this soap. " Boulder"  Today, I forgot to add my FO in.  Sitting right there all measured out.  One time, I didn't add it to the oils so I took a whisk poured it into my soap in the mold and whisked the pudding out of it.  Thankfully soap was still pretty fluid.  I imagine it messed up my color I had on my impression mat.  Will have to wait and see.  We are busy starting spring planting in the fields and getting gardens ready.  Maybe I should just not make any soap for a few days.  Don't know if I can stand it though.


----------



## tinycyclops

This was from a few weeks ago, but long story short I over fragranced two batches.

Back when WSP had their big fragrance sale back in January I ordered a whole bunch of stuff and finally had the chance to use them about two weeks ago.  I usually use my fragrances at 5%, so when I made these soaps I printed of my recipe sheet and went about making my soaps.  I went on the website after they were made to see something, and realized the usage rates on one was 2% and 3.9% on the other.

So, now I'm not sure what to do with them.  I've used both and they seem okay, but I won't be able to give them away.  They smell good at least. :/


----------



## penelopejane

galaxyMLP said:


> This is the soapy mistake soap
> 
> I told my BF it looked like meat and he goes "I don't know what kind of meat you're eating but I don't want anything to do with it".
> 
> It has holes through the entire loaf... This ones going into the "sale soaps" bin... I've used this FO before and it's well behaved so it must have been the extra 10-15 degrees.




It looks like chocolate to me. But then everything looks like chocolate to me so I can't be 100% sure. It doesn't look like meat though. It looks lovely and smooth.


----------



## penelopejane

amd said:


> Just an update on my masterbatching oops.... I turned on my brain and figured out the math to rebatch with the correct amount of lye (and then had two people smarter than me check it). I now have usable soap! It's not pretty but it will be lovely to use in about 8 weeks.




The first one looks like it would have been a really pretty colour combination. I hope you try it again.


----------



## artemis

Today I am trying to resist my usual soapy mistake: cutting the soap too soon!


----------



## TwystedPryncess

I managed to make a rice mess last night. Still going back through my notes to see what I might have done wrong just in case I can't blame it on the FO. My colors also turned out whacked. There is oil on top of the batch and it's still super soft although it hasn't been 24 hours yet. I was trying to do a circling Taiwan swirl to get a lotus flower look and I am thinking that may be the only thing that come out right. 

Ah well, more soap for the laundry bucket I suppose. 

ETA photo but can't figure it out on my new phone. And here I thought I might get away without a double post since the cat isn't head butting me at the moment....


----------



## TwystedPryncess




----------



## JasmineTea

Actually, it looks kind of like it should smell of chocolate raspberry.


----------



## penelopejane

TwystedPryncess said:


> I managed to make a rice mess last night. Still going back through my notes to see what I might have done wrong just in case I can't blame it on the FO. My colors also turned out whacked. There is oil on top of the batch and it's still super soft although it hasn't been 24 hours yet. I was trying to do a circling Taiwan swirl to get a lotus flower look and I am thinking that may be the only thing that come out right.
> 
> Ah well, more soap for the laundry bucket I suppose.
> 
> ETA photo but can't figure it out on my new phone. And here I thought I might get away without a double post since the cat isn't head butting me at the moment....



Doesn't it drive you batty when soap doesn't work out?


----------



## fuzz-juzz

Ok, so today I:

- breathed in lye steam, burned back of my throat
- put too much purple in my lilac soap, it's like full on dark purple
- smeared raw soap on my forearm
- used rancid oil and realising afterwards
- got partial gel.... arghhhhh

All in a space of 30mins and with one 800gr batch of soap.

But I made BB Lilac work, little acceleration and no ricing
 Smells wonderful.


----------



## Barbsbreakingbath

*Mistake*

Typing with my middle finger because I wasn't careful about cleaning the stick blender. There was just that liiiiiittle bit of soap up in there. That blade cut through my chemical glove like butter and right into my finger. Sadder but wiser. Soap was fine, just spattered with blood.


----------



## Barbsbreakingbath

Galaxy MLP, I thin it looks cool, kind of like a brown agate. I'd buy it, I wasn't thinking meat at all.


----------



## Navaria

Tried to add water to a batch that was A'ing too quickly and ended up creating cpop'd toxic soup in a soap shell. Lesson learnex. You can't fight the A and win!


----------



## kittensmom

Grrrr... Looks like I have Rice soap !


----------



## rainycityjen

Barbsbreakingbath said:


> Typing with my middle finger because I wasn't careful about cleaning the stick blender. There was just that liiiiiittle bit of soap up in there. That blade cut through my chemical glove like butter and right into my finger. Sadder but wiser. Soap was fine, just spattered with blood.



I've sliced both index fingers in the same week from accidental contact with the planing razor. Even though it has a safety block. And I was using gloves and washcloth to avoid contact. That blade is so sharp it will cut you for looking at it wrong.


----------



## Navaria

I've apparently lost 4 oz of fo. Rosemary Mint. I ordered it back in February and I don't remember being shorted it. I checked the invoice and it says it shipped. But I'll be darned if I can find it now!


----------



## LisaAnne

I can't keep my hands off poured soap. If I could change one thing that would be it. I will wake up at 3AM to cut the soap. I did it again with a white soap with embeds. I love the soaps look and had I left it alone it would have been much better.


----------



## Barbsbreakingbath

*Yep*



LisaAnne said:


> I can't keep my hands off poured soap. If I could change one thing that would be it. I will wake up at 3AM to cut the soap. I did it again with a white soap with embeds. I love the soaps look and had I left it alone it would have been much better.



I have to take it down from the closet shelf, sniff it, turn it over, take its temperature. I'm like that with the bath bombs to, even though I know I shouldn't touch them for 24 hours.


----------



## lenarenee

Two mistakes today: after a bad night's sleep decided I would make soap anyway. (I'm still  trying to conquer this soaping slump!) because I had the house to myself. But got sidetracked laundry, garden, re-organizing soap supplies (good grief I washed the bottles of fo!) and by 4:00 I was tired and grumpy - that's always an invitation for gremlins, right?

But made soap anyway. Decided to put the pot on the scale and measure each oil directly into it. After the lard, I forgot to remove the spoon from the pot. Funny how there was a lot of leftover lard still in the precisely measured package from Fannie and Flo.  Oh well.  Tared the scale and went on measure the oils. 

Saw the spoon. Said a bad word. Stared at the pot trying to figure out what the heck to do but the cobwebs in my brain slowed me down.. Finally realized it had to be only the lard that was mis measured. Weighed the stupid spoon. Added its weight in lard. And what do ya know...that's why there was so much leftover lard in the package! 

Very excited about how I expect this one to turn out though, TS mold, Sweet orange chili pepper, 4 colors, first time using Nurture really red. It was more pink purple than I liked, so added red vibrance to tone it down. Now I just wait to cut it!


----------



## jn1093

*!*

I made a Lavender mint cpop today and when I took it out of the oven, I noticed a large pool of oil on top!  This has never happened to me before so I suspect that I had a false trace or it overheated and separated.  I would like to re-batch it but I don't know if I need to wait until it hardens (if it will even do so) or hot process it immediately????


----------



## snappyllama

Grrr.... I dropped part of my stick blender on the floor before getting started soaping. When I turned it on, it sounded fine but pumped incredible amounts of air bubbles into my batter. I guess I'll be on the hunt for a new tool. No more Cusinarts for me... I dropped it from about 2 feet onto a wooden floor. There is no way it should have broken from that height.


----------



## TeresaT

SBd too much.  AGAIN!!  That is the flippin' story of my life.  I think I'm going to throw that away and just do it by hand from now on.  No, I'm not.  I'm too lazy.  But oh my gosh... That spoon swirl I was planning ended up being a blend-everything-in-the-mold-with-a-spoon-until-it-is-a-uniform-shade-because-doing-a-spoon-swirl-just-moves-the-big-clumps-from-one-location-to-another swirl.  AND, the fragrance oil (Cannabis Flower from Natures Garden) which was supposed to be on the strong side, wasn't.  I had a one ounce sample.  The instructions on NG said 5% usage rate as maximum, so that should have been 50 gm.  I had 36 gm.  I used it all and can't smell a darned thing.  I've got to remember to NEVER buy a one ounce sample of anything again.  Or, just make sure I do a 500 gm batch and not a 1000 gm batch.  I did get to use my neon green from NG, though.  Yep.  It's green, but you've got to use a lot of it.  I don't think I'll be using NGs neons.  They're premixed and only 1 oz for about $4.  Not worth it to me, especially since you've got to SB them to incorporate them into the batter and the last thing I need to do is more SBing.  I'm trying to decide if I want to go for another batch of soap while I wait for Game of Thrones to come on, or if I want to watch an episode or two of Wentworth.  So hard to de....Wentworth it is!!


----------



## penelopejane

TeresaT said:


> SBd too much.  AGAIN!!  That is the flippin' story of my life.  I think I'm going to throw that away and just do it by hand from now on.  No, I'm not.  I'm too lazy.  But oh my gosh... That spoon swirl I was planning ended up being a blend-everything-in-the-mold-with-a-spoon-until-it-is-a-uniform-shade-because-doing-a-spoon-swirl-just-moves-the-big-clumps-from-one-location-to-another swirl.  AND, the fragrance oil (Cannabis Flower from Natures Garden) which was supposed to be on the strong side, wasn't.  I had a one ounce sample.  The instructions on NG said 5% usage rate as maximum, so that should have been 50 gm.  I had 36 gm.  I used it all and can't smell a darned thing.  I've got to remember to NEVER buy a one ounce sample of anything again.



I didn't want to click like on this post because I hate it when it happens to me.  I look at it and think yes that is just on emulsion.  Should I do a little bit more...  Disaster.  Big sign now posted on the wall. SB to emulsion only!
I don't think hand blending would get it even enough. 

I think the 1 oz are great.  If you hate it you haven't wasted to much oil and if you can't smell 1 oz in 2.5 lb of batter then I never want to use it again anyway. 

I have discovered it is a good idea to find someone who likes a scent you do and follow their reviews.  This gives you a better idea of scents you might like as well since they obviously live on the same planet, unlike so many of the other scent reviewers.


----------



## TeresaT

penelopejane said:


> I didn't want to click like on this post because I hate it when it happens to me.  I look at it and think yes that is just on emulsion.  Should I do a little bit more...  Disaster.  Big sign now posted on the wall. SB to emulsion only!
> I don't think hand blending would get it even enough.
> 
> I think the 1 oz are great.  If you hate it you haven't wasted to much oil and if you can't smell 1 oz in 2.5 lb of batter then I never want to use it again anyway.
> 
> I have discovered it *is a good idea to find someone who likes a scent you do and follow their reviews.  This gives you a better idea of scents you might like as well since they obviously live on the same planet*, unlike so many of the other scent reviewers.



Oh great and wise one, thank you for this sage advice!  It never occurred to me to do this.  And the perspective on 1 oz samples is brilliant; it would take way too much FO to give a good scent if 1 oz isn't enough for a 2.5 lb batter.  Right now just playing around and finding things out, I'm not "too" worried about costs.  However, since I eventually plan on doing this as a business (only six years 'til retirement!), I will want to keep costs down as much as possible.  

I'm  starting a list of FOs that I'm definitely going to want to purchase in large bottles.  Yuzu Satsuma is the first one on the list.  I actually decided to start the list after I soaped with it.  That stuff is yummy!!


----------



## penelopejane

TeresaT said:


> Oh great and wise one, thank you for this sage advice!  It never occurred to me to do this.  And the perspective on 1 oz samples is brilliant; it would take way too much FO to give a good scent if 1 oz isn't enough for a 2.5 lb batter.  Right now just playing around and finding things out, I'm not "too" worried about costs.  However, since I eventually plan on doing this as a business (only six years 'til retirement!), I will want to keep costs down as much as possible.
> 
> I'm  starting a list of FOs that I'm definitely going to want to purchase in large bottles.  Yuzu Satsuma is the first one on the list.  I actually decided to start the list after I soaped with it.  That stuff is yummy!!



I have heard of Yuzu Candle FO and have friends who have tried it and like it in CP. I will try Yuzu Satsuma. Thank you. 

I have bought 6 FOs and really aren't in love with any. Not too impressed with The Perfect man so far (which going by reviews was going to be a star!) : (

Am about to do another frugal buy.  I will let you know how they go. Make sure you put your reviews on the FO review chart on this site to help others but also to remind yourself which ones you hated. :mrgreen:


----------



## Barbsbreakingbath

*Fragrance oils*



TeresaT said:


> Oh great and wise one, thank you for this sage advice!  It never occurred to me to do this.  And the perspective on 1 oz samples is brilliant; it would take way too much FO to give a good scent if 1 oz isn't enough for a 2.5 lb batter.  Right now just playing around and finding things out, I'm not "too" worried about costs.  However, since I eventually plan on doing this as a business (only six years 'til retirement!), I will want to keep costs down as much as possible.
> 
> I'm  starting a list of FOs that I'm definitely going to want to purchase in large bottles.  Yuzu Satsuma is the first one on the list.  I actually decided to start the list after I soaped with it.  That stuff is yummy!!


Also, I've found that there are some fo suppliers that refuse to publish negative reviews of their product, and a few don't publish any reviews at all. That's why I think your fo review sheet is a wonderful resource.


----------



## DextrousM

*Not a calamitous affair*

BUT...

I keep adding colorant to a small sample of oils I've already heated that include not-liquid-at-room-temp-oils...  GRrrrrr...  so I end up having to do the microwave waltz while I'm stick blending to reconstitute the colorant oil sample...


----------



## Viore

I dropped my SB while making coffee soap. Soap batter flew all over the kitchen walls, making for no small task to clean up while praying the batter in the bucket wouldn't get too thick.


----------



## Smellynewbie

Well I made my first boo boo I was making a rainbow melt and pour 
Loaf and I was about half way through well hubby shouted me to come eat the 
Dinner he had made me  so I left it and came back to it 
Well I must have forgot my rubbing oil ! It turned out amazing too but
Fell apart sadly I was gutted as it was my first try at this and it could have been so good
The first pic u can just see what it could have been like 
The second pic is what I've made it into cross fingers


----------



## Smellynewbie

Smellynewbie said:


> Well I made my first boo boo I was making a rainbow melt and pour
> Loaf and I was about half way through well hubby shouted me to come eat the
> Dinner he had made me  so I left it and came back to it
> Well I must have forgot my rubbing oil ! It turned out amazing too but
> Fell apart sadly I was gutted as it was my first try at this and it could have been so good
> The first pic u can just see what it could have been like
> The second pic is what I've made it into cross fingers


 hoping the photos work


----------



## Smellynewbie

Smellynewbie said:


> hoping the photos work



And then this is what I rebatch it into


----------



## penelopejane

Smellynewbie said:


> Well I made my first boo boo I was making a rainbow melt and pour
> 
> Loaf and I was about half way through well hubby shouted me to come eat the
> 
> Dinner he had made me  so I left it and came back to it
> 
> Well I must have forgot my rubbing oil ! It turned out amazing too but
> 
> Fell apart sadly I was gutted as it was my first try at this and it could have been so good
> 
> The first pic u can just see what it could have been like
> 
> The second pic is what I've made it into cross fingers




So you made m & p but the layers didn't stick? 
Why didn't you keep the colours separate and just m & p again?


----------



## Smellynewbie

penelopejane said:


> So you made m & p but the layers didn't stick?
> Why didn't you keep the colours separate and just m & p again?



Some of the layers stuck and some broke away I didn't know what to do as it was a first for me


----------



## penelopejane

Smellynewbie said:


> Some of the layers stuck and some broke away I didn't know what to do as it was a first for me



Making soap can be so frustrating! 
Your soap looks great in the photo. I am sorry it didn't work out. On the plus side the confetti looks good.


----------



## fuzz-juzz

penelopejane said:


> I have heard of Yuzu Candle FO and have friends who have tried it and like it in CP. I will try Yuzu Satsuma. Thank you.
> 
> I have bought 6 FOs and really aren't in love with any. Not too impressed with The Perfect man so far (which going by reviews was going to be a star!) : (
> 
> Am about to do another frugal buy.  I will let you know how they go. Make sure you put your reviews on the FO review chart on this site to help others but also to remind yourself which ones you hated. :mrgreen:



I thought I was the only one hating The Perfect Man  
To me it smells like really cheap/nasty cologne lol.
My boys prefere Aussie bamboo grass.

I was over having 1kg soap that doesn't smell right looong time ago. I now buy tiny samples of FO and try them in individual soaps.
If they fade and I like them, I still keep them around and use in MP sometimes. In case I'm really crazy about it.
I got about 10x15ml FOs from Kodys candles and I'm planning on testing them soon. There are quite few NG FOs I've never tried and I was really excited when I realised haha. 
I also believe that suppliers don't post many negative feedback. It's mostly good or excellent.


----------



## penelopejane

fuzz-juzz said:


> I thought I was the only one hating The Perfect Man
> To me it smells like really cheap/nasty cologne lol.
> My boys prefere Aussie bamboo grass.
> 
> I was over having 1kg soap that doesn't smell right looong time ago. I now buy tiny samples of FO and try them in individual soaps.
> If they fade and I like them, I still keep them around and use in MP sometimes. In case I'm really crazy about it.
> I got about 10x15ml FOs from Kodys candles and I'm planning on testing them soon. There are quite few NG FOs I've never tried and I was really excited when I realised haha.
> I also believe that suppliers don't post many negative feedback. It's mostly good or excellent.



Yes that's how The Perfect Man smells to me too. 
Made soap today, forgot FO so annoyed I tipped it out mixed in FO and poured again saving a tiny bit to add My last remaining TD to to add a bit of a swirl. 
So very very annoyed at myself. Can't even remember which scent I used because I haven't written it in my soap diary yet. . Lemon grass I think.

I buy 30g testers for 1000g soap. It makes about 10 bars and I need all those to test!


----------



## Viore

I was making coffee soap and made a fresh cup of joe to add to my lye. Because the coffee was hot, I put everything in the sink in case there was a volcano when I added the lye. I poured in the lye ... no volcano. Good! So I put the containers on the counter and stirred the lye / coffee mixture. Instant volcano! lye solution and coffee all over the counter, but luckily not too much got on the floor. I learned to let the coffee cool before adding the lye, and also the lye solution will disintegrate the sponge used to wipe it up so stick to paper towels! I made another batch of (cold) coffee and lye, and the resulting soap went beautifully.


----------



## nsmar4211

Thought to myself, "liquid soap doesn't volcano as high as the bar soap, the small crockpot should be plenty big enough".

And....

It wasn't.

Soap batch #2 cooking in the big crockpot. 

How does 80% of the batch crawl out of the crockpot in 10 minutes? Impressive really....


----------



## HopeSoap

I made a 4 color soap today and as usual, I ended up spooning, not pouring into mold.  90% of my swirls end up thickening to the point where I am glopping the seized soap into mold.  They always come out fine, but I'd love to experience  pouring into mold more than 10% whenever I swirl!  I even cut back on OO and replaced with sunflower which is slow to trace. :-(  HELP!  Recipe: OO, Coconut, Palm, Sunflower.


