Hi there,
I wanted to make a gentle soap, so I made an experimental 100% rice bran oil with manuka honey on saturday, this is the recipe:
300 gr rice bran oil
35.9 gr lye
60 gr water (to be mixed with lye)
3/4 tablespoon Manuka Honey
22 gr water (to be mixed with honey)
I mixed the water & lye and then dilute the honey in slightly warmed water. Then I mixed the oil and lye solution first at around 95F because honey can cause overheat. I stirred it for a while and then added the diluted honey. It took a while, but I finally managed a thin trace. I had some solidified mushy bits in it too though, maybe because I didn't mixed the bottom part well enough. I tried my best to mushed the solidified bit back to the batter.
I pour the soap into a mold lightly covered with baby oil for easy removal. I put a cover on it and leave it overnight. I check it from time to time though, and I notice that it didn't even entered the gel state but it has a lovely caramel honey color. 24 hours went by with no problem and then I take the covering off.
Around 36 hours, I saw that there were brown/golden liquid pooling on top of the soap, not much, I though it was just the honey drawing moisture so I wipe it off. We have quite high humidity here.
Around 48 hours, I saw more of those brown liquid, very thinly layer underneath and around the soap (my soap mold is transparent). Again I drained it off and then took the soap out of the mold and cut it. It was still a bit soft (right now, I think the soap is at the consistency of very dense cheesecake, maybe a little bit more) and I saw some white gel like substance inside the soap (pic attached): http://postimg.org/image/g8ol9thod/
Can anyone tell me whether the soap is alright? Is the white gel thingie lye pocket? I have not try zap testing because I heard without gel phase it took longer for the lye to saponified. I tried poking the white gel, but nothing coming out of it.
Do I put too much honey in? I am sure that the brown liquid is not oil, because I mixed it with water and it didn't separate, it even produce bubble when I swirled them around. So I thought it was glycerin.
Right now, the cut soap is still 'producing' brown liquid as seen on the picture (the tissue underneath is wet). Will it continue to do that during the whole curing time?
FYI, I didn't use stick blender, but I use whisk that can spin on its own if you push it down like this http://www.themiraclewhisk.com/. It surprisingly mixed things really well.
If anyone can help me with this, I'd be grateful.
I wanted to make a gentle soap, so I made an experimental 100% rice bran oil with manuka honey on saturday, this is the recipe:
300 gr rice bran oil
35.9 gr lye
60 gr water (to be mixed with lye)
3/4 tablespoon Manuka Honey
22 gr water (to be mixed with honey)
I mixed the water & lye and then dilute the honey in slightly warmed water. Then I mixed the oil and lye solution first at around 95F because honey can cause overheat. I stirred it for a while and then added the diluted honey. It took a while, but I finally managed a thin trace. I had some solidified mushy bits in it too though, maybe because I didn't mixed the bottom part well enough. I tried my best to mushed the solidified bit back to the batter.
I pour the soap into a mold lightly covered with baby oil for easy removal. I put a cover on it and leave it overnight. I check it from time to time though, and I notice that it didn't even entered the gel state but it has a lovely caramel honey color. 24 hours went by with no problem and then I take the covering off.
Around 36 hours, I saw that there were brown/golden liquid pooling on top of the soap, not much, I though it was just the honey drawing moisture so I wipe it off. We have quite high humidity here.
Around 48 hours, I saw more of those brown liquid, very thinly layer underneath and around the soap (my soap mold is transparent). Again I drained it off and then took the soap out of the mold and cut it. It was still a bit soft (right now, I think the soap is at the consistency of very dense cheesecake, maybe a little bit more) and I saw some white gel like substance inside the soap (pic attached): http://postimg.org/image/g8ol9thod/
Can anyone tell me whether the soap is alright? Is the white gel thingie lye pocket? I have not try zap testing because I heard without gel phase it took longer for the lye to saponified. I tried poking the white gel, but nothing coming out of it.
Do I put too much honey in? I am sure that the brown liquid is not oil, because I mixed it with water and it didn't separate, it even produce bubble when I swirled them around. So I thought it was glycerin.
Right now, the cut soap is still 'producing' brown liquid as seen on the picture (the tissue underneath is wet). Will it continue to do that during the whole curing time?
FYI, I didn't use stick blender, but I use whisk that can spin on its own if you push it down like this http://www.themiraclewhisk.com/. It surprisingly mixed things really well.
If anyone can help me with this, I'd be grateful.