----------



## shunt2011

HopeSoap said:


> I made a 4 color soap today and as usual, I ended up spooning, not pouring into mold.  90% of my swirls end up thickening to the point where I am glopping the seized soap into mold.  They always come out fine, but I'd love to experience  pouring into mold more than 10% whenever I swirl!  I even cut back on OO and replaced with sunflower which is slow to trace. :-(  HELP!  Recipe: OO, Coconut, Palm, Sunflower.




If you post your recipe and process we would be happy to help you troubleshoot.


----------



## artemis

I almost had my first soap-on-a-stick! I was trying to be too fancy with a fragrance I had never used before. After adding the FO, it stayed at a lovely, loose trace. I turned around to get my mold and when I turned back, it was like jello! No swirls today,  but I got it into the mold!


----------



## carlyjones

I spilled about six oz of FO all over my counter


----------



## jules92207

carlyjones said:


> I spilled about six oz of FO all over my counter



Oh no... That sounds awful!


----------



## cmzaha

TeresaT said:


> SBd too much.  AGAIN!!  That is the flippin' story of my life.  I think I'm going to throw that away and just do it by hand from now on.  No, I'm not.  I'm too lazy.  But oh my gosh... That spoon swirl I was planning ended up being a blend-everything-in-the-mold-with-a-spoon-until-it-is-a-uniform-shade-because-doing-a-spoon-swirl-just-moves-the-big-clumps-from-one-location-to-another swirl.  AND, the fragrance oil (Cannabis Flower from Natures Garden) which was supposed to be on the strong side, wasn't.  I had a one ounce sample.  The instructions on NG said 5% usage rate as maximum, so that should have been 50 gm.  I had 36 gm.  I used it all and can't smell a darned thing.  I've got to remember to NEVER buy a one ounce sample of anything again.  Or, just make sure I do a 500 gm batch and not a 1000 gm batch.  I did get to use my neon green from NG, though.  Yep.  It's green, but you've got to use a lot of it.  I don't think I'll be using NGs neons.  They're premixed and only 1 oz for about $4.  Not worth it to me, especially since you've got to SB them to incorporate them into the batter and the last thing I need to do is more SBing.  I'm trying to decide if I want to go for another batch of soap while I wait for Game of Thrones to come on, or if I want to watch an episode or two of Wentworth.  So hard to de....Wentworth it is!!


I usually soap all fo's other than spices at 6%. If you check NG's IFRA doc you will find it can go to 7%


----------



## nsmar4211

Why is the first thread I come to the mistake thread???:-?    

Nothing like carefully measuring out your fragrance oils for the batch you are going to split.... prepping the batter... putting in the mica... everything is going well. Then, something says "sniff that" right before you dump the FO in the nicely colored batter. ARG!!!! Wrong color!!!! No, lavender soap should NOT be orange!

Cue quick dash into FO storage area to snag an appropriate FO...luckily I needed that one anyway. 

*sigh*. Well, at least I realized it before dumping it in. And I have a small enough funnel to put the other oil back into the bottle until next batch. 

Note to self: Do not have all the colors  within reach...just take out the one you will use!!!

:evil::evil:


----------



## The Efficacious Gentleman

Time to bring this back up - I made a cp batch with a floral fo and knew it would maybe speed things up a bit. Didn't really soap colder than usually and ended up with one big soap shaped like my soaping bucket! Quick plop in to a saucepan and in to the oven for a quick save 

https://instagram.com/p/BIlCZaYAqso/


----------



## MySoapyHeart

The Efficacious Gentleman said:


> Time to bring this back up - I made a cp batch with a floral fo and knew it would maybe speed things up a bit. Didn't really soap colder than usually and ended up with one big soap shaped like my soaping bucket! Quick plop in to a saucepan and in to the oven for a quick save
> 
> https://instagram.com/p/BIlCZaYAqso/



I`ll bet it will be lovely all the same. And I adore Lilly of the valley, it always reminds me of where I grew up. I barely see them nowadays...

Do you find it sticks well in your soaps after the cure, or does it fade? I am on the lookout for a good lilly of the valley scent that will stick and smells authentic.


----------



## The Efficacious Gentleman

MySoapyHeart said:


> I`ll bet it will be lovely all the same. And I adore Lilly of the valley, it always reminds me of where I grew up. I barely see them nowadays...
> 
> Do you find it sticks well in your soaps after the cure, or does it fade? I am on the lookout for a good lilly of the valley scent that will stick and smells authentic.





From the scent it is lovely. As for the staying power I will keep you updated, but I did have to throw it in the oven with the scent so it's not really a fair test as some of it could have suffered in the heat of cooking


----------



## MySoapyHeart

The Efficacious Gentleman said:


> From the scent it is lovely. As for the staying power I will keep you updated, but I did have to throw it in the oven with the scent so it's not really a fair test as some of it could have suffered in the heat of cooking



Yeah, that is true. But if it sticks ok after that "heat treatment", at least you know it is a keeper.

Yes, please let me know how it turns out, thanks!


----------



## The Efficacious Gentleman

Well I cut them this evening and it smells nice.  It's not over powering and to be honest it smells like HP soap at the moment more than it smells of LotV.  I am hoping that with some time the soapy smell will fade (was 80% lard!) and the FO will start to hit through more.


----------



## McMomWV

My recent soaping mistake - I was diluting a batch of liquid soap via canning jar method.  I had one jar too many so put the last jar in a saucepan of water by itself.  I've been canning for years and know better.  I didn't put a rack or dishpad in the pan.  Bottom of jar cracked clean off.  I hated throwing away those 10 oz of beautiful, golden liquid.  Hopefully I'll remember that next time I'm too smart for my own britches.


----------



## Viore

Soapy Mistake from last night. I was making sandalwood soap and just finished pouring all the oils together. I stirred the oils with the spatula and absentmindedly wiped up some oil that was running down the side of the spatula and put my finger in my mouth. Bad move, that spatula had also been used to stir the lye water and my tongue instantly started feeling like a battery was shocking the bejeezus out of it. 15 minutes of rinsing my mouth out, cursing my lack of foresight on that one.


----------



## Rusti

Viore said:


> Soapy Mistake from last night. I was making sandalwood soap and just finished pouring all the oils together. I stirred the oils with the spatula and absentmindedly wiped up some oil that was running down the side of the spatula and put my finger in my mouth. Bad move, that spatula had also been used to stir the lye water and my tongue instantly started feeling like a battery was shocking the bejeezus out of it. 15 minutes of rinsing my mouth out, cursing my lack of foresight on that one.



Ouch!


----------



## topofmurrayhill

My NaOH and my KOH are in two different types of bottles. The former is beads and the latter is flakes.

I made liquid soap and got a lumpy mess. Certain that I had mismeasured something, I threw it out and whipped up a new batch -- which did exactly the same thing. That's when I finally read the label on the bottle and realized that not all of my NaOH is in the same type of bottle and not all of it is beads.


----------



## Margo

My mistakes turned out to be the best soap ever


----------



## TeresaT

Got on SMF and started reading threads.  And posting...


----------



## chela1261

This was a couple of weeks ago when I was finishing up the top of my loaf (it did look kind of short) when my roommate came in and said "What are you doing with the rest of the soap in your bowl"? Ugh Had to run to my soaping closet and find a mold to put the rest in


----------



## debra062013

This must be going around because I did the same thing LOL

But on a more serious note I have been using a heavy bottomed glass container for my lye water. Last week my fingers started burning like a lye burn and I could not figure out why.  The glass had developed a crack and was leaking. When I was cleaning (no gloves) I must have swiped some of the leaked out lye (white powder by this point). Now looking for a stainless steel pitcher for lye water.





chela1261 said:


> This was a couple of weeks ago when I was finishing up the top of my loaf (it did look kind of short) when my roommate came in and said "What are you doing with the rest of the soap in your bowl"? Ugh Had to run to my soaping closet and find a mold to put the rest in


----------



## shunt2011

debra062013 said:


> This must be going around because I did the same thing LOL
> 
> 
> 
> But on a more serious note I have been using a heavy bottomed glass container for my lye water. Last week my fingers started burning like a lye burn and I could not figure out why.  The glass had developed a crack and was leaking. When I was cleaning (no gloves) I must have swiped some of the leaked out lye (white powder by this point). Now looking for a stainless steel pitcher for lye water.




This is why we highly stress not using glass.


----------



## penelopejane

TeresaT said:


> Got on SMF and started reading threads.  And posting...



Have been missing you online. Figured work was demanding more than their pound of flesh!  

I made a tried and trusted recipe and colour combo with a new FO that I didn't know accelerated (not mentioned in reviews). So stuffed up another batch.


----------



## penelopejane

debra062013 said:


> But on a more serious note I have been using a heavy bottomed glass container for my lye water. The glass had developed a crack and was leaking. When I was cleaning (no gloves) I must have swiped some of the leaked out lye (white powder by this point). Now looking for a stainless steel pitcher for lye water.



You can also use plastic marked with a 2 or 5 in the triangle at the bottom.


----------



## kchaystack

debra062013 said:


> This must be going around because I did the same thing LOL
> 
> But on a more serious note I have been using a heavy bottomed glass container for my lye water. Last week my fingers started burning like a lye burn and I could not figure out why.  The glass had developed a crack and was leaking. When I was cleaning (no gloves) I must have swiped some of the leaked out lye (white powder by this point). Now looking for a stainless steel pitcher for lye water.



It probably was not NaOH by the time you were washing up.   If it had been mixed with water,  what that white stuff was is probably soda ash.   NaOH does not last very long exposed to the air.  

Just for your peace of mind


----------



## Arimara

I'm wondering how long does it normally take for a castile liquid soap to dilute. It's a very soft paste now, nigh liquid but dang, this soap is like a water pit.


----------



## lenarenee

Arimara said:


> I'm wondering how long does it normally take for a castile liquid soap to dilute. It's a very soft paste now, nigh liquid but dang, this soap is like a water pit.



Yes olive oil is very thirsty and takes more water than most (quoting either DeeAnna, Susie or IrishLass).


----------



## cmzaha

Well let's see, which boo boo... First off I managed to tip over my measuring cup with my brown raw soap which I wanted for a bottom layer, then I picked up my jar of TD and dropped it, after that I went to get into my drawer of mixed colors in deli and spilled all of them out of the drawer. Fortunetly the tops did not come off. Was probably not the day I should have been soaping, but I did get 4 batches in their molds...


----------



## debra062013

Thanks I must have gotten the "tingling" from touching the bowls. I did use it Sunday when someone ask me if I made all this soap . But would like to say yes not have red finger tips as proof .





kchaystack said:


> It probably was not NaOH by the time you were washing up.   If it had been mixed with water,  what that white stuff was is probably soda ash.   NaOH does not last very long exposed to the air.
> 
> Just for your peace of mind


----------



## cmzaha

debra062013 said:


> Thanks I must have gotten the "tingling" from touching the bowls. I did use it aa a selling point Sunday when someone ask me if I made all this soap . But would like to say yes not have red finger tips as proof .


I would certainly not advertise lye burns or red fingers when trying to sell soap. Guess I have to wondering how long you have been making and selling soap....


----------



## debra062013

I thought about that also because I looked at some pitchers that had 6 which I know are usually not recyclable or at least that was the latest info I read.
Thanks



penelopejane said:


> You can also use plastic marked with a 2 or 5 in the triangle at the bottom.


old


----------



## debra062013

I don't advertise it bad way of typing the above story. Sorry.
Making soap about 3 years and am working on custom orders this week. Was sharing a mistake I made and it turns out it was not lye I was wiping up after all.




cmzaha said:


> I would certainly not advertise lye burns or red fingers when trying to sell soap. Guess I have to wondering how long you have been making and selling soap....


----------



## debra062013

Corrected the statement I made… But I have gotten lye tingles and I am sure I will make a mistake in the future with either taking my gloves off to to soon or not putting them on quickly enough. 




cmzaha said:


> I would certainly not advertise lye burns or red fingers when trying to sell soap. Guess I have to wondering how long you have been making and selling soap....


----------



## Arimara

lenarenee said:


> Yes olive oil is very thirsty and takes more water than most (quoting either DeeAnna, Susie or IrishLass).



So this was the dreaded water pit. I can now really commit it to memory (reading info doesn't always stay in my head).


----------



## penelopejane

debra062013 said:


> I thought about that also because I looked at some pitchers that had 6 which I know are usually not recyclable or at least that was the latest info I read.
> Thanks.
> 
> old



The 2 and 5 in the triangle at the bottom of plastic containers indicate the type of plastic used and whether they are heat resistant. 2 and 5 will resist the heat of lye mixed with water and are good for mixing new soap batter.


----------



## artemis

Every now and then,  I need this thread.  I was experimenting wih embeds. I am too cheap to buy the molds, so I was trying a tube, lined with freezer paper and capped at the bottom with a plastic bag and rubber bands. The soap poured into the makeshift mold just fine, until the rubber bands snapped! The soap oozed out and blended together until  my colors became a muddy gray. I tossed it back into the bowl and added extra mica to make the color nicer and poured it into a plain old loaf mold. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow. It might be destined for a future confetti soap.


----------



## bumbleklutz

Well, it wasn't today; but the last batch I made was going REALLY, REALLY WELL!  


A little info: My recipe traces fast due to the amount of hard oils in it.  If I'm not careful it can go to thick pudding in just about 4-5 minutes. 
I make soap for my family, and everyone wants something different out of the soap.  One wants lots of bubbles, one wants a thick rich creamy lather, and one wants it to be "conditioning and moisturizing". It's not much to ask out of a bar of soap.  :headbanging:  Anyway, I've come up with a combination of fats that seems to please everyone.  Now it's just a matter of coming up with a soaping technique that gives me enough time to do the swirls, layers, design, etc. that I want to do.  So I've been experimenting with temperatures, lye concentration, batch sizes, mixing methods etc.  Finally, I think I've got a method that works for me. 

Anyway, I was making a confetti soap.  I had colored my base portion white and stirred in my confetti.  I then colored another portion orange and added that to the pot for an in the pot swirl.  Then I thought, the FO smells really strong in this soap; and I realized it smelled so strong because it was sitting beside the soap pot.  I forgot the #$^@^@[email protected]!$^% FO again!  I'm beginning to think I should only make unscented soaps from now on.


----------



## Arimara

I failed to write down how much water I used total in my EDTA solution. I know I used 50g of EDTA but I used A LOT MORE water. Now I have to dispose of this stuff.


----------



## kchaystack

Arimara said:


> I failed to write down how much water I used total in my EDTA solution. I know I used 50g of EDTA but I used A LOT MORE water. Now I have to dispose of this stuff.



Can't you just weigh it and subtract 50g?  then you can figure out the concentration


----------



## Arimara

kchaystack said:


> Can't you just weigh it and subtract 50g?  then you can figure out the concentration



I don't even know how much the bottle it's in weighs. I also don't want to waste money buying a few more bottles just to get an estimated weight either. The best I could do is waste money on food, recycle the containers and pour the edta into a clean container.


----------



## earlene

Arimara said:


> I don't even know how much the bottle it's in weighs. I also don't want to waste money buying a few more bottles just to get an estimated weight either. The best I could do is waste money on food, recycle the containers and pour the edta into a clean container.


Seriously, you don't have any clean soaping bowl or measuring cup or even an empty glass jar in your cupboard you could use to get a weight? An empty paper cup or something? 

Well even if you do toss it and start over, hopefully you have plenty of dry EDTA on hand and it is a lesson learned.

Might I suggest for future reference you write the weight of the empty bottle on a piece of tape (I use masking tape) and stick it to the bottom of the bottle.


----------



## Arimara

earlene said:


> *Seriously, you don't have any clean soaping bowl or measuring cup or even an empty glass jar in your cupboard you could use to get a weight? An empty paper cup or something? *
> 
> Well even if you do toss it and start over, hopefully you have plenty of dry EDTA on hand and it is a lesson learned.
> 
> Might I suggest for future reference you write the weight of the empty bottle on a piece of tape (I use masking tape) and stick it to the bottom of the bottle.



I reuse stuff for holding food. That bottle was my extra. i have plenty of the EDTA left and I'm only out 50g. It's still around but I'm not going to get around to it til next week. By then I should have another bottle cleaned.


----------



## debra062013

I read somewhere that folks were using Plastic Easter eggs for their molds.
You don't want to forget to tape the holes.  Also I only got one clean whole  "egg" most were 1/2 eggs. But I put bugs, frogs etc. for a eco fest. They turned out pretty good. Even have one purple bug that his tentacle stick out. The whole "egg" I had put a long worm in there and it is pretty neat.
Of course I used MP because I needed clear soap .
Not sure that has any thing workable for you but maybe someone could make Easter Eggs  They also come in 2 sizes.






artemis said:


> Every now and then,  I need this thread.  I was experimenting wih embeds. I am too cheap to buy the molds, so I was trying a tube, lined with freezer paper and capped at the bottom with a plastic bag and rubber bands. The soap poured into the makeshift mold just fine, until the rubber bands snapped! The soap oozed out and blended together until  my colors became a muddy gray. I tossed it back into the bowl and added extra mica to make the color nicer and poured it into a plain old loaf mold. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow. It might be destined for a future confetti soap.


----------



## artemis

I was lining my cylinder mold (leftover pringles can) with the freezer paper. I'm pretty near the end of the roll,  and it didn't want to unroll enough to fit properly. I monkeyed with it way too long. I just decided that pouring the batter in would probably push the paper into place. Well, the paper must have crinkled some. And there was a gap where one edge overlapped the other. When I unmolded, I had a thin layer of soap on the outside of the freezer paper. I'm going to tell people the finished soap is "rustic," but really,  it just looks beat up... like I dropped it a few times. But the color is good and it smells good. I made oatmilk and used it in place of water and added some honey into my oils. No added colors or fragrance.


----------



## neonstudy

Well I had my first seized and cracked soap last night! Made 100% coconut oil superfat 20% soap last night. Was taking forever to trace, so like I do with 100% lard, I just leave it for a few minutes. I went to brush my teeth, and when I came back, it was pretty much a solid lump. I put it into a mold (barely), and it started gelling. There ended up being a huge crack in it, which I smushed together. Hope it's still usable!


----------



## artemis

neonstudy said:


> Hope it's still usable!



Even if it has a mushed down crack, it's still soap.


----------



## sweetbean

artemis said:


> I was lining my cylinder mold (leftover pringles can) with the freezer paper. I'm pretty near the end of the roll,  and it didn't want to unroll enough to fit properly. I monkeyed with it way too long. I just decided that pouring the batter in would probably push the paper into place. Well, the paper must have crinkled some. And there was a gap where one edge overlapped the other. When I unmolded, I had a thin layer of soap on the outside of the freezer paper. I'm going to tell people the finished soap is "rustic," but really,  it just looks beat up... like I dropped it a few times. But the color is good and it smells good. I made oatmilk and used it in place of water and added some honey into my oils. No added colors or fragrance.




I think a picture might be necessary! I love the "rustic" usage. I might need to start saying that!


----------



## artemis

sweetbean said:


> I think a picture might be necessary! I love the "rustic" usage. I might need to start saying that!



Ask and ye shall recieve! This is my first batch involving oats. I decided to make oat milk and used it as a replacement for my water. I also added honey to my oils. That crinkle on the top is actually from the plastic bag I used between the Pringles can and it's lid. I normally cut that off, but I think it fits with this batch.


----------



## AsanaSoap

*Measuring Mishap*

I reversed the measurements for my olive and coconut oils, so then I had to figure out how to salvage the recipe. Went to Soapcalc and then got lost figuring out new recipes. Finally got back to the point and made a batch of soap. It's sitting in the mold, and I have no idea how it will turn out. I'm sure it will be usable. 

Then I tried rebatching some old soap, but couldn't get it soft enough to look good. I guess I should have added more water. I could try again. It's Very Rustic


----------



## asmita

*Mistakenly used KOH instead of NaOH while making soap*

I need help. I was making castile soap using countertop HP and instead of Sodium Hydroxide I used Potassium Hydroxide. No wonder my soap is not hardening. 

How can fix this soap? The soap has been in mould for 2 days.


----------



## Soapprentice

My mistake of the day: I made a mica line thicker than it needs to be and it broke the soap ! :|


----------



## toxikon

asmita said:


> I need help. I was making castile soap using countertop HP and instead of Sodium Hydroxide I used Potassium Hydroxide. No wonder my soap is not hardening.
> 
> How can fix this soap? The soap has been in mould for 2 days.



Asmita, I recommend making a new thread in the Beginner subforum to get feedback. It is likely your post will be lost in this thread.

When you make your new post, I recommend giving as many details as you can, including your full recipes in ounces/grams.


----------



## asmita

toxikon said:


> Asmita, I recommend making a new thread in the Beginner subforum to get feedback. It is likely your post will be lost in this thread.
> 
> When you make your new post, I recommend giving as many details as you can, including your full recipes in ounces/grams.



Thank You. I'll do that.


----------



## wearytraveler

Ummm... not sure if it's in the same context as a 'mistake' but... I un-molded and cut my very first hanger swirl batch.  Now I want to make more which means ordering micas and going even more broke! Oooh!  Pretty colors!


----------



## aihrat

on a trip away from home and forgot to take the latest batch of goat milk soap out of the freezer...oh well. i guess it'll have to sit there for a few days until i get back.


----------



## hismrsfinnegan

This morning making a batch of soap for my granddaughter's birthday (thank goodness it's at the end of August) well, my soap turned ORANGE, no idea why, unless it's the FO, but it never happened before with this FO (White Chocolate Black Raspberry).  I dumped the whole batch I was so frustrated. b:headbanging:

Now I am out of palm oil and I can't find the recipe that my friend from Australia sent me using PKO.  

If this morning is any indication of how my day will go, I want to go back to bed, but I just got a call and I've got an appt in less than an hour and I need to get out of the library and get home for a quick shower and get dressed in clean clothes.

All I wanted to do was make a pretty pink soap, I think I will try again another day and go play in the garden.  Hopefully I won't have problems there!!


----------



## toxikon

hismrsfinnegan said:


> This morning making a batch of soap for my granddaughter's birthday (thank goodness it's at the end of August) well, my soap turned ORANGE, no idea why, unless it's the FO, but it never happened before with this FO (White Chocolate Black Raspberry).  I dumped the whole batch I was so frustrated. b:headbanging:
> 
> Now I am out of palm oil and I can't find the recipe that my friend from Australia sent me using PKO.
> 
> If this morning is any indication of how my day will go, I want to go back to bed, but I just got a call and I've got an appt in less than an hour and I need to get out of the library and get home for a quick shower and get dressed in clean clothes.
> 
> All I wanted to do was make a pretty pink soap, I think I will try again another day and go play in the garden.  Hopefully I won't have problems there!!



Hmmmm! Did you use milk in your recipe? Milks can turn soap orange but I believe it is temporary. Did you use any colourants?

Too bad you threw it away, the colour might have returned to normal and even if not, I'm sure it would have still been good soap!


----------



## 0115d8cf

Added a 'cp safe pigment', expecting green... came out purple. Well, at least it's just for me.


----------



## bumbleklutz

One word, just one: volcano! :headbanging:  fortunately, I got it into the freezer before it started over flowing the mold.  So now it just has a hump in the middle of it with an ugly crack down the center.


----------



## cgsample

The guard, or teeth on my stick blender are plastic.  After a long stir in hot oils, I laid the blender down on it's side instead of standing it upright.  The now soft teeth deformed inward and stayed that way once the plastic cooled.  On my next blending session, the blade chipped small fragments of white plastic throughout my soap!


----------



## bumbleklutz

hismrsfinnegan said:


> This morning making a batch of soap for my granddaughter's birthday (thank goodness it's at the end of August) well, my soap turned ORANGE, no idea why, unless it's the FO, but it never happened before with this FO (White Chocolate Black Raspberry).  I dumped the whole batch I was so frustrated. b:headbanging:
> 
> Now I am out of palm oil and I can't find the recipe that my friend from Australia sent me using PKO.
> 
> If this morning is any indication of how my day will go, I want to go back to bed, but I just got a call and I've got an appt in less than an hour and I need to get out of the library and get home for a quick shower and get dressed in clean clothes.
> 
> All I wanted to do was make a pretty pink soap, I think I will try again another day and go play in the garden.  Hopefully I won't have problems there!!



Did you use ROE in the oils?  If you use ROE, the batter will "blush" orange when you add the lye water.  The orange color is only temporary, and the soap will revert back to its normal color.  The orange "blush" usually fades by the time the batter is ready to pour, but I've had it last well after the batter has been poured and put to bed.  My scale went wonky, and I overdosed my oils with ROE that time. It was an uncolored unscented batch. Even so, the soap reverted back to it's normal color.


----------



## Spunky

I accidentally used all my kitchen rubber scrapers on my soap. I guess I'm going shopping this weekend!


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## swisspensch

Spunky said:


> I accidentally used all my kitchen rubber scrapers on my soap. I guess I'm going shopping this weekend!



Why, is that for safety? I heard not to use stainless steel pots for food after using for soap making....but if you wash it carefully...?


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## debratant

As far as the rubber spatulas, I would not use them after soaping with them either.  I think the logic is that being rubber, they are porous...so to be on the safe side, I have utensils like that strictly for soap only. All of my plastic soap bowls, measuring cups, lye pitcher etc are clearly marked soap only and kept in my soaping area

Now, stainless steel some say they would reuse for cooking.  I don't use stainless for soaping, so have not done so myself.


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## Spunky

I normally keep my soaping stuff away from my kitchen stuff, but I am trying to sneak in a few batches for an upcoming wedding, so I didn't take the time to completely clean my kitchen up before soaping. I was unloading the dishwasher between soaping things and somehow set them on counter, forgot about them, and then used them! My bowls and pitchers are marked and now I think I should write on the handles too. Or put duct tape on the end. Over the next year I'm hoping to fix up an unfinished part of the basement (right next to the bathroom) I am hoping to do all my soaping there except melting oils and mixing the master batch of lye. We have a thousand projects going on so truthfully my "over the next year" probably means we might start working on it next summer! lol


----------



## debratant

I used to soap in my kitchen too.  But we have an empty rental in our duplex home and well....for the last 8 years it has been empty (our choice, I just don't want to have close tenants anymore) and I turned that kitchen into my soap and candle area years ago LOL.  Hubby has been harping on me about getting it rented again, we could rent it for 1200/month easy....I'm dragging my feet (I'm a real estate agent).  Don't wanna!  Plus, where the heck will I put my soap/candle stuff?????? I have 2 upper cabinets filled with FO!!!!!  LOL
In 2 years he is retiring and we are moving out of this state, so what''s the point in renting it out now?  That's my philosophy haha.

I'm LOL at your "over the next year" thing.  Sooooo understand that.  We started doing some renovations next door in that duplex.  Got lots of stuff done, new bathroom flooring, ripped up the carpet....stripped old wallpaper in sunporch.  So, last summer I started painting the sunporch.....still haven't finished it.  Still have trim to paint LOLOL.  Hubby said to hire a painter at this point.  I'm the painter of the house. He hates it....and I figure...what's the rush? No tenants lol.  I will do anything to keep him from renting it....so I don't have to move my soap supplies


----------



## Spunky

debratant said:


> I used to soap in my kitchen too.  But we have an empty rental in our duplex home and well....for the last 8 years it has been empty (our choice, I just don't want to have close tenants anymore) and I turned that kitchen into my soap and candle area years ago LOL.  Hubby has been harping on me about getting it rented again, we could rent it for 1200/month easy....I'm dragging my feet (I'm a real estate agent).  Don't wanna!  Plus, where the heck will I put my soap/candle stuff?????? I have 2 upper cabinets filled with FO!!!!!  LOL
> In 2 years he is retiring and we are moving out of this state, so what''s the point in renting it out now?  That's my philosophy haha.
> 
> I'm LOL at your "over the next year" thing.  Sooooo understand that.  We started doing some renovations next door in that duplex.  Got lots of stuff done, new bathroom flooring, ripped up the carpet....stripped old wallpaper in sunporch.  So, last summer I started painting the sunporch.....still haven't finished it.  Still have trim to paint LOLOL.  Hubby said to hire a painter at this point.  I'm the painter of the house. He hates it....and I figure...what's the rush? No tenants lol.  I will do anything to keep him from renting it....so I don't have to move my soap supplies



haha. But think of all the soap supplies you could buy in the next couple years with that rent money!


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## artemis

I don't know if I really call this a miatake exactly,  since it was a 16 oz test batch for a new fragrance, so I knew anything was possible. It's a discoloring FO, so I separated the batter and added AC to the scented portion, and a color to the plain. I poured it slab-fashion into my 32 oz mold. I was just olanning on running a skewer around in it for a little but of a swirl. The FO portion thickened up  more than the unscented, and I ended up with clumps of scented batter that wouldn't swirl. I'm not sure what it will look like tomorrow.


----------



## Midwitch

I forgot to mix my TD with water and dumped unsifted, dry TD directly into my hot process batch. I was making a fancy red and white swirly so I was moving fast, too fast . Now I have little specks of powdery white dots in my pretty bright red and white swirly soap. Side note....they smell amazing!


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## penelopejane

Mixing a dual lye soap (yes, giving it another try) measures NaOH but not enough KOH in masterbatch. So I made a new KOH masterbatch but FORGOT to add it to the soap. I now have a 6.5% SF Castile. Thank goodness I started with a low SF..oh well it will be interesting to try it! :cry:


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## jewels621

Ugh! I just cut my beautiful feathered mantra swirl soap wrong. Should have been a horizontal cut, and I cut it vertically. Seriously? I was so excited for the cut and now I must start over. Shoot! (but not really because that means I get to soap again). The soap gremlins are at my house, so soap away, everyone! You're safe for now!


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## charmed47

OH do I LOVE this thread!!!!
I made many mistakes too I do M & P and I ALWAYS forget to take the temperature so I pour to fast and my colors will blend together so guess what the nice blue and red will end up being purple and then its confused with my lavender soap, they ALWAYS end up purple!!  My boyfriend as the patience to wait and he does nice swirls and me... PURPLE grrrr.... 
I will change my nick name to purplecharm soon... oh well that is my most comon mistake but all in all I slip, trip, drop and spill almost everything and everytime... Who knew that soap making was such a dangerous and hasardeous hobby!:eh:


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## Cindy2428

On Friday I accidently tested Kevin Dunn's experiment about soaping with a 50% lye solution. I forgot the coconut milk I'd made last night in the fridge upstairs that I usually put in my oil. The soap went from emulsion to seize in about 20 seconds. I mixed it the best I could and plopped it into the mold.

Very gingerly I did a zap test on Sunday - no problem! Now I don't want to do this again but I'm glad in a way that it happened.


----------



## Complexions

I made a soap volcano today and it wasn't even close to salvageable :cry:


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## jewels621

Complexions said:


> I made a soap volcano today and it wasn't even close to salvageable :cry:



Ooooh.....I hope you're okay. :cry:


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## penelopejane

Complexions said:


> I made a soap volcano today and it wasn't even close to salvageable :cry:



I don't want to hit like on this post. I hope you are ok and that you managed to clean up the mess. Did you work out what went wrong? If so - don't do that again!! fingerwagging :mrgreen:

Unfortunately, with soap making, this is not the easiest advice to follow...


----------



## Wyredgirl

I was a moron and completely forgot to put on rubber gloves to clean my soaping dishes (I clean them day of, then dishwasher in my soap shop) I now have very minor irritation beneath my fingernails. Not horrible but enough to remind me not to do it again!!


----------



## ilovebathing

*Shampoo bar gone bad*

I wanted to use Neem Oil and also an egg for my experimental batch of Shampoo Bar.  Luckily, I only made 18 oz worth of oil versus a 32 oz.  Not sure what went wrong with the recipe, but it was super soft on some spots.  The in the pot swirl design looked odd, white polka dottish and transparent spots on some.  I wanted a yellow gold/white swirls, but it was not what I envisioned.  I used 
5% Castor 
10%Cocoa butter
10% coconut Oil 
2% Jojoba
5% Neem
26% Olive
10% Palm Kernel Oil
20% Sunflower HO
2% Stearic Acid
10% SheA Butter
colorants Annato, TD,  EO Tea Tree, Sweet ORange, and Rosemary
Vitamin E 4 drops

Perhaps it was the sulfur from the eggs, or I checked out my Coconut Oil and it was yellow (gone rancid?)  It was Nutiva brand that I got at costco.

So if anyone here can suggest what to do next, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions. 

thanks all!


----------



## penelopejane

ilovebathing said:


> I wanted to use Neem Oil and also an egg for my experimental batch of Shampoo Bar.
> 
> So if anyone here can suggest what to do next, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.
> 
> thanks all!



I'd start a new thread for this as not everyone looks in this thread but lost of people use neem.

But I wouldn't use coconut oil unless it was pure white and smelt good. Once it starts to go boy does it go fast and stink!


----------



## ilovebathing

Thanks Penelope Jane!  I will repost it somewhere, not sure where but I will so I can get a better idea what went wrong.   There was no smell, it was just the weirdest CO I have ever purchased.


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## penelopejane

ilovebathing said:


> Thanks Penelope Jane!  I will repost it somewhere, not sure where but I will so I can get a better idea what went wrong.   There was no smell, it was just the weirdest CO I have ever purchased.



Post in the lye based soap forum section.
Include water amount and NaOH too.


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## Traumabrew

I tried my hand at soap cupcakes today. Going simple, pink cakes with purple frosting. I used my basic recipe which is OO 30%, Co 30%, PO 30%, castor oil 5%, shea butter 5%. Used a fragrance I never used before, baked cookie. 

Everything went well. I added the FO to the whole batch after light trace then whisked in. I noticed the oil got a dark yellow color with a orange hue after adding the FO. I split the batch and added my pink mica then stick blended to thicken it up which is when I noted the batter accelerate and didnt need the stick blender.

I poured into my cupcake mold, then went to the remaining batter for the icing and it was at thick trace before adding the color. I added the color and mixed it in and then I noticed my purple turned to a dark brownish purple. I added a lot more purple mica and it really didnt help.

I then spooned the batter into my piping bag and tried to pipe the soap batter icing (Ive never done that before) and ended up squirting the batter out the back end making a mess. Then I figured it out and tried to pipe the soap and making a nice spiral is really hard. 

In the end, my cupcakes look like they have a pile of a certain brown popular emoji on top but not as pretty as said emoji.

I told my daughters they will have these soaps to use. LOL


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## grumpy_owl

Aiaiaii, *Traumabrew*! I have a tendency not to make poop soap but rancid, yellowing fat soap or old band-aid soap. Certain FO's turn uncolored layers an unhealthy yellow, and if I calculate red colorant wrong it turns the opaque whitish soap the color of a scab or the bandage covering it.

Anyway, I made an ombre soap, very carefully pouring layers and calculating trace, while wondering why I didn't seem to have enough batter. Forgot to add the coconut oil. So it's 100% lard, lye-heavy, unusable and very pretty. Wasting materials gives me the pip. I'm frugal.


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## Complexions

jewels621 said:


> Ooooh.....I hope you're okay. :cry:



No permanent damage!


----------



## Complexions

penelopejane said:


> I don't want to hit like on this post. I hope you are ok and that you managed to clean up the mess. Did you work out what went wrong? If so - don't do that again!! fingerwagging :mrgreen:
> 
> Unfortunately, with soap making, this is not the easiest advice to follow...




I forgot to turn the crock pot to low, so it was a hot mess....literally! :headbanging: I was more upset about the wasted oils than anything else!


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## SoapAddict415

Reading some of these posts made me feel a little better about the disaster I just created. First, I used 1 tablespoon of sea salt ppo in my lye water when I think I should've used 1 teaspoon. I also used 2% sodium lactate ppo. My batter accelerated. By the time I got my color mixed in the first half of the batter, the second half had begun to solidify so I have natural batter colored bits in that part. I'm ok with that. I think it may make a pretty design. Mistake #2 was trying to force the super thick batter into a pvc pipe that I had shaped into an oval & lined with a thin plastic cutting board for a yin yang design. Mistake #3 was not trying to smash the disaster into a silicone loaf mold sooner lol. I smashed, squished and pounded the heck out of it before wrapping it & putting it to bed for the night. I can't​ wait to unmold it in the morning. I used natural colorants for the first time (green clay & spirulina) and I'd like to see how successful I was in eliminating any air pockets.


----------



## penelopejane

Complexions said:


> I forgot to turn the crock pot to low, so it was a hot mess....literally! :headbanging: I was more upset about the wasted oils than anything else!



Oh gosh! At least that's easily fixed for next time. :silent:


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## toxikon

Decided to make a charcoal brine bar and used my loaf mold. 6 hours later I thought "Hmmm... This loaf feels awfully hard already... Oh crap!"

Well the first two cuts with my kitchen knife just shattered the bars. Luckily I had a crappy wire cutter (one meant for cakes) lying around and managed to cut the rest of the loaf into wobbly - but intact - bars. Not my prettiest soap ever but at least I remembered to cut before going to bed! That definitely would've been a disaster.


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## SoapAddict415

Update: I kind of like the way my soapy disaster turned out. I wish the color variation between the French green clay & spirulina was still as noticable. I think the shiny green in the picture is the clay batter. I also think that the uncolored bits add a nice touch and I'm happy there weren't nearly as many air pockets as I thought there'd be.


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## penelopejane

SoapAddict415 said:


> Reading some of these posts made me feel a little better about the disaster I just created. First, I used 1 tablespoon of sea salt ppo in my lye water when I think I should've used 1 teaspoon. I also used 2% sodium lactate ppo. My batter accelerated.



Do you need salt AND SL? 
I use about 1tsp ppo of salt.


----------



## SoapAddict415

penelopejane said:


> Do you need salt AND SL?
> I use about 1tsp ppo of salt.



Not really. My recipe was going to make a soft bar according to soapcalc and I'm impatient so I was trying to make sure it'd be hard enough to unmold within 24 hours.


----------



## Selaine

I caught the edge of the mold on the oven rack as I was putting it in.... Good thing we are looking at new ovens.


----------



## fuzz-juzz

In my 5 years of soaping, I had few disasters, but I've never encountered lye pockets.
So, today I've learnt that if it looks like a lye pocket IT IS a lye pocket, no need to zap test.
My poor tongue, 1h later and it's still tingly...

And, if the soap batter is on a yellowish side, IT IS false trace... lye water probably was too cold, my guess, it's quite cold here in southern Australia.
Now I'm trying to fix this disaster, it's cooking away in a slow cooker...


----------



## penelopejane

fuzz-juzz said:


> And, if the soap batter is on a yellowish side, IT IS false trace... lye water probably was too cold, my guess, it's quite cold here in southern Australia.
> ...



So sorry to hear this. 
It is so cold! I've been heating my masterbatch lye and even the OO in an effort to start the saponification process early.


----------



## penelopejane

Selaine said:


> I caught the edge of the mold on the oven rack as I was putting it in.... Good thing we are looking at new ovens.



I didn't mean to hit like. 
I am so sorry this happened to you. So easy to do.


----------



## fuzz-juzz

penelopejane said:


> So sorry to hear this.
> It is so cold! I've been heating my masterbatch lye and even the OO in an effort to start the saponification process early.



It didn't come together even after cooking for 3h on high setting.
Water and oil kept oozing out. It was brine soap, so I think salt might have played the part that. I've rebatched few times but it always turns out fine. I tried stickblending but that didn't help either.
Definitely very strange and my biggest soap fail... It's in the bin now hahaha. It made me so furious I didn't want to look at it anynore.


----------



## klbowden

*Soap looks like dog food. Lol*

A little madder root, some white milled soap for a rebatch....what could possibly go wrong? It looks like raw meat! Ew....help! Lol


----------



## Selaine

Today, I weighed out my OO sitting on a scale with only two feet on a surface......  recipe called for 17 oz OO and boy was it taking forever to get that much!  I dumped what i had into the oil bucket when I had 12 oz and went back for more when I realized it was weighing all wrong!!  but now I have close to 55 oz of oils in the bucket but not sure how much of it is OO.....  Math, math math and I sure hope I got it right lol.


----------



## penelopejane

My computer died, I backed it up and sent it to be repaired.  Everything I was working on I saved on the mini computer I have.  Then we had an internet drop out for a few days.  I made 10 soaps in 10 days and had dutifully typed the recipe variations in my soap diary.  They were all castile with slight variations.  I got my computer back and my soap diary was corrupted.  I always print out any updates to the diary but without the internet the printer doesn't work.  That's ok I have two back ups.  One back up didn't work, panic started to set in, back up two didn't work. How is this possible?

Luckily I am a very messy person and hadn't thrown out the hand scribbled notes for each of the recipes.  Except for the last two.  I was called away by a family emergency just as I was mixing my last batch.  i didn't have time to do anything more than scribble notes.  Actually I don't think I even scribble notes, or I threw them out because there is no sign of them and I can't remember what I did at all.  It's castile soap, that's all I know. 
Moral of the story - try and be a bit more organised.  :headbanging:


----------



## MySoapyHeart

*Aaaaaargghhhhh...!!!*

*phew* nice to have that out my system.

I was testing 4 x 1oz fragrances from Natures Garden (Black Ops, Deadly Weapon, Light Blue type for Men and Opium Fields (Smells just like Opium perfume) 

FORGOT to take out the opium fields fragrance and put it on the counter next to everything else, hence I poured Black ops fragrance in the batter that were SUPPOSED to be divided in two (brainfart) so the fragrance got poured in twice as much batter as it was supposed to. So 1oz fragrance was added to 2.2 pounds of soap, which made the scent really weak. And the fragrance wasn`t one of the strong ones OOB from the beginning. We`ll see how it smells after cure, but so far it is really, _reeeeeally _light. 

Had it been 1oz of Like a Boss from NG, that 1oz to the doubble batter had been more than enough, as that one is _supah _strong!

*Just a sidenote for the Light Blue Men fragrance:* 

My recipe always gives me plenty of time to work with, it is a recipe I developed almost 2 years ago and it is one my faves to make to this day, and it was developed specifically for my picky hubby. _Well_, I had the batter to emulsion as I usually do, so I can add colors and stickblend it in without getting puddin`trace.  I got a lovely, even colored batter and still thin trace - perfect, lets add the light blue fragrance, shall we?? I handwisked it in as I expected acceleration because of the heads up from NG, in the description. Well, it was an accelerator. BIG time! I managed to plop it in the mould, but I expect some airbubbles even though I bumped it on a surface. 

So if you try this, color your batter first, add fragrance at emulsion/thin trace and get pouring STAT - preferably sooner... : P

_ETA: I used  33% Lye Concentration, things will probably go a bit slower if soaping with full water._


----------



## toxikon

penelopejane said:


> My computer died, I backed it up and sent it to be repaired.  Everything I was working on I saved on the mini computer I have.  Then we had an internet drop out for a few days.  I made 10 soaps in 10 days and had dutifully typed the recipe variations in my soap diary.  They were all castile with slight variations.  I got my computer back and my soap diary was corrupted.  I always print out any updates to the diary but without the internet the printer doesn't work.  That's ok I have two back ups.  One back up didn't work, panic started to set in, back up two didn't work. How is this possible?
> 
> Luckily I am a very messy person and hadn't thrown out the hand scribbled notes for each of the recipes.  Except for the last two.  I was called away by a family emergency just as I was mixing my last batch.  i didn't have time to do anything more than scribble notes.  Actually I don't think I even scribble notes, or I threw them out because there is no sign of them and I can't remember what I did at all.  It's castile soap, that's all I know.
> Moral of the story - try and be a bit more organised.  :headbanging:



Argh that sucks.

I store all my recipes and soaping notes in my OneNote. There's no way to lose it unless Microsoft goes under, everything is stored on the cloud and accessible from any of my devices. Definitely recommend it.


----------



## NsMar42111

My soapy mistake......realizing I had enough in Paypal to cover some extras from Rustic Escentuals' scent sale. Welp, there goes the extra payapl funds! :headbanging:

Seriously though...I will have to get way more organized this year on the scent trials to keep the RE thread going!


----------



## annalee2003

Not today, but yesterday when I cut into my first pencil line soap. 

I realized two things: 

1. I got a bit heavy with the coffee grounds that I used for my lines, so some bars are coming apart a bit on the edges.
2. Couldn't figure out why the bars were a bit crumbly when I cut them. Until I realized that I completely forgot to SF (80% coconut oil bars). So now I'm not even sure the bars can even be used since they'll be extremely drying.

Ugh.


----------



## penelopejane

toxikon said:


> Argh that sucks.
> 
> I store all my recipes and soaping notes in my OneNote. There's no way to lose it unless Microsoft goes under, everything is stored on the cloud and accessible from any of my devices. Definitely recommend it.



I have a new external HD with an auto back up and didnt use it properly I think?
But it doesn't explain the failure of the second backup drive. I don't like storing my personal stuff in the cloud but its a good idea for The diary.


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## penelopejane

Why is raw meat coloured soap the easiest default colour to make???


----------



## kath4553

My mistake, today...
Had a great idea to use a funnel pour mistake for embeds and fix it into a beautiful new loaf, but...
1.  Didn't use enough TD
2.  Forgot fragrance, again
3.  Misjudged amount for base, too little 
4.  Soaped too soon, should have waited for more of a pudding texture
5.  Now I can't get yesterdays soap out of it's mold!!!!!
Argh, this just isn't my day:headbanging:


----------



## JuliaNegusuk

I've just made some dodgy lavender and silk soap.  Sure the recipe worked fine last time but this time could not get the silk to completely dissolve.  Might have used too much (2g to an oil weight of 600g) or last time I used sliver this time noil, so perhaps the coarser stuff doesn't dissolve as well.  Anyway I was quite happy that a bit of silk in the soap probably wasn't going to kill anyone so I mixed it and blitzed it and poured as usual.  Then it occurred to me that the undissolved bits of silk might have "held on" to the lye resulting in lye heavy spots in the soap.  So I guess I'll have to trash it, or at least not sell it, keep for personal use, but I have about 10 years supply of soap experiments at the moment!  When I make it again I'll try sliver and run the lye through a sieve to catch the odd bits before mixing it all in.


----------



## penelopejane

JuliaNegusuk said:


> I've just made some dodgy lavender and silk soap.  Sure the recipe worked fine last time but this time could not get the silk to completely dissolve.  Might have used too much (2g to an oil weight of 600g) or last time I used sliver this time noil, so perhaps the coarser stuff doesn't dissolve as well.in.



2 g of silk is excessive. I use a tiny pinch of silk for a 2.5lb batch of oils. 
Cut it up finely soak it in your water then add your lye. Stir until completely dissolved. Strain. I have a 100g bag of silk which looks like it will last a lifetime. I probably use 1/10th of a gram per ppo but that's a guess because it's far too small to weigh.


----------



## Cellador

Not necessarily a "soapy" mistake....but while my son was napping and my daughter was having her tablet time, I decided to make a batch of emulsified sugar scrub. I had everything melted and mixed, except for the sugar and oils. Then my daughter walks over and pulls the oil container over to investigate. And, yup, seconds later my daughter and kitchen are covered in oils! 

Luckily, the oils were cool enough that it didn't hurt or burn her...just scare her.   I'm thankful she's ok, but I'm mourning the loss of my ingredients & time.

Never making a recipe around my kids again.

P.S. Anyone have any tricks for cleaning oils out of clothes?


----------



## earlene

Yesterday's batch was sort of disastrous.  Well, not disastrous in the  literal sense, but quite disappointing and maybe just plain a 'bad soap  day' for me.  First, it traced faster than I wanted, but that's my fault  for not decreasing the hard oils and increasing the soft oils.  Second,  the FO accelerated and riced, so swirls were out.  Colors worked okay,  but by that time the batter was pretty much at the 'plop it into the  mold really quick' stage and only the first mold turned out looking like  it would be decent soap.  For the second mold, I gave up put it back  into the bowl and added a bit of extra liquid and tried to HP it with a  bit of SL to loosen it up enough to mix it with some soap confetti I had  been wanting to use up this week.  I used the microwave oven to HP it  (I hate using the MW for this purpose; prefer the crockpot for HP &  rebatch) and pressed it all into another mold.

Well then during CPOP the 'good soap' leaked.  It was in a  not-so-tightly sealed wooden mold lined with freezer paper and this was  probably the second time I had used the freezer paper.  My [lye  concentration] was only at 33%, so not even full water, and it leaked  through the freezer paper and out the bottom of the wooden mold on one  end.  Joy!  I got to learn how lye eats away at aluminum foil.  As it  happens, I keep a pizza pan in my oven, covered with heavy duty Aluminum  foil (at all times) and then place a towel over top of that before  putting my soap molds into the oven for CPOP.  I used to also put  cardboard between the pizza pan and the towel, but had become lazy and  stopped doing that recently.  Well, let me tell you, the cardboard layer  is going back in again, and something else to catch possible leaks to  prevent this from happening again.  The lye soaked through the towel,  interacted with the Aluminum foil, creating a sort of blackish substance  that soaked back into the towel and then began eating away at a spot on  the pizza pan.  I smelled it, so went to investigate and saw I now have  a shiny sort of pock-marked surface area on my pizza pan as well as the  rest of the mess to clean up.  Not too bad clean-up-wise, but  disappointing as I said.

Later that night I checked them after they had come down to about  90-something degrees F and the first soap was decent, so I cut them and  put them out to dry.  I think these bars will be okay.  But the second  one just crumbled as I removed it from the mold and so did the bars as I  cut them.  I just put all that into a bucket & covered it.  When we  get back from the eclipse trip, I'll re-evaluate if it's even worth my  while to re-batch that portion.  I'll re-evaluate the bars I think will  be okay, too.  Maybe they will; maybe they won't.

I remember having bad computer days when I was in my 40's and 50's; they  don't seem to happen so much anymore. (Like bad hair days, but with a  computer.)  Now I seem to have bad soap days.  I wish there was some way  to know before starting to actually make the soap that it's going to be  a 'bad soap day' so I can just avoid making soap that day.


----------



## dibbles

My DIL and a friend wanted to learn to make soap. So yesterday was the day. It all went pretty well, and I might have gained a soaping buddy or two. Normally I have to encourage my soaps to gel, even in summer, by putting the mold on a heating pad and insulating. I didn't account for the extra heat from two loafs sitting together. Got up this morning and saw that I had my first ever cracked top with oil sitting on top of one loaf. This was in a Nurture mold with a cover. I don't know if it would have been a full on volcano if the cover hadn't been there. I'm so disappointed for my DIL - both girls were so excited about their soaps.


----------



## Zany_in_CO

earlene said:


> I wish there was some way  to know before starting to actually make the soap that it's going to be  a 'bad soap day' so I can just avoid making soap that day.


Ah, wouldn't we all?! I'm sorry all that happened to you, Earlene, but thank you for taking time to write up the events as they happened. There's a few juicy tips in there that probably wouldn't show up any where else. Now I'm scared to make soap... the "Soaping Gremlins" seem to happen in threes. I'm going to sit on my hands and wait from the epidemic to pass. :mrgreen:


----------



## Zany_in_CO

Cellador said:


> P.S. Anyone have any tricks for cleaning oils out of clothes?


Yes! Polysorbate 80 removes oil stains -- soak the stain for at least 5 minutes, give it a good rub, and toss it in the washer. With a large amount of oil like I suspect happened, I would air dry instead of using the dryer (that might "set" the stain). If the stain is still there, I would soak in OxyClean overnight.

HTH   :bunny:​


----------



## AngelBar

I've been masterbatching my lye lately (50/50) and it's been working really well.

Although, today I was doing a couple of small test batches and as I was stick blending the first batch, it seemed to be tracing kinda slowly and it wasn't as off-white as it usually looks... :think: and I just kept going not thinking to much about it.  When I finished and noticed it didn't quite fill up my mold... I had an ah ha moment! :shock: I realized I had forgotten to add any additional water... it was supposed to be 6oz.  OOOPS!  So I just made a batch of soap with a 50% lye solution.  It seems to be doing fine though... it's not too hot at all... no cracks or volcanoing of any kind... in fact it looks OK.

Has anyone ever done this? 


Update:  It's out of the mold less than 6hrs later (new record for me) and it's still warm and really fairly hard... more so than some of my moisturizing bars after 48hrs. I scented it with Spearmint EO and even though it heated up fairly well, I didn't get any weeping at all.  The funny thing is the SEO smells way off, nothing like the other soaps I've done with the same batch of EO that have turned out divine. I hope the smell mellows out. Too much of a wimp to zap test at this time... :-?


----------



## Cellador

AngelBar said:


> I've been masterbatching my lye lately (50/50) and it's been working really well.
> 
> Although, today I was doing a couple of small test batches and as I was stick blending the first batch, it seemed to be tracing kinda slowly and it wasn't as off-white as it usually looks... :think: and I just kept going not thinking to much about it.  When I finished and noticed it didn't quite fill up my mold... I had an ah ha moment! :shock: I realized I had forgotten to add any additional water... it was supposed to be 6oz.  OOOPS!  So I just made a batch of soap with a 50% lye solution.  It seems to be doing fine though... it's not too hot at all... no cracks or volcanoing of any kind... in fact it looks OK.
> 
> Has anyone ever done this?



I have not done this, but I did read a couple of places that a 50/50 solution could be used. I think most problems with a 50/50 solution would involve accelerated tracing & a reduced chance of gelling.


----------



## DeeAnna

penelopejane said:


> Why is raw meat coloured soap the easiest default colour to make???



Or poo colored soap. :think: Guilty as charged.


----------



## earlene

penelopejane said:


> Why is raw meat coloured soap the easiest default colour to make???



So, planing my rhodochrosite soap, the 1/16 inch slivers look like thinly sliced lunch meat!  It's uncanny.  I really should photograph them.  Maybe that loaf of bread soap mold would come in handy for soap sandwiches with sliced meat soap.


----------



## NsMar42111

PSA: Don't HP 100% coconut oil laundry soap. Yea. 3 lbs of lye heavy cement is the result. *sigh*. :headbanging:Well, at least the replacement batch (CP) only took 5 minutes to mix up. And this is the second time I made that mistake! Now there's a giant note on the recipe DO NOT HP LOL.:shark:

The other 2 batches went ok *knock on wood*. Not looking forward to dish cleanup tomorrow though.....3 crockpots and assorted spatulas/cups/etc.


----------



## Kittish

NsMar42111 said:


> PSA: Don't HP 100% coconut oil laundry soap. Yea. 3 lbs of lye heavy cement is the result. *sigh*. :headbanging:Well, at least the replacement batch (CP) only took 5 minutes to mix up. And this is the second time I made that mistake! Now there's a giant note on the recipe DO NOT HP LOL.:shark:
> 
> The other 2 batches went ok *knock on wood*. Not looking forward to dish cleanup tomorrow though.....3 crockpots and assorted spatulas/cups/etc.



Is it possible you might be able to salvage the cement by letting it sit for a few days then grate it up? Maybe add some water and do a full on rebatch at that point if it's still got pockets of lye? Would it be possible to do a 'rebatch' simply by mixing the grated soap with a bit of water and letting it sit with no added heat, just giving it a good stir/mash every so often?


----------



## NsMar42111

Tried adding water and blending the crap out of it, it just kept solidfying and floating. For the cost it's not worth the extra time espically when the new batch took all of 5 minutes to do and coconut oil isn't that expensive really. This is when knowing your batch cost helps LOL. It was only 3lbs .  Now, if it had been my regular recipe I'd be using it for something! :mrgreen:

Todays mistake.....letting it sit too long and trying to cut it with the new wire cutter. Nope. Well, the wire marks made using the hand cutter easier because they were nicely spaced LOL.


----------



## divinegoddessoaps17

*Witch Hazel spritz instead of alcohol!!*

Wow - I just made this wonderful pumpkin spice soap today, and then I spritzed it with alcohol - or so I thought - I USED WITCH HAZEL!!  Did I ruin it?


----------



## Kittish

divinegoddessoaps17 said:


> Wow - I just made this wonderful pumpkin spice soap today, and then I spritzed it with alcohol - or so I thought - I USED WITCH HAZEL!!  Did I ruin it?



Sure hope not! That top swirl is beautiful, I bet it looks just as pretty inside, too.


----------



## divinegoddessoaps17

Kittish said:


> Sure hope not! That top swirl is beautiful, I bet it looks just as pretty inside, too.


I;ll post the inside pictures tomorrow!


----------



## cmzaha

divinegoddessoaps17 said:


> Wow - I just made this wonderful pumpkin spice soap today, and then I spritzed it with alcohol - or so I thought - I USED WITCH HAZEL!!  Did I ruin it?


There is no reason the witch hazel will hurt it even if it is alcohol free WH


----------



## divinegoddessoaps17

Kittish said:


> Sure hope not! That top swirl is beautiful, I bet it looks just as pretty inside, too.


Inside


----------



## LilyJo

Just made a couple of soap batches and a batch of lotion bars - thought I was making a test batch but messed my maths up and made twice the size I needed and had to frantically find an alternative mould before it set!

Somewhere along the way also I mixed up the scaled up ratios and only just as I cleared up did I realise I put 1.5 times the cinnamon I should have. Wondered why it seemed so strong, thankfully all the doors and windows are open today!

And it was all going so well.....


----------



## OhSweetFreckles

*To Much Beeswax*

Today i found a block of beeswax that i had use a while back from belly cream when i was pregnant. I thought "sweet i can add this to my oatmeal, milk & honey soap!" i melted all the oils together'
3 oz of coconut oil
2 oz of sunflower oil
10 oz of canola oil
5 oz of beeswax
:headbanging:

i should have known something was up when my mix became super thick very quickly. but unwasteful and stubborn me said " nope, not today you're going to be rebatched" and i still colored and plopped the thick mix into the mold and did my best to make it look pretty. now that i actually did research on beeswax i'm kicking myself in the toosh. its hard as a rock. ugh, now i don't know what do to with it after it cures. can it still be used as soap  will it dry out my skin?  :Kitten Love: oh chemistry why are you so cruel to me.


----------



## Zany_in_CO

Deleted.


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## 0115d8cf

This is the third batch in a row that hasn't gelled. The only difference between these and my older ones is these had sugar in them. I even soaped warmer and pre-heated my mold to get it to gel, but no dice. :neutral: I'm not complaining -- avoiding volcanoes is a good thing, but I can't figure out why it's happening. I live in the desert, and the house is at 80 degrees. So mysterious.


----------



## kchaystack

0115d8cf said:


> This is the third batch in a row that hasn't gelled. The only difference between these and my older ones is these had sugar in them. I even soaped warmer and pre-heated my mold to get it to gel, but no dice. :neutral: I'm not complaining -- avoiding volcanoes is a good thing, but I can't figure out why it's happening. I live in the desert, and the house is at 80 degrees. So mysterious.


What is your lye concentration?


----------



## ibct1969

In the middle of soaping, I first neglected to stop my Badger color blender thingie from spinning AFTER I took it out of the cup I was mixing hot mink mica in and 'decorated' my sink, the window above it, and the stove top.  There's probably some on the ceiling too; i just don't have my glasses on to see it.  Of course, the counter that was covered w my plastic picnic tablecloth didn't get one drop of mica on it, but the OTHER counter sure did.  Had to clean that up... Then, later, making the SAME soap, I dropped my spatula, which was covered with pink, thick trace soap batter, on the kitchen floor, and of course, my dogs, who were soundly sleeping in the other room, heard that and came galloping in to inspect.  I had to stop what I was doing, get the nutball dogs in their crates, get a mop to clean the whole floor.  Luckily the soap was patient and I was able to get my swirl on anyway! My kitchen is a disaster though   Glad my family wasn't here to witness that!


----------



## Kittish

ibct1969 said:


> In the middle of soaping, I first neglected to stop my Badger color blender thingie from spinning AFTER I took it out of the cup I was mixing hot mink mica in and 'decorated' my sink, the window above it, and the stove top.  There's probably some on the ceiling too; i just don't have my glasses on to see it.  Of course, the counter that was covered w my plastic picnic tablecloth didn't get one drop of mica on it, but the OTHER counter sure did.  Had to clean that up... Then, later, making the SAME soap, I dropped my spatula, which was covered with pink, thick trace soap batter, on the kitchen floor, and of course, my dogs, who were soundly sleeping in the other room, heard that and came galloping in to inspect.  I had to stop what I was doing, get the nutball dogs in their crates, get a mop to clean the whole floor.  Luckily the soap was patient and I was able to get my swirl on anyway! My kitchen is a disaster though   Glad my family wasn't here to witness that!



Oh goodness. I can relate to the splatters everywhere disaster. Mine was attempting to make mole, though, and a couple of ill thought out substitutions in the recipe. I wound up with a 4 foot circle of splatters all over everything. Including the ceiling. There's still a couple of spots up there that I couldn't reach with the step ladder. Can also relate to the dogs coming galloping into the kitchen at any noise. "Hey, Mom! Was that food? Don't worry, Mom! We'll clean it up! Heyyyyyyyyyy. This isn't food." Followed by that oh so sad 'how could you betray me like that' look.

Thank goodness the soap turned out ok in spite of everything!


----------



## earlene

*Kittish*, I have been known to use a mop on the ceiling.  Of course not just any old mop will do for such an endeavor, but I bought one just for ceiling use when we lived in a house with bathrooms so poorly ventilated that I had to regularly mop off mold spots.


----------



## ibct1969

*Witch hazel*



divinegoddessoaps17 said:


> Wow - I just made this wonderful pumpkin spice soap today, and then I spritzed it with alcohol - or so I thought - I USED WITCH HAZEL!!  Did I ruin it?



I actually have a recipe that I use as a facial bar with witch hazel in it.  You should be fine 

And, your soap is so cool!


----------



## DunbarDesigned

*First Day of Soaping*

So today was literally my first day trying to make soap. And I'm pretty sure the first two batches were messed up. The first batch I think my lye solution was too cold because I used ice cubes after I saw that on a video from YouTube because they said that the heat from the lye and the water reacting could break my glass bowl. The second batch, my lye water was way too hot and I think my oils were a little on the lower side which didn't work out so well either. But my third batch came out just right!!! Well, it ended up tracing as it should have so I'm hoping it came out right. I even ended up adding fragrances and additives just to see what would happen. I guess I'll see!


----------



## earlene

DunbarDesigned said:


> So today was literally my first day trying to make soap. And I'm pretty sure the first two batches were messed up. The first batch I think my lye solution was too cold because I used ice cubes after I saw that on a video from YouTube because they said that the heat from the lye and the water reacting could break my glass bowl. The second batch, my lye water was way too hot and I think my oils were a little on the lower side which didn't work out so well either. But my third batch came out just right!!! Well, it ended up tracing as it should have so I'm hoping it came out right. I even ended up adding fragrances and additives just to see what would happen. I guess I'll see!



*Dunbar*, lye will etch glass so you really should avoid using glass at all.  Stainless steel or plastic are best.  If you are mixing the lye solution, the plastic that is best for the high heat of lye is the HDPE plastic with a number 5 in the recycle triangle on the bottom.  Number 2 recycle is fine for storing lye solution that is not hot and also for mixing your soap batter in (oils first, then add lye solution and stir.)


----------



## DunbarDesigned

Ah ha! I couldn't keep straight what would react with the lye but I knew the regular plastic I have was a no no! Thank you for the words of advice! I'll definitely be using something else.


----------



## penelopejane

I thought I'd do a tiger stripe. I thought I'd make one of the colours with clay and one with AC.  
I totally forgot clay and AC accelerate despite mixing only just to emulsion. 
Not happy.


----------



## Dahila

AC rather slows than accelerate,  Clays I had never notice acceleration


----------



## penelopejane

Dahila said:


> AC rather slows than accelerate,  Clays I had never notice acceleration



I searched bentonite and AC here on the forum.


----------



## Dahila

I do not use benonite, to hard on my skin, I mean it is drying for me, I use Kaolin,  AC well I made at least 600 soaps with it, and it does not accelerate for me, but i do soap RT that's true


----------



## penelopejane

Dahila said:


> I do not use benonite, to hard on my skin, I mean it is drying for me, I use Kaolin,  AC well I made at least 600 soaps with it, and it does not accelerate for me, but i do soap RT that's true



I'll try again with another FO and cooler temp. Thanks. 
I was using bentonite for the colour. Not very impressive.


----------



## Dahila

penelope try cool temps and knows FO for not accelerating and maybe Australian pink clay, lately my favorite a tiny bit on the top of teaspoon will color your soap pastel pink


----------



## penelopejane

Dahila said:


> penelope try cool temps and knows FO for not accelerating and maybe Australian pink clay, lately my favorite a tiny bit on the top of teaspoon will color your soap pastel pink



I was pretty sure the FO wasn't an accelerator but who knows? 
I know clays vary but I have 2 Aussie pink clays and a French pink clay and they are all a horrible brick red pink in my recipe base. 

Now if I were using lard I wouldn't have a problem! :mrgreen:


----------



## Kittish

Well, I tried to burn my house down. I've got a couple of bamboo cutting boards that I use as handily portable flat surfaces for soaping. Originally got them for regular kitchen use, but these boards have developed cracks. I put one of them in the bottom of my oven (sitting directly on top of the heating element) last night, just in case any of the batches I made decided to get froggy and jump out of their molds. All three molds were filled right to the top, so there wasn't any extra room in any of them. Without thinking about it, shortly before I finished up the last batch and went to put them all in the oven, I turned the oven on, figuring to let it go for maybe 5 minutes, just so it'd be nicely cozy. *sniff sniff* Why do I smell smo.... eeep! :shock: Luckily, I caught it quick enough so all I had was an oven full of smoke and a slightly singed cutting board. Didn't even set off the smoke alarms. 

Also, my drop swirl was WAY too thin still when I finally decided to pour it. *mumble* My fragrance did not accelerate my batter AT ALL, and I was actually kind of counting on that happening. It's a combination of ylang ylang, rose geranium, champaca, amyris and a tiny bit of patchouli (last three are the first nag champa attempt). I wound up pouring ribbons and blobs on top of the soap, then moving up a bit just until the stream made them go 'bloop' beneath the surface. I hope they didn't just all wind up on the bottom.


----------



## Viore

Yesterday I was making Pumpkin Spice soap. Since the FO discolors, I didn't add it to my oils before mixing in my lye (as I usually do). I portioned out some batter, colored it orange, and poured the orange batter back into the uncolored batter and gave it a little swirl .... then looked over and saw my fragrance oil sitting in its container, mocking me. Sighed, poured the FO in the pretty swirled soap, mixed it all up so it was just plain orange, and poured it into the molds. I know the soap will end up all brown, and I'm just kicking myself for forgetting to add the FO to the uncolored batter before the swirl!


----------



## chela1261

I made a spin swirl soap recipe I found on Soapqueens blog and bought everything to make it but I messed up the amount of colorants in the recipe so they didn't come out as good as I wanted them to. Oh well maybe next time


----------



## dibbles

I pureed some cucumbers from the garden and strained them twice to end up with some lovely green cucumber juice. I split my batter and got my colors just right - all good. I knew the FO I was going to use would probably accelerate, so I mixed it 1 part naughty FO to 2 parts well behaved FO. It riced, and then was off and running. I plopped it into the mold. Tried to swirl it a little with a chopstick and there were big lumps. Banged the molds (yes, it was a rare for me double batch) and I'm expecting all kinds of air pockets and ugly await for tomorrow. Lesson relearned - don't make a big batch with an accelerating FO, even if it is just a small amount of the blend. The offender is WSP Cool Cucumber, which smells great. The little that's left will have to be used for something else.

And then I accidentally knocked my acrylic planer/beveler that I love off the shelf and broke a corner. I'm hoping it is still going to work. 

All in all, not a great day in the soap room.


----------



## penelopejane

Viore said:


> Yesterday I was making Pumpkin Spice soap. Since the FO discolors, I didn't add it to my oils before mixing in my lye (as I usually do). I portioned out some batter, colored it orange, and poured the orange batter back into the uncolored batter and gave it a little swirl .... then looked over and saw my fragrance oil sitting in its container, mocking me. Sighed, poured the FO in the pretty swirled soap, mixed it all up so it was just plain orange, and poured it into the molds. I know the soap will end up all brown, and I'm just kicking myself for forgetting to add the FO to the uncolored batter before the swirl!



Oh I feel for you.  I just made a soap and I reserved a cup to put a swirl in.  Just as I finished pouring the lye mix in I realised I hadn't added any lye to the reserved cup.  Ijiot!  I had to mix my reserved amount into the main batter and ended up with a completely even soap - no swirl.  So disappointing.

Dibbles I won't hit like on your post but I do feel for you.  : (


----------



## SoapAddict415

My soapy mistake was deciding to log on to the forum at 2:30 am lol. So many good posts & links to view (awesome pics in the soap dough link!). I have to get up in 3 hours to get ready for work & now I want to go make soap or at least go unmold and plane the soap I made after work yesterday!


----------



## Chispa

I bought BHT and EDTA at the same time. I wanted to use BHT to help guard against DOS, because I was using some expired shea butter.

Last night, I carefully blended 0.1% of EDTA with warmed oils and stirred and stirred it for a long time. It didnt seem to dissolve completely. I could see lots of specks floating in the oil.  Ah well, I made the rest of the soap as usual. It was only when I was thinking about it today that I realised that I meant to use BHT, and that EDTA doesnt dissolve in oil. I doubt it will hurt anything, I just dont have much protection from DOS in this soap batch.


----------



## DeeAnna

Once you added the lye solution, the edta probably dissolved just fine. I bet you'll have no problems.


----------



## Heika

Soapy mistake: Attempting to shade a purple soap as I went along. In other words, adding more and more mica to the soap and layering it in the mold. The soap batter was not happy with me, and by the time I finished getting it all in the mold, it was downright pissed. It was leaking oils, and processed with lye pockets. Oops. I won't try that again.

Rebatched it and swirled it with another purple lilac soap that I hot processed. It turned out alright, but not how I planned it at all. I have a theory that if the soap is ugly, stick a flower in it. Everyone loves flowers... :???:


----------



## Primrose

Last night I opened a pack of mica in front of my air conditioner


----------



## Zany_in_CO




----------



## Kittish

Primrose said:


> Last night I opened a pack of mica in front of my air conditioner



I bet everything is still all sparkly.


----------



## Primrose

It happened to be a super extra glittery mica too :shock:


----------



## NsMar42111

I needed that laugh Primrose :mrgreen::mrgreen:! Man...well, at least it wasn't activated charcoal?


----------



## artemis

Just a reminder: be sure to read the label for your FO every time you use it. Don't just trust your memory, or you could end up with soap on a stick. This just came to me out of the blue today. No reason. Just thought someone (other than me, of course) would benefit from this little reminder. You're welcome.


----------



## Cellador

Remind others what's going on in your space. Not really MY soapy mistake, but...
I always leave my lye solution to cool in our kitchen sink (it's close to a window and it makes me feel better about any potential spills or splatters). Last night, I go to check on the temperature and find my husband's used ice cream spoon in my solution, chocolate syrup and everything. He just thought it was other dirty dishes....

:headbanging:


----------



## Cirafly24

I was making a custom batch today. My customer knew what scent and additives he wanted, but gave me free reign on the colors and design. He's a Carolina Panthers fan, so I decided to make the team colors with a silver mica line. Everything was poured and ready to put to bed, when suddenly the mold tipped and dumped a bunch of batter into the sink :cry:. I think it will still be blue and black, but I have little hope that my mica line survived. Argh! We'll see when I cut it tomorrow.


----------



## iwannasoap

ourwolfden said:


> I have had a week!!!!  I left my coconut oil and shea butter out of a 5 pound batch of soap (it was in the crock pot melting and I completely forgot about it) did notice until the next day when I was getting ready to make another batch and went to melt more.  But that time everything had been cut and was on the curing rack.  Unfortunately I split this batch up and couldn't just rebatch it to add the missing oils.  *Head desk*
> 
> Today... oh today...  I went to put my lye water in the freezer like I do sometimes and forgot I had just put my camera on top of the freezer.  I opened the door and the camera fell down into the bucket I was holding and I dropped the bucket.  Lye water everywhere.  I am okay, my hands are sore because I was frantically trying to clean it up.
> 
> Hope this makes you feel better :crazy:



Well. what about the camera? Hope you didn't ruin it?


----------



## Cirafly24

Keep an eye on your fragrance oils, guys!

Just opened my dryer and noticed my clothes were unusually fragrant. Oops.


----------



## Kittish

Cirafly24 said:


> Keep an eye on your fragrance oils, guys!
> 
> Just opened my dryer and noticed my clothes were unusually fragrant. Oops.



How? I could see a bottle maybe slipping into the laundry if it was smaller, but... I gotta ask how? Also, I hope it didn't have much in it to start with. An entire bottle of anything in my laundry would have me tossing the whole load outside, at least for a day or two. Oh, and thirdly, hooray that it didn't break! Dryer full of broken glass would not be a happy making thing to deal with.


----------



## Cirafly24

I had placed a box of fragrance oils on top of the dryer for a few minutes yesterday afternoon. My husband decided to put a load in the washer, and must have knocked it in. 

It was a 4oz bottle, so I'm not sure how I didn't notice it when I switched everything to the dryer. Thankfully it was less than half full, and I'm glad it was OMH rather than something super strong like patchouli!


----------



## SparksnFlash

Oh, these stories are awsome, and mine pales in comparison.  

Making last minute lotion bars for last minute buyers - because there's no soap left.  I puzzled over why my recipe didn't seem to be yielding as much as usual.  :think: 

Yesterday, after they'd all been packaged and delivered realization finally dawned.  I completely forgot the coconut oil in all three batches.  Ran home to try one out sooo worried.  A little harder than usual, but still nice.


----------



## toxikon

Cirafly24 said:


> I had placed a box of fragrance oils on top of the dryer for a few minutes yesterday afternoon. My husband decided to put a load in the washer, and must have knocked it in.
> 
> It was a 4oz bottle, so I'm not sure how I didn't notice it when I switched everything to the dryer. Thankfully it was less than half full, and I'm glad it was OMH rather than something super strong like patchouli!



That's funny, I store my soap stuff in my laundry room too and once and a while some FOs will end up sitting on top of my dryer as well. I had a half-full Yuzu FO sitting on a shelf between my washer and dryer, and decided to move it a few days ago to prevent any accidents.


----------



## artemis

I made soap using some herbal tea in place of the water. I forgot to strain the tea a second time... When I cut the bars, I can see teensy little bits of chamomile scattered throughout the soap. Fooey.


----------



## Lin19687

Bummer 

I made my trace past "Light" and then had a FO accelerator ...  made for a big glop


----------



## madison

I made this killer mistake in my last batch few nights ago, I accidentally used the water amount as soda amount. I couldn't understand why the lye turned very very thick, I had crystals floating on the surface not melting, I was trying to figure out what went wrong, I thought I have planned very well for the batch, I couldn't tell why the soap in the molds was heating up to 450 F. I didn't need to insulate or wrap the batch, it hardened extremely fast, I thought maybe I get up very early next day to cut it, so I went to bed to wake up around 4 am thinking what went wrong. Only then it clicked to my mind what I had done. The soap is very brittle I am thinking to make it into a powder  and add baking soda and use it for washing whites. I know in the past they used lye for cleaning but I didn't try such a thing before.


----------



## Lin19687

Oh, forgot this one...  I line my round mold with Freezer paper .

Really doesn't help if you forget to put the "shiny" side inwards.
gonna try Mineral oil


----------



## penelopejane

madison said:


> I made this killer mistake in my last batch few nights ago,



madison
Laundry powder is usually made with 100% CO because other oils can stain your clothes with oil.

Your soap might cure ok. Use a soap calc to work out the actual lye concentration you used. You can use -40 lye concentration and it still makes soap.


----------



## MorpheusPA

I had one a few days ago, now that I think of it.  I was making my gardener's soap and printed the recipe.

I'd printed it at 3% SF instead of my usual 0% for that.  So I had to do an on-the-fly adjustment to the lye of (checks sheet) 6 grams (it was a pretty big batch).

A chunk of lye fell in at the end, putting me 11 grams of lye up.  So I had to adjust the oils on the fly by about 35 grams.

I didn't have enough tallow to split them, so I ended up having to make a third adjustment to shift that over to the coconut, which I did have plenty of.  There's more math.

And then I forgot to put oatmeal in it (for the scrubbiness) and ended up tossing that in at emulsion (I'll usually drop it in when I add the lye).

Fortunately, I did remember the scent.... And it all worked out at the end, with a calculated 0.5% SF and no zap a couple days later...


----------



## madison

penelopejane said:


> madison
> Laundry powder is usually made with 100% CO because other oils can stain your clothes with oil.
> 
> Your soap might cure ok. Use a soap calc to work out the actual lye concentration you used. You can use -40 lye concentration and it still makes soap.


Thank you penelopejane , I don't make laundry soap as I have crazy hard water here, the hard water still ruins the clothes with the best laundry store bought detergent. How do I plug numbers to know the lye concentration in the batch?  I usually plug the lye concentration I have determined using soapee, not the other way around.


----------



## Zany_in_CO

MorpheusPA said:


> ...So I had to do an on-the-fly adjustment to the lye of (checks sheet) 6 grams (it was a pretty big batch). ...So I had to adjust the oils on the fly by about 35 grams.  ...a third adjustment to shift that over to the coconut ...I forgot to put oatmeal in it (for the scrubbiness) and ended up tossing that in at emulsion ...And it all worked out at the end


WHEW! Well done, Morpheus!


----------



## msunnerstood

I  was planning on making a beautiful white and purple swirl. In fact the swirl was turning out absolutely beautiful in the mold when I looked down and saw the full bottle of fragrance oils still sitting there. Needless to say I now have a solid purple soap.


----------



## penelopejane

madison said:


> Thank you penelopejane , I don't make laundry soap as I have crazy hard water here, the hard water still ruins the clothes with the best laundry store bought detergent. How do I plug numbers to know the lye concentration in the batch?  I usually plug the lye concentration I have determined using soapee, not the other way around.



Put your oils in soapee then fiddle with the numbers in soapee until you come up with the amount of lye you actually used and the amount of water you used.  It might be a different SF and/or a different lye concentration.  Just keep changing the numbers until you get the answers as close as you can to what you used.


----------



## SaltedFig

Every single one I could ... I went so far out of my comfort zone that I reckon I would have had trouble spotting it with binoculars!


----------



## madison

penelopejane said:


> Put your oils in soapee then fiddle with the numbers in soapee until you come up with the amount of lye you actually used and the amount of water you used.  It might be a different SF and/or a different lye concentration.  Just keep changing the numbers until you get the answers as close as you can to what you used.


Thank you, I'll do that. Would you please check my other thread Help Wanted Please, and tell me what you think.


----------



## Lin19687

yesterday I went to do a 3# batch so measured out the oils.  Melted in my bigger plastic measure thing.
I forgot to think about the Lye water amount and how much that adds to the plastic measure thing ....
Glad I had a big glass Pyrex and it just fit.  Ran out to Home Depot to get 5 qt jugs  what a dope


----------



## NsMar42111

Made up a mini 1 lb batch for a new mold...all proud of myself because I was done and cleaned up in 15 minutes. Yea....until I look over and see my bottle of FO on the counter right next to the mold...full. *sigh*. Luckily it was CP and I had poured at light trace and the FO tends to slow trace. Dumped everything out of the mold back into the mixing container, add FO, whisk like a madwoman, pour it all back into the mold. Yea...when the little voice said "add it to the oils" I should've listened.


----------



## Serene

I did just that on a 5 lbs batch last week so I feel your pain.   Looks pretty though... sigh


----------



## SoapAddict415

I set everything up, mixed my colors and weighed out my oils last night so when I got home from work today, I could relax and make soap. I just realized that I forgot to make my lye water so it'd be at room temp like my oils.


----------



## earlene

I am in need of something to do to get my mind off of my car and get over my irritation, but am not sure making soap is the right way to go at this point.  Maybe I'll go for a walk and burn off some energy and decide when I get back to the hotel.  

I'd like to use up some of the oils I have with me so I can toss out the bottles before I leave tomorrow (IF my car is ready by the 'end of the day' which is apparently not a 'promise').  And I have some Utah Salt Flats salt I can use to make salt bars.  So I might do that later today if I get over my bad mood.  I'd go see my son, but I don't want to spread my bad mood around; it's just not fair to other people.


----------



## cmzaha

earlene said:


> I am in need of something to do to get my mind off of my car and get over my irritation, but am not sure making soap is the right way to go at this point.  Maybe I'll go for a walk and burn off some energy and decide when I get back to the hotel.
> 
> I'd like to use up some of the oils I have with me so I can toss out the bottles before I leave tomorrow (IF my car is ready by the 'end of the day' which is apparently not a 'promise').  And I have some Utah Salt Flats salt I can use to make salt bars.  So I might do that later today if I get over my bad mood.  I'd go see my son, but I don't want to spread my bad mood around; it's just not fair to other people.


Now that is a seriously bad mood  when you don't want to see and subject your son to it. Hopefully your walk helps and you get your Utah Salt bars made. Would be very interested how they turn out.


----------



## cmzaha

Cellador said:


> Remind others what's going on in your space. Not really MY soapy mistake, but...
> I always leave my lye solution to cool in our kitchen sink (it's close to a window and it makes me feel better about any potential spills or splatters). Last night, I go to check on the temperature and find my husband's used ice cream spoon in my solution, chocolate syrup and everything. He just thought it was other dirty dishes....
> 
> :headbanging:


My containers are always Labled in large lettering LYE, no matter what size the container is, even if it only my hubby and I most of the time.


----------



## cmzaha

penelopejane said:


> madison
> Laundry powder is usually made with 100% CO because other oils can stain your clothes with oil.
> 
> Your soap might cure ok. Use a soap calc to work out the actual lye concentration you used. You can use -40 lye concentration and it still makes soap.


It will only cure out okay if a large amount of water is used. I tried that when people here were playing with the lye heavy castile. I decided to try a high -superfat, do not remember the exact negative but I think it was a little less that the -40. Anyway even after 2 yrs on the shelf it zapped. If I remember correctly I went with the 38% water as % of oil. I figured there was just not enough extra liquid to carry out the excess lye to the outside of the soap


----------



## Lin19687

Darn DD came in bothering me and frazzled my mind.

Left the FO out after a swirl   Yup, couldn't let that go so I mixed it in by hand, puke blueish grey color so I dumped a ton of white into the last 1/4 and plopped on top.  Thick thick batter at that point.
Hoping I can call it Mountain top but think it will be more like Smoggy mountain top


----------



## Alzie

Well today I thought I would test some fragrances....in soap....ended up testing them on the table instead.... After BF graciously helped me number a bunch of plastic cups (first mistake) and line them up on a sheet tray (lucky save), I proceeded to add the fragrances to their designated cups....did I mention I had 52 fragrances I wanted to test (second mistake)? Momentarily thinking I had magical powers to pull this off, I filled 17 by the time I noticed pooling fragrance on the sheet pan.  First I thought I missed a cup with the pipette, but the leaning tower of Dixie Cup (#1 & 2) clued me in that they had given up the ghost.  It when at this moment my brain turned back on and I remembered why I don't use these cups to soap other than mixing colors in.  I saved about 3/4 if them by transferring the FO contents to a silicone ice mold (one crisis averted), chunked the sheet pan in the sink then proceeded to regroup.  Luckily I hadn't made any soap! Still thinking I had a shot at accomplishing this, I started to measure the next FO, pineapple....well, that FO wasn't on board with my plan, so it dumped itself all over my table.  At this point, everything smelled like a pineapple-barbershop-blue agave-strawberry mess, I decided to throw in the towel for the night.  Lessons learned - keep goals reasonable and manageable!!


----------



## earlene

So sorry for you FO troubles, *Alzie*.  Yes, I've had fragrance eat through thin plastic, too.   What a mess, huh?   Just FYI, if you use an oilcloth table cloth or plastic table cloth, fragrance will eat through it as well.  It did mine, when I spilled some on my table cloth that I use to cover my work table.  Since then, I always line the workspace with towels so clean up is easier.  Fresh towels for each session.

Another lesson I've learned with fragrance is that even if I use a (small) glazed ceramic container, the fragrance will be absorbed by the ceramic and last for weeks in that container.  Granted the glaze may have cracked or not sufficiently fired in the first place; I don't know.  But another lesson learned:  don't use those cute little ceramic creamers my Mom used to love for measuring fragrance.  The smell is nice, but I can't know how much of it did not end up in the soap.

So now I tend to use Stainless steel or glass to measure my fragrances.  There are some plastics that won't be eaten by fragrances, but I have these alternatives, so I use them and no more problems.


----------



## Alzie

earlene said:


> So sorry for you FO troubles, *Alzie*.  Yes, I've had fragrance eat through thin plastic, too.   What a mess, huh?   Just FYI, if you use an oilcloth table cloth or plastic table cloth, fragrance will eat through it as well.  It did mine, when I spilled some on my table cloth that I use to cover my work table.  Since then, I always line the workspace with towels so clean up is easier.  Fresh towels for each session.
> 
> Another lesson I've learned with fragrance is that even if I use a (small) glazed ceramic container, the fragrance will be absorbed by the ceramic and last for weeks in that container.  Granted the glaze may have cracked or not sufficiently fired in the first place; I don't know.  But another lesson learned:  don't use those cute little ceramic creamers my Mom used to love for measuring fragrance.  The smell is nice, but I can't know how much of it did not end up in the soap.
> 
> So now I tend to use Stainless steel or glass to measure my fragrances.  There are some plastics that won't be eaten by fragrances, but I have these alternatives, so I use them and no more problems.


It most definitely was a mess! but it gave me more insight that I need to slow down and do a thorough assessment before I start. Good to know about the oil cloth and ceramic! Funny story, I keep my spatulas separate from the cooking ones and one morning my bf wondered why his eggs tasted like perfume....I just shook my head because he couldn't believe how much the fragrance lasted on it lol. I just made 12 in silicone baking cups and pre measured the fragrance before the pour.  Seemed to work well and incorporate fully... Fingers crossed! I'm hoping to streamline my process by testing small before committing to the fragrance, I recently had one (purple cow, RE) that smells great but when being used it smells reminiscent of Colorado's favorite plant lol.


----------



## earlene

Now you have me wondering.  What is Colorado's favorite plant?


----------



## Alzie

Lol, Marijuana is the favorite of some here...I personally prefer my asiatic lillies, but to each their own . It's just strange it doesn't smell like purple cow after the cure.  I think this spurred my fragrance test experiment lol.


----------



## Lesley Susan Madigan

Messing about last night I melted base and it didn't seem to be melting so being a genuis (HA!) I put it on longer..

When the timer went off I looked and oh yes its melted. Got my oven gloves on. 

Took the container out and the bottom stayed behind! I'd melted a hole in the base.

So then I had this mess of soap and melted plastic all over the place. Had to wait for the mix to cool down before I could scrape it off the worktop


----------



## Alzie

Lesley Susan Madigan said:


> Messing about last night I melted base and it didn't seem to be melting so being a genuis (HA!) I put it on longer..
> 
> When the timer went off I looked and oh yes its melted. Got my oven gloves on.
> 
> Took the container out and the bottom stayed behind! I'd melted a hole in the base.
> 
> So then I had this mess of soap and melted plastic all over the place. Had to wait for the mix to cool down before I could scrape it off the worktop


Oh no! That's terrible! I completely understand, it's an "imagine my surprise...." Moment for sure. Hopefully no damage to the worktop!



NsMar42111 said:


> I needed that laugh Primrose :mrgreen::mrgreen:! Man...well, at least it wasn't activated charcoal?


Nope, that would be my move last night! Full container of AC over the table and floor...I have hippy feet now per my bf lol I thought glitter was bad to clean up!


----------



## SoapAddict415

I created a recipe, ordered the oils and then lost the recipe! I usually create them on my phone using Soapcalc and I take a screenshot of it. I have NO idea what I was thinking or what I did with the recipe. Guess I'll have to start over.


----------



## amd

I did this a few weeks ago... but thought I would document here in case anyone would like to know what NOT to do with an accelerating FO.

I made this soap for the first time about a year ago, so I knew that the FO accelerates (Crafter's Choice Wild Peach Poppies Type). I made it with buttermilk powder, and poured it in 3 layers, making each layer individually. It was a lovely soap and a good seller for me last Christmas, and have already had ten requests for it in the last month. I scaled up from 2lbs to 4lbs, which usually isn't a problem for me. But then I did this...

Changed recipe from standard 65% hard oil recipe to 66% hard oil recipe, the 1% increase due to the addition of stearic acid which I know heats up my soap and increases acceleration. I was being lazy and did not want to masterbatch a new batch of oils, and the 1% stearic was already masterbatched.
Decreased my water to lye ratio from 3:1 to 2:1. I still have no idea why I did that. It was a complete spur of the moment change when I was measuring my lye solution and water.
Added buttermilk powder to the oils without any kind of pre-mixing or slurry. 
End result: soap batter instantly accelerated within 5 seconds of stick blending. By the time I had the mold in place to put the batter in, it was a crumbly HOT mess that I had to smoosh into the mold. When I cut the soap it was heavily burnt, and had visible chunks of buttermilk powder that didn't get incorporated correctly. (You can watch the making YouTube video here, although I did edit out the part where I cried, and the cutting video here.)

I am happy to report that I re-made the soap yesterday, removing all three of the bad decisions. I did replace the buttermilk powder with fresh buttermilk and it soaped even better than the first time I made this soap. I don't think I could have done swirls with this particular FO, but it behaved lovely for making layers, which is all I needed. I did make a video, and will make one of the cut too, but it will be a few weeks before it gets posted (my editing queue is full right now).


----------



## msunnerstood

Not really a mistake but more of a battle. I added my "Lucky Green" Mica to a batch tonight and it promptly turned a muddy pink. I spent te entire cook time trying to fix it and it did wind up a good color but lord only knows what the texture will be with kaolin clay (A lot of it) and TD and Yellow and darker green mica. I have never seen a color morph that far from the original before.


----------



## Lin19687

Was it added after the cook or did it change from you added the lye ?
If the latter I would think that maybe it might morph back ?
Where was the mics from, just curious if they might have reviews that this is a known issue


----------



## msunnerstood

View attachment 31722


Lin19687 said:


> Was it added after the cook or did it change from you added the lye ?
> If the latter I would think that maybe it might morph back ?
> Where was the mics from, just curious if they might have reviews that this is a known issue


I added it at trace since this was a one color soap. I waited a bit and it stayed that aweful color. It was Lucky Green from tkb.
 I was able to play with it until I got a green out of it but it wasn't exactly the green I was looking for


----------



## Lin19687

L
Lisa B.
Verified Buyer
12/27/17
Pretty color but Morphs in
Pretty color but Morphs in CP soap 

But someone in Feb 2017 said it was nice in their soap but didn't say what kind so Maybe it was MP.
Also they didn't say what it morphs too


----------



## msunnerstood

Lin19687 said:


> L
> Lisa B.
> Verified Buyer
> 12/27/17
> Pretty color but Morphs in
> Pretty color but Morphs in CP soap
> 
> But someone in Feb 2017 said it was nice in their soap but didn't say what kind so Maybe it was MP.
> Also they didn't say what it morphs too


Hmm,  You know I bought it as a part of a collection. It was called the basic colors collection. I should have checked the reviews on the individual colors


----------



## Lin19687

Now I wonder what it would have turned out like if you left it.
I had one color morph with the FO but had read somewhere that it happens.
one more thing I love about NG, all the reviews.
I also get my Mica from Mica & More as she tests them in CP too.  Plus her FB page with everyone elses soap pics that I just drool over


----------



## cmzaha

msunnerstood said:


> View attachment 31722
> 
> I added it at trace since this was a one color soap. I waited a bit and it stayed that aweful color. It was Lucky Green from tkb.
> I was able to play with it until I got a green out of it but it wasn't exactly the green I was looking for
> View attachment 31723


If you click on the ingredient list on TKB's site it does not check cp safe. So I would assume it is not high ph stable
https://tkbtrading.com/products/lucky-green


----------



## steffamarie

@amd you are a saint. I would have ended up with a video that was very much against the rules of this forum in terms of language/behavior. I panic if I get even slight acceleration and it’s something I need to work on. Bravo for a job well done and a cheerful demeanor to boot!!


----------



## amd

LOL thank you. I did edit the part where I cried after smooshing the second layer. The only person I had to be mad at was myself because I knew better, I really did... but I was feeling 10 feet tall and bulletproof that day. Once I got the crying out of the way, I had no choice really but to laugh at myself and just accept what a disaster it was. That's just how soaping goes sometimes. You learn, toss the mistake in the bin, and move on to make better soap.


----------



## scard

What steffamarie said. I think things that really shouldn't fly, would've been airborne over here.  I'm sorry that happened but thanks for letting others learn from it. 
Sadly I don't think there is a cure for impatience, or maybe I just couldn't wait around for it!


----------



## maitri

I am a beginner for cold process.
I was on to my 5th batch, still figuring what's wrong, why it's not curing, so yesterday night I spent around 30 mins just looking at the soap what's going wrong and suddenly I realise it reached gel phase so soon and expanded and I was stupid to keep my soaps on top of a fridge (lack of space)... After that I made another small batch and kept it in a cooler place and finally I had my first successful cold process soap !


----------



## earlene

Welcome to the forum and to soaping, *maitri*!  Good deductive reasoning on your part, too.  Congratulations on your success.


----------



## maitri

earlene said:


> Welcome to the forum and to soaping, *maitri*!  Good deductive reasoning on your part, too.  Congratulations on your success.


Thank you so much  I am glad to be a part of this amazing group.


----------



## amd

maitri said:


> I am a beginner for cold process.
> I was on to my 5th batch, still figuring what's wrong, why it's not curing, so yesterday night I spent around 30 mins just looking at the soap what's going wrong and suddenly I realise it reached gel phase so soon and expanded and I was stupid to keep my soaps on top of a fridge (lack of space)... After that I made another small batch and kept it in a cooler place and finally I had my first successful cold process soap !



Welcome @maitri ! Just to clarify, "curing" is the process that we refer to after soap has finished saponifying. It is the 4-6 week (or longer depending on soap type!) that water is allowed to evaporate out of the soap and the molecular crystals are formed. The process that you are referring to, when soap is in the mold doing its thing, is part of the saponification process - although the soap may not be completely saponified when you unmold, it should be mostly done - usually we refer to it as "setting up". Sounds like you had the beginnings of volcanos, so a good idea to move it off the fridge! I look forward to seeing your successful soaps


----------



## maitri

amd said:


> Welcome @maitri ! Just to clarify, "curing" is the process that we refer to after soap has finished saponifying. It is the 4-6 week (or longer depending on soap type!) that water is allowed to evaporate out of the soap and the molecular crystals are formed. The process that you are referring to, when soap is in the mold doing its thing, is part of the saponification process - although the soap may not be completely saponified when you unmold, it should be mostly done - usually we refer to it as "setting up". Sounds like you had the beginnings of volcanos, so a good idea to move it off the fridge! I look forward to seeing your successful soaps


Oh Kay. Thank you so much


----------



## Zany_in_CO

Deleted. For some weird reason my post ended up here instead of where I meant to post it. (Scratches head, shrugs shoulders).


----------



## dibbles

Yesterday I set out to make two batches of soap, different recipes. I made the lye solution for each batch and weighed the hard oils for each batch. Got the additives and colors ready. I had everything labeled. So far so good. While I was adding the liquid oils to the melted oils for the first batch, I realized I had put the wrong recipe out. So fixed that mistake. The rest of that soap went just fine. I decided to wait until today to recalculate the remaining batch. I'm sure my calculations were correct. All was going fine until the FO. It was one I've used before with no problems, but today decided to rice. And accelerate. Plopped it in the mold and it was too thick to even think about swirling the top, and I am not gifted in the thick texturizing tops so many people can make look amazing. But why not try, since at this point there isn't much to lose. And a mica drizzle will surely jazz it up. What a mess. I'm not even excited to cut it tomorrow.


----------



## Zany_in_CO

dibbles said:


> ... used before with no problems, but today decided to rice. And accelerate.


The first rule of soaping is PATIENCE.
The second rule is DON'T PANIC.

So ya didn't panic, Dibbles, and got a handle on how to correct one batch, which is really a "success", of sorts to my mind at least. As for the second batch, I think it will be just fine.

TIP: When soap accelerates or seizes, I walk away for 5 minutes... I even set the timer... when I come back, it's going into gel and is easy to stir and pour. Another way to treat it is to stir in an ounce or so of cold water to make it pourable once again.


----------



## dibbles

Thanks @Zany_in_CO. I know I could have tried waiting. I had 4 colors separated out, so stirring it all together would have made a pretty ugly soap anyway, and 3 of the containers were too small to go into gel. The soap will be usable, but I'm expecting some air pockets. Who knows what else is lurking below the surface. I might put them all in a box and have a white elephant gift for Christmas. And there is always the chance they might not be completely horrible. I've learned that sometimes you fight the soap and the soap wins.


----------



## Monique Serio Enete

lionprincess00 said:


> So I figured I'd start this thread to post about our oops (and to make myself not feel quite so bad).
> 
> I just left out my olive oil....-20% sf almost as it stands. Off to hot process this *[email protected]#
> 
> So annoyed with myself right now!



This post is the reason I joined this forum! Made me feel “not alone”. Lol


----------



## gbtreasures

I’ve made a few batches of successful soap and decided to do a candy peppermint swirl. 1st of all I have to say that after reading this thread (& chuckling), I felt so much better! HOWEVER, I made a big booboo. Without thinking (which happens quite frequently to me), I started soaping by mixing my liquid with my oils right off the bat! When I got to thinking (finally) I realized I still needed my lye solution. So... being the brain trying to save the day - I spooned off the separated oil as best I could, then made my lye solution with the remaining liquid . I fished out the saponified chunks from the little bit of oil left in the liquid after adding the lye. I added more liquid, then continued as though it never happened. The rest went much better than I expected. Thanks to my stick blender! I have a nice swirl, but I’m waiting to see what the end result will be !!


----------



## KimT2au

Today was clearly not a day for me to soap.  I have no idea if soap can be used as verb but, blow it, I am going to do so.  This tale of woe, this story of sorry, this party of pity actually has it's roots in yesterday.  I had planned to make soap yesterday (Tuesday) and so on Monday I puts some oats onto soak ready to make oatmilk to be used for my water.  When I previously made the oatmilk I soaked the oats in too much water so the oatmilk I used was very watery.  Remembering that, this time I measured the water with greater care.  Unfortunately I did not get to make the soap yesterday so the oats were left to soak for a day longer than last time and THAT is the first part of the trouble. On with the long sleeve garment, on with the apron, on with the gloves and safety goggles ready to go.  When I went to drain the water content off from the oats there was not enough as a lot of it had been absorbed by the oats in the course of the extra day soaking.  Rather than toddle off down the other end of the house for more distilled water, I decided to squeeze through extra moisture so I could get maximum "oatiness" out of the mixture.  Certainly what I got was a lot thicker and cloudier than what I used last time and I am guessing it had far more unsaponifiables in it.

I measured out the palm oil, yup, all good.  I measured out the coconut oil, yup, all good.  Put the container in the microwave on a low setting to melt them so they do not overheat and set about mixing up my lye mixture.   Time to make the lye mixture, still wearing safety wear  cover  plus now goggles firmly affixed in place.  First, let me admit that I did not freeze the oat milk as the recipe I was following did not tell me to do so plus when I first made this soap I was not a member here and had never heard of freezing the oatmilk.  I now know better but clearly chose to ignore my better senses.  I start adding my lye to my oat milk in small amounts and it immediately turns an orange colour.  OK, I know straight away what has happened, I have scorched the sugars in the oatmilk, and realise I should have frozen it before use.  It's too late to turn back now so ever onwards.  I have got no more than half way through adding the lye to the oatmilk mixture and the whole lot turns into a big lump of goo, yup, a big glob of orangey,  sticky, globbiness (another word I am going to use, even if I did make it up).   Hmmm, to late to turn back I figure now, I should keep adding the lye and maybe it will sort itself out later.  So I am adding, mixing, adding, mixing and OH MY GOODNESS the hot flush from Hell hits me.  I thought I was over the hot flushes and come out the other side of menopause but by jingo I was hit by a whopper.  So I am standing there in all my safety gear, mixing this lye mixture, with a window and the door open and I have sweat running down my face and feel like I am about to spontaneously combust. I tried to soldier on but I am getting hotter and hotter to the point were I feel like if I don't cool down I am going to pass out so I had to take off my long sleeves.  Phew that felt better back to stirring the lye.  A minute or two later both my forearms start to itch like mad.  I don't think I was splashed by the lye as that was actually a solid lump by then, I think my skin was becoming itchy due to the salt in the sweat drying on my skin from the hot flush but better safe than sorry, I washed both arms.  Again, in hindsight, I think I am going to get myself a pair of those extra long washing up gloves rather than just those little latex ones in case that sort of thing happens again.

Now to measure out the rest of the oils... "Olive oil, olive oil, olive oil", I think to myself, skimming down the list.  Before reaching olive oil on the list I had a thought  "You know, I don't remember using that much coconut oil last time".  When I checked I had measured out the olive oil amount for the coconut oil and had measured out 369g coconut oil rather than 28g coconut oil that was in the recipe!   EEEEEKKKKK pull jug out of microwave.  Luckily I had been melting the palm oil and the coconut oil on an extremely low setting and the palm oil was mostly still solid.  I grabbed the chunk that was still solid and put that in another bowl and weighed that.   Yep, I still had enough palm oil sitting around to make up the small amount that had melted and then used the liquid in the initial bowl to measure out the coconut oil and then put that new bowl into the microwave (on a higher setting this time) to melt.  I am however left with a load of melted coconut oil mixed with a bit of palm oil.  I can't simply put it back in the container as it is not straight coconut oil.  It is currently sitting on my window sill firming up again.  I am hoping that the coconut oil and the palm oil will set in two different layers, if not, then the dogs can have a drop each with their dinners over the next week or so.  They will love that and it will do wonders for their skin and coats.

OK, I weighed out the rest of the oils with no great dramas and continued to stir the lye lump (can't call it a mixture at this point) in the hope that it might be usable if it does not go rock solid.  The next bit goes well.  I line the mould, the palm and coconut oil melt and I mix them with the other oils to cool down.  Finally they are cool so I think I better be ready to work once I put the lye into the oils and.... yes, you guessed it...... I put my whole stick blender in there rather than just the stick end as I wanted it to be ready to use at a moments notice and it started to tip the bowl over.  Oh Poop, or something similar, I thought to myself, but at least I did manage to catch the bowl so the only oil I lost was what was on the stick blender but it was still an additional mess I had to clean up.

Now I start to stir the lye in and prepare myself for some volcanic action but it was extremely disappointing as absolutely nothing happened.  First I mixed with the spatula and then used the stick blender and it came together just fine.  The lye lumps broke up and the rest of that went well.  Sighhhhhh.  Finally, something has gone right.  A few drops of fragrance, still no problems.  Double sigghhhh of relief and into the mould.  Give the mould a couple of good taps on the bench and tuck it up for the night.

I have checked it a couple of times since then and all seems to be going well until a few moments ago.  I finished the soap about 5 hours ago and I start to see this "stuff" on top.  Yep, I had forgotten to spray the top of the loaf with alcohol and soda ash was forming already.  Oh well, I have sprayed it now and put the soap back to bed for a while.  I must say that it was nice and warm under that insulation, it was kind of inviting and I wished I could curl up in there as well.

After I finished my soap I had to finish rendering some tallow.  One lot was all lovely and clean but the other lot was not quite ready.  After lunch I kept looking at the tallow that was oh so white and clean and begging to be used and was very tempted to try a small batch of 100% tallow soap to see how would go.  Luckily my better judgement took over at that point and I decided to stop and wait until tomorrow to make more soap.

Today was not a good day for soap making for me


----------



## Alfa_Lazcares

I forgot to add the coffee grounds to my coffee soap... ops.


----------



## artemis

Alfa_Lazcares said:


> I forgot to add the coffee grounds to my coffee soap... ops.


That's ok. I once left the pumpkin puree out of my pumpkin soap. Also: I once left the tuna out of my tuna casserole. We called it "tuna surprise." Surprise! No tuna!


----------



## Lin19687

The other day I mixed my water for Lye.  Added salt and sugar with Hot tap water to help melt it all.
Got my oils all set then out to do the Lye.... Outside on the Deck (which is crappy so meh... ) THANK GOODNESS!
I didn't let the water cool off enough.
Poured in Lye, I had 5 buckets out, into each.  Then I go to stir.  1st one bubbled up -  This is why you wear gloves and goggles and LONG sleeves.  I noticed it as soon as it did it.  too hot.
I also make this in a TALL pitcher and a Long long spoon.
You can control this but you have to barely touch it.  Took my 15 min to get them all done.  And that one spilled over a bit onto the table and dripped onto deck.  Both Wood and now I have a little clean spot on my teak table and a couple clean spots on the deck.

Good part is I know now an easy way to clean grime and green sliminess off the deck and table


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## demirhanunlu

This is 24 hours later. Some small water bubbles have been formed on top of my soaps. Anyone knows what i did wrong?


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## Alzie

demirhanunlu said:


> This is 24 hours later. Some small water bubbles have been formed on top of my soaps. Anyone knows what i did wrong?View attachment 32698


Unfortunately without the recipe and your process  details it would be hard to say, it could be a myriad of things .  With the additional information, I'm sure you'll get some help with what might be going on.


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## demirhanunlu

Alzie said:


> Unfortunately without the recipe and your process  details it would be hard to say, it could be a myriad of things .  With the additional information, I'm sure you'll get some help with what might be going on.


Cold process soap with olive oil 500 gr, palm oil 100 gr, sunflower oil 100 gr, black seed oil 100 gr, cacao butter 100 gr and kombucha tea.
I have used one of the bars and it was great and bubbly. However, i haven't encountered something like this before


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## steffamarie

Looks like it could have gotten too hot, maybe from the kombucha?


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## Lin19687

Mistake was trying One Last Time to soap with Gemlite candle FO's.
added color AND FO to oils, then did lye.  **** thing started to Rice then seize...... It was the 1st batch in an 8 batch afternoon.  Glad it only let the Gremin take that batch and the rest were good soaping


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## Lin19687

Was making a 16 oz batch of Balm on the stove.  Water in pot and Mason jar with oils to melt.

The bottom of the mason jar broke    all the oils went into the water.


----------



## Lin19687

Thanks to my Very Needy 1/2 blind and totally Deaf cat, I forgot to put my  Milk batche on the deck outside in the cold air.....  which is WHY I waited till Winter to do these.  I have a very small fridge/freezer.

yup, total over heat, posted a pic in the beginners forum in the sticky section.
Just classic.  Looked fine so I thought I was in the clear when I went to cut it this morning   and this is why I kept my crock pot lol


----------



## msunnerstood

Lin19687 said:


> Thanks to my Very Needy 1/2 blind and totally Deaf cat, I forgot to put my  Milk batche on the deck outside in the cold air.....  which is WHY I waited till Winter to do these.  I have a very small fridge/freezer.
> 
> yup, total over heat, posted a pic in the beginners forum in the sticky section.
> Just classic.  Looked fine so I thought I was in the clear when I went to cut it this morning   and this is why I kept my crock pot lol



I was going to like your post Lin and then thought, "Thats not a like thing" sorry that happened.

My New soap rack came today so I will be on the floor soon assembling, and likely swearing.


----------



## Lin19687

Lol @msunnerstood Actually I laughed at the pic.  Just rebatched them, now waiting to see when they will be cut.

Just don't make the new Rack wrong and add it to this post   Mojo for a good rack assembly !!


----------



## SunRiseArts

artemis said:


> That's ok. I once left the pumpkin puree out of my pumpkin soap. Also: I once left the tuna out of my tuna casserole. We called it "tuna surprise." Surprise! No tuna!


----------



## Zany_in_CO

Lin19687 said:


> ...posted a pic in the beginners forum in the sticky section...


YIKES!     "Classic" indeed! Thanks for sharing, Lin. Here's the link (go to post #99)
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...-volcanos-separating-overheating.52097/page-5


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## Lin19687

It rebatched ok, but man is it ugly


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## Lin19687

Can't find the 'What soap mistake have you made today' so I guess this is a new one.

Soapy Mistake....  Did a new scent for me last night 6th batch for the night when I got home from work.

Sat for almost an hour trying to think of a color to use and not sure I thought of a good one.   I didn't know what it would do in my batter as there were mix reviews on the  R & A for this scent.  I went with a blah 2 color and colored before Lye.  I didn't like the way the colors were but LOVE the scent OOB.

I did 2 batches of the 1st and 2nd scents so thought I should just do 2 of this one.
..........forgot the scent on the 2nd batch  

Good thing out of it was that I am not sure I like the colors I picked.  So many it was a blessing to have a batch of Color No Scent  


What have you goofed on lately?


----------



## artemis

Lin19687 said:


> It rebatched ok, but man is it ugly


I found the thread.


----------



## Michelle0803

I made a batch of our very favorite soap and completely forgot the FO.  The soap turned out beautifully, but unscented.


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## Lin19687

Michelle0803 said:


> I made a batch of our very favorite soap and completely forgot the FO.  The soap turned out beautifully, but unscented.



Sorry The Gremlins must have gone from my house to yours


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## techiemeka

I substituted a surfactant shampoo for castor oil today. Got much out and replaced with castor but it was gloppy and jelly. Still in the molds so will see if any is salvageable - I doubt it tho.


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## Zany_in_CO

Hmmm...


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## Lin19687

None Today   lol

well, I still have 6 batches to cut later so it may still be bad
hahahhaa


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## runnerchicki

My soapy mistake(s) actually happened a few weeks ago:

I am moving soon and the movers will not pack any of my oils that have been opened. So I thought I'd just make as much soap as possible and take it with me rather than throw away the oils. I also didn't want to waste the lye water master batch I have mixed up. But - I was heading off for a two week work/house-hunting trip in my new location the very next day. No problem, I'm thinking. It will be half-way cured by the time I get back.

First mistake:  I over-estimated how much liquid oils I had so I'm running new recipes through the lye calculator using more hard oils than I had planned (cocoa butter, shea butter, kokum butter - none of which I have very much of on their own - I'm getting ready to move and down to scraps of everything.) I decide on a two color soap - deep blue swirled into a creamy white base. I'm ready to go. I'm going to move without throwing away any of my supplies - yay!

Second mistake: while the recipe looked pretty good on paper I had never made a soap with that much hard butters and was unprepared for the acceleration once I started to SB. Oh my goodness - the batter was like pudding in seconds. I know that I'm probably dealing with a false trace, and I just keep blending as much as I can. When I think my SB is going to die - I start pouring - or plopping really! I just got the two colors in as soon as I could and when I tried to swirl with a chopstick I notice hardened white bits all over the place. Uh-oh. I'm seriously worried that the soap isn't emulsified and it's going to have lye pockets or something. But I have to leave for the airport tomorrow!

Third mistake:  I totally forgot that I needed to have time to unmold and cut!! Seriously, how could I be so stupid! This move has my brain fried. So I got up super early, and the soap seems pretty hard after only 8 hours,  and since I don't have much choice I decide to unmold and cut. While cutting it I notice there are solid bits all througout the soap, and areas that are kind of translucent and I'm sure that it's going to ooze all over while I'm gone. So I spread everything out in a bin and have to leave for the airport.  I'm pretty sure that the batch is lost and I might as well have thrown everything out from the get go.

Two weeks later - I come home and the bars don't look too bad. But those translucent areas have me so worried. I can't find my pH strips anywhere, and I have never had the nerve to do the zap test. I decide that to be safe, I will rebatch the soap and see if I can at least get something safe and usable. 

It was so soft and easy to cut and it melted down pretty easy. The dark blue and creamy white turned into a grayish blue colored batter. It didn't look very pretty in the mold.  

I unmolded and cut the loaf a week ago. I just tested a bar, I got a creamy lather with some bubbles and feels great on the skin. I think the batch is saved! I think I will make this recipe as a HP soap from the get go next time. Scent with clean cotton or something like that - the rustic bars look just like faded denim jeans.

Sorry this was so long - but I made lots of mistakes with this soap and I learned a few important lessons. Don't get in a hurry and don't soap the night before a trip lol. I am lucky it turned out well, and I think that the look of the final bars is even prettier than the original swirl I had planned. 

I do not sell my soap - this is just for me, and what I give away to family and friends. But I still hate the idea of a batch being ruined, so I consider myself super lucky this time.


----------



## Marilyn Norgart

kind of hard to make soapy mistakes when I cant motivate my self to do anything soapy---otherwise I am sure I would have something to share .  not trying to be mean but am glad to see I am not the only one who forgets the scent...………………...well I just thought of something I did yesterday.  I was makin a plain coconut milk soap and was going to do 50-50 with the rest of liquid being the coconut milk.  I went ahead and mixed it with the full water.  made up a batch of 50-50 but now I have a batch of lye solution that I need to use up.  I have never done that--do I use the oils hotter so the cooler lye doesn't harden up the oils.  maybe I need to just go make something and try


----------



## Zany_in_CO

Marilyn Norgart said:


> do I use the oils hotter so the cooler lye doesn't harden up the oils.


I don't master batch lye, but in your situation, I wouldn't worry about the temperature of the lye. Just melt your oils/fats, add your additives, stir or SB for one full minutes before adding the lye solution. SB to trace. Should work fine.

On the other hand, if you're "not motivated"... might be best to wait until you are.


----------



## Marilyn Norgart

Zany_in_CO said:


> stir or SB for one full minutes before adding the lye solution. SB to trace. Should work fine.



thanks for that info Zany--I planned on never master batching  --now at least I get a taste of it.  maybe some mistakes ARENT all bad


----------



## RobinRogers

Zany_in_CO said:


> I don't master batch lye, but in your situation, I wouldn't worry about the temperature of the lye. Just melt your oils/fats, add your additives, stir or SB for one full minutes before adding the lye solution. SB to trace. Should work fine.
> 
> On the other hand, if you're "not motivated"... might be best to wait until you are.


I don’t usually master batch lye. I do mix it the night before on most occasions. I find if I melt my hard oils and let them cool to room temp, I have a much better soaping experience. I like soaping with everything at room temp.


----------



## Marilyn Norgart

well I just soaped with the cool lye and my oils at 110.  I think the result was ricing--it didn't happen until I started putting it in the mold.  pulled it out and SB it out--it worked out more than ok cuz I had only planned on mica veins.  I have used this scent before with no ricing so I am thinking it was the cooler lye--hopefully I wont wind up with that again and if I do I will make sure its something I am not doing a design in


----------



## kaysejean

Ugh, my fragrance played hide and seek on me yesterday. It's super annoying because I wasted a soap rim and embeds, and the color I was trying to match came out perfect and now I get to do it all over. 
Didn't find it until clean up at which point the soap was already firm.
It hid behind the bag of TD...
FO:1 Soaper: 0


----------



## Zany_in_CO

kaysejean said:


> It hid behind the bag of TD...
> FO:1 Soaper: 0


Way ta go, kaysejean... blame it on the FO!


----------



## Lin19687

FYI, I missed another FO because I was too busy trying to get a in the mold swirl .....  
But not all is lost.  I have 1 no color no scent, and now have a No Scent but color soap


----------



## Marilyn Norgart

Lin19687 said:


> FYI, I missed another FO because I was too busy trying to get a in the mold swirl .....
> But not all is lost.  I have 1 no color no scent, and now have a No Scent but color soap



I hate that "moment" when you see the scent still sitting there!!!!!


----------



## Lin19687

Marilyn Norgart said:


> I hate that "moment" when you see the scent still sitting there!!!!!



Yup, just as you are scrapping out the bowl into the mold


----------



## Marilyn Norgart

Lin19687 said:


> Yup, just as you are scrapping out the bowl into the mold



sounds about right!! I try to keep my scent right in front of the colors--I find it hides in back of my mixing pail pretty easy though.  I work on a small space and I am always afraid the cord from the SB is going to knock it over


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## Lin19687

I have been mixing FO in the oils. Seems to help a lot.  But this is new for me............ so it has not stuck in my head yet and that's probably why I missed it.

I am also trying a new thing in coloring where I color the whole batch.  Then if I want a swirl I color a darker color when I separate some out.
Obviously this doesn't work all the time but I am still playing with it.


----------



## Marilyn Norgart

kaysejean said:


> Ugh, my fragrance played hide and seek on me yesterday. It's super annoying because I wasted a soap rim and embeds, and the color I was trying to match came out perfect and now I get to do it all over.
> Didn't find it until clean up at which point the soap was already firm.
> It hid behind the bag of TD...
> FO:1 Soaper: 0



even worse when the soap really turns out too!!!!


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## Lin19687

Last nights Mistake.
Should have colored brighter purple on the Lilac batch that I know rices.   But I was not expecting it to look Grey blob color   I saw it when I poured and it doesn't look much better this morning.


----------



## TAS

Marilyn Norgart said:


> even worse when the soap really turns out too!!!!


I learned this trick from one of the seasoned soapers - put the bottle of fo(s) or eo blend inside of your mold. If you forget to incorporate it you'll see it when you go to pour your batch into your mold.


----------



## Lin19687

I learned to put the FO in BEFORE the Lye.
Seems to work so much better for me now


----------



## TAS

Lin19687 said:


> I learned to put the FO in BEFORE the Lye.
> Seems to work so much better for me now


Yep, me too.


----------



## Kari Howie

ourwolfden said:


> I have had a week!!!!  I left my coconut oil and shea butter out of a 5 pound batch of soap (it was in the crock pot melting and I completely forgot about it) did notice until the next day when I was getting ready to make another batch and went to melt more.  But that time everything had been cut and was on the curing rack.  Unfortunately I split this batch up and couldn't just rebatch it to add the missing oils.  *Head desk*
> 
> Today... oh today...  I went to put my lye water in the freezer like I do sometimes and forgot I had just put my camera on top of the freezer.  I opened the door and the camera fell down into the bucket I was holding and I dropped the bucket.  Lye water everywhere.  I am okay, my hands are sore because I was frantically trying to clean it up.
> 
> Hope this makes you feel better :crazy:


Oh noooo!



Mommy said:


> I need this thread today. I made moonlight pomegranate cupcakes yesterday that were a cream base and maroon frosting and they accelerated majorly so the piping looked like dog poo. That was yesterday.
> 
> So today, I chopped them all up and melted it all down for a rebatch. And molded it. And cut it.
> It looks LITERALLY EXACTLY like salami. In every way possible. :crazy:


Oh my gosh I’ve done that. Except my husband said it looked like spam. It smelled great, but I ended up throwing it because it was just too ugly.


----------



## TAS

Spent last week doing clean up and infusing oils. Time to get to work.


----------



## maxine289

TAS said:


> Spent last week doing clean up and infusing oils. Time to get to work.
> View attachment 40082


Would you explain what you are doing in this picture?  I'm intrigued.


----------



## Kathymzr

snappyllama said:


> This didn't happen today, but I want to post it as gremlin's bane!
> 
> First time making HP... all finishing and sitting in the mold.  I was super impressed with myself over how smooth I kept it and imagining what the pale yellow would look like with the hot pink ribbon I managed to swirl inside. As I started to cleanup, I noticed my superfat still sitting in it's container. Sigh. I slopped out my pretty design, stirred in my SF and got it back into the mold. This is what it looked like when I unmolded it... raw meatloaf!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The funny thing is that I actually LOVE how this soap feels and smells.  If only it wasn't so ugly...


Soap Tartar!!!


----------



## TAS

maxine289 said:


> Would you explain what you are doing in this picture?  I'm intrigued.


Well, I just realized that I posted this on the wrong thread. Should have appeared in what soapy thing Have you done today... Sorry about that confusion. 

So explanation - I like to infuse my oils with botanicals prior to soap making. I use something like 4 oz of botanical (say calendula or lavender), fill my half gallon jars with a variety of oils (the jars hold about 50 oz of oil) and put them in a warm water bath for about 3 or so days. The jars then go on my soap oil shelf and when I am ready I grab whatever suits me.


----------



## Dahila

I have tons of infused oils,  I put what is infused with and the date of infusion so I have shelf life right on the information tag


----------



## TAS

Dahila said:


> I have tons of infused oils,  I put what is infused with and the date of infusion so I have shelf life right on the information tag


Yes, I do as well. The blue tape on the jars has all the info and date. The large tags are for me to quickly grab the oil that I'm looking for. Getting older means more time spent looking for readers.


----------



## Lin19687

Mistake, not making the bolts tight enough on one of the molds .  It seeped a bit, no real biggie but it just means I have more to clean with day old soap batter on the mold


----------



## Mobjack Bay

TAS said:


> Spent last week doing clean up and infusing oils. Time to get to work.
> View attachment 40082



Fantastic!  I love the double labeling system.  I have to triple check these days...
I can’t wait to see/hear about what you make.  I used some calendula infused oil yesterday for the Genny’s shampoo bar recipe.


----------



## Nanette

Kathymzr said:


> Soap Tartar!!!


Granite soap! Marble? Rhodocrosite ?


----------



## Nanette

Granite soap!!
Ive made--on purpose--soaps that I tried to get looking like different gems and minerals--jasper, malachite, maw sit sit, sandstone, granite.....the gemstone collection..an homage to the gem show here.....


----------



## Mobjack Bay

I forgot to use my matcha tea infusion in OO for that oil in the soap I made today.  Bummer... I added dispersed powder instead, but don’t think the result will be the same.  It seems like I always forget something


----------



## Zany_in_CO

Mobjack Bay said:


> I forgot to use my matcha tea infusion in OO for that oil in the soap I made today.  Bummer... I added dispersed powder instead, but don’t think the result will be the same.  It seems like I always forget something


Never mind... that's the downside. On the upside, you can repeat the process using the infused oil and impress us all with posting a comparison. No one will know you didn't plan it that way.


----------



## Mobjack Bay

Zany_in_CO said:


> Never mind... that's the downside. On the upside, you can repeat the process using the infused oil and impress us all with posting a comparison. No one will know you didn't plan it that way.


Lemonade from lemons


----------



## Els

I used to make soap and have been itching on and off for years to start up again. So I got my, er, stuff together, and made a new mold since I have no idea where my old ones are, and today! I made my first batch of the rest of my soaping life. So exciting!
I used to use milk in almost every soap I made. I distinctly remember using half-and-half and getting wonderful creamy hard soaps. So I looked in the fridge, found I have heavy cream and not milk, and thought that would be even better.
I did take the milkfat into consideration when calculating my lye, but this was to be a high-superfat batch anyway (very high % of coconut oil), so I thought "all the better!"

If you, too, like milk soaps and if you, like me, think the "heavier" the better -- don't do it! I think the milkfat started to saponify when I added lye to the cream; it heated up more than I expected from very cold liquid, and it looked like grainy soap at heavy trace by the time the lye was dissolved. Since I'd already measured and heated my oils I figured I'd barge ahead, which was okay (but awkward and scary, because the "lye water" was so gloopy it was harder to incorporate)... until it hit heavy trace and started to set, way sooner than memory predicted for the oils I was using.

I think that if I'd just left it in the pail I was mixing in, it would have been all right, for all that it would be in an unusual "bottom of a soaping pail" shape.

For some reason, I insisted on pouring... no, spooning, it no longer poured by the time I made the decision.... into my lined mold.

Maybe it will soften and become smoother during gel phase, which I encourage and which it should be doing even now. I don't have a lot of hope for it though!

Lessons I Learned Today: milk and half-and-half are good for soaping, 100% cream is not! And also: things don't always go according to plan, so be more willing to change the plan when things go squidgy!


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## Patty Kicera

I was making a goat milk soap using BB Moroccan Mint with green and brown mica. Trying to do a Clyde slide and get it all in the mold wondering why it was so thick and didn’t fill the mold and look over and see my liquid oil in the pitcher!!
Geeze, I scrape it back in the bowl and it did add very well but now I have a solid avocado green color and who know how it will turn out!! 5 pounds worth!


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## MGM

TAS said:


> I learned this trick from one of the seasoned soapers - put the bottle of fo(s) or eo blend inside of your mold. If you forget to incorporate it you'll see it when you go to pour your batch into your mold.


THIS IS SO SMART! I measure the FOs out into a Dixie cup, but having a bottle sitting in the mold will remind me to check. Now, I just need to remember to implement this tip....maybe I should keep a bottle of FO in my hand until I'm near my molds? ;-)


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## TAS

MGM said:


> THIS IS SO SMART! I measure the FOs out into a Dixie cup, but having a bottle sitting in the mold will remind me to check. Now, I just need to remember to implement this tip....maybe I should keep a bottle of FO in my hand until I'm near my molds? ;-)


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## MGM

Patty Kicera said:


> I was making a goat milk soap using BB Moroccan Mint with green and brown mica. Trying to do a Clyde slide and get it all in the mold wondering why it was so thick and didn’t fill the mold and look over and see my liquid oil in the pitcher!!


Ok it's official...the only way for us to guarantee success is to put ALL OF OUR INGREDIENTS in the mold so we can be sure we add them to the batter


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## Marilyn Norgart

TAS said:


> I learned this trick from one of the seasoned soapers - put the bottle of fo(s) or eo blend inside of your mold. If you forget to incorporate it you'll see it when you go to pour your batch into your mold.


 too late if doing an ITPS--I usually try to keep it next to my mixed up micas


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## Misschief

Els said:


> Lessons I Learned Today: milk and half-and-half are good for soaping, 100% cream is not! And also: things don't always go according to plan, so be more willing to change the plan when things go squidgy!



I've made soap with heavy cream and it turned out to be a really lovely soap. I didn't add my lye to the cream,  however; I added it as one of the oils and dissolved the lye in water.


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## Zany_in_CO

MGM said:


> Ok it's official...the only way for us to guarantee success is to put ALL OF OUR INGREDIENTS in the mold so we can be sure we add them to the batter


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## Rahmi

Today I got soap on a stick. 

Is my first time using Lemongrass eo for soaping, and it literally froze on me. I was pouring out my whole eo bottle at thin trace, and within two seconds of stirring with whisk it accelerated so quickly I had to just put everything in the mold. 

Too bad, I was planning on doing ombre design, But only managed to spoon design the top layer. With no color is now a pale yellow soap, not too bad . But I'm not liking The grainy looking texture.  

Thanks for this thread...


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## MGM

If your lemongrass EO is like my Lemongrass Verbena FO from a few months ago, it'll discolour light brown. So brown is a colour....


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## Lefty

Kari Howie said:


> Oh noooo!
> 
> 
> Oh my gosh I’ve done that. Except my husband said it looked like spam. It smelled great, but I ended up throwing it because it was just too ugly.



I've made rebatched soap that looks like spam too! Or some sort of raw meat concoction  Needless to say, I kept those for myself!


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## dibbles

Rahmi said:


> Today I got soap on a stick.
> 
> Is my first time using Lemongrass eo for soaping, and it literally froze on me. I was pouring out my whole eo bottle at thin trace, and within two seconds of stirring with whisk it accelerated so quickly I had to just put everything in the mold.
> 
> Too bad, I was planning on doing ombre design, But only managed to spoon design the top layer. With no color is now a pale yellow soap, not too bad . But I'm not liking The grainy looking texture.
> 
> Thanks for this thread...


Are you sure your lemongrass EO is pure? I use lemongrass fairly often and have never had it accelerate.


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## Zany_in_CO

Rahmi said:


> Today I got soap on a stick.


The best thing to do in that situation is to leave it and walk away for 5 minutes -- I even set the timer -- when I come back, it's going into gel and easy to stir. 

Another option is to add an ounce or two of cold water, stir it in until combined and pour.


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## Nanette

I tried pink Himalayan salt soap..I boiled and boiled my course pink salt...and boiled. I forgot the first batch on stove and actually burned it. I tried again and this time just left it too wet. Made soap anyway but the salt had a lot more water than I accounted for so I have very wet soft salt soap...but its getting harder..and it is a lustrous lovely pink....so I will see..I made minty version with eucalyptus radiata, cornmint, lavandin grosso mix of lavender and rosemary..I think its very nice.

Never going to try to reduce salt water again...I dont have the patience. The soap I did make with too wet salt did get hard, and pink.


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## madeinaustralia

Zany_in_CO said:


> The best thing to do in that situation is to leave it and walk away for 5 minutes -- I even set the timer -- when I come back, it's going into gel and easy to stir.
> 
> Another option is to add an ounce or two of cold water, stir it in until combined and pour.



Thanks Zany that’s a great tip to remember!


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## Rahmi

Zany_in_CO said:


> The best thing to do in that situation is to leave it and walk away for 5 minutes -- I even set the timer -- when I come back, it's going into gel and easy to stir.
> 
> Another option is to add an ounce or two of cold water, stir it in until combined and pour.


Wow I wish Id known that!


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## RobinRogers

Rahmi said:


> Today I got soap on a stick.
> 
> Is my first time using Lemongrass eo for soaping, and it literally froze on me. I was pouring out my whole eo bottle at thin trace, and within two seconds of stirring with whisk it accelerated so quickly I had to just put everything in the mold.
> 
> Too bad, I was planning on doing ombre design, But only managed to spoon design the top layer. With no color is now a pale yellow soap, not too bad . But I'm not liking The grainy looking texture.
> 
> Thanks for this thread...


I had a Gardenia to do that to me. I melted it down in the crock pot and poured it into a mold. It was still quite ugly! However, it smelled so good I hated to waste it. I cut it into pieces and made a mosaic soap outback of it. Still not the prettiest soap but not as bad! My sister wanted Gardenia so she will have LOTS of it!!!


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## Mobjack Bay

Nanette said:


> I tried pink Himalayan salt soap..I boiled and boiled my course pink salt...and boiled. I forgot the first batch on stove and actually burned it. I tried again and this time just left it too wet. Made soap anyway but the salt had a lot more water than I accounted for so I have very wet soft salt soap...but its getting harder..and it is a lustrous lovely pink....so I will see..I made minty version with eucalyptus radiata, cornmint, lavandin grosso mix of lavender and rosemary..I think its very nice.
> 
> Never going to try to reduce salt water again...I dont have the patience. The soap I did make with too wet salt did get hard, and pink.



Wow, I didn’t know salt would burn .  If you decide to try it again, you can dry damp salt in the oven.  Just spread it out on a piece of parchment paper or paper towel and put it in at the lowest temp you can.  You could also try evaporating most of the water off after you dissolve the salt.  That would take longer, but the effort would be much lower.


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## Nanette

Mobjack Bay said:


> Wow, I didn’t know salt would burn .  If you decide to try it again, you can dry damp salt in the oven.  Just spread it out on a piece of parchment paper or paper towel and put it in at the lowest temp you can.  You could also try evaporating most of the water off after you dissolve the salt.  That would take longer, but the effort would be much lower.


I Did put batch two in the oven......waiting waiting....I wont mention what I did with batch two but batch three was the one I used with the excess water. I used aloe vera juice instead of water in the soap itself and the salt...never uniformly blended in the soap--added at trace--it seemed to form aggregates thru the soap..so now I have soap with tiny pockets of salt crystals and the zap test says they are salt crystals. Interesting!


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## runnerchicki

I ordered some micas from Nurture Soap. I guess I really liked a few colors because I got doubles of three colors. I checked my packing list - nope it says I'm supposed to have two. So then I go check my order history. Yup - I ordered two 1-oz jars of Amaranth Pink, Lemon Drop, and Berry Twist. I am a hobby soaper lol - it will take forever to use these up. I hope that micas do not have an expiration date! I'm such a dumb dumb!


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