A big failure part two!

[Bilemiyorum Altan]

Hello
After the fragrance disaster I decided not to use fragrance .
But the soap beast inside me is poking me about pushing the limits.
4 colours , actually 3+1 because one is colourless-natural soap colour.
Made a soap batch for my two molds.
Their volume is around 3775 cm3 (Big is 2475 small one is 1300 cm3).
My recipe picture is attached below.
My plan was naturel colour witout any mica powder+ dark grey for the big one. Plus I wanted to add colourless crumbs and pieces from last month in to dark grey. So it would be sort of mosaic.
For the small one I planned to use pomegranate flower red + aquamarine.
Wanted to pour layer by layer on to three focus points.
But things did not work as I planned. I could not calculate well the volume , was short for the dark grey and natural colour for the big mold. So I added red-blue batch on to them. Natural yellow+dark grey crumbs in it +red+blue. Totally random , designless .
I am gonna open the mold tomorrow night and maybe cut them .
I will send the result photos.
See u for now.

 

[cmzaha]

I recommend is to stop making such large batches of soap until you actually know what you are doing. I mean no offense, but in my opinion, this is not even a great recipe for a nice bar of soap. But that is my opinion and that recipe with the percentage of OO your recipe should be a fairly slow tracing recipe. So either your soaping temps are too warm or you are stick blending too long. For this large batch to work with multiple colors your batter really needs to be at emulsion or a very light trace to start working with the layers and swirls. You would be much better starting off with 1 lb batches until you nail down your working recipe and a nice recipe.

 

[Bilemiyorum Altan]

this is not even a great recipe for a nice bar of soap.

What did I do wrong?
For 6 months I have been making similar recipies.
Is soft oil percentage so high in the recipe?
.
I was thinking about the same thing about not making large batches. Could not stop myself.

 

[lsg]

If you are just starting out; make small batches. In-the-pot swirl is one of the easiest swirl techniques for newbies.

 

[~Dragonfly~]

if you use the soap calculator at the top of this forum, you can put in your mold measurements and it will calculate the amount of soap to make. I’m my experience, it works extremely well.

I’ve read that coconut oil can be drying so I don’t use more than 20% in my soap and I use 5% super fat. If you search for zanys no slime in the forums, it uses the same ingredients you have , though it uses a faux salt water mixture for the liquid. If you use your regular liquid, it will just take longer to harden, is my understanding. I still consider myself somewhat of a newbie though so do your homework instead of taking my word for it.

 

[TheGecko]

I'm of the opinion that there aren't no failures in soap making, only opportunities to learn more.

Opportunity to Learn More:

1) QUIT MAKING LARGE BATCHES! Get yourself a 4" Silicone Square Mold; most soap suppliers sell then for under $20 and you can even get them on Amazon. It has a total batch weight of 20 oz, which with a 33% Lye Concentration and NO scent will use 14 oz of oils. and yield 4-5oz bars of soap.

2) Get yourself a decent soap recipe because quite frankly, the one you have right now sucks. BrambleBerry has a fairly easy Simple and Gentle Soap that is just three ingredients to start with (Olive, Palm and Coconut Oils). In SoapCalc, start with 14 oz of Oils (because you are going to buy a 4" Silicone Square Mold), 33% Lye Concentration, leave the SuperFat at 5% and then enter the ingredients as percentages (from the website) and then follow the instructions. And since you already have some Castor Oil, I'd add that at 5% and drop the Coconut Oil to 20% and the Palm Oil to 31% to add some extra bubbles. Make sure you melt you melt your container of Palm Oil and stir BEFORE weighing out.

3) Make several [small] batches of PLAIN soap...no colorants, no scent. Yes, it will be hard...all those lovely scents, all those wonderful colorants...all that wasted money and frustration because you didn't take the time to learn the basics of soap making. Learn about emulsion, learn about trace (light [thin], medium and heavy [thick]. Learn to pulse your stick blender for just a few seconds and then stir to see the changes taking place in your batter. Learn how temperature affects your batter and what you like. Some folks soap at low temps, some at room temps, some at higher temps. FYI - Making a 'naked' bar of soap is NOT as easy as it sounds...I have two such bars on my desk; one from when I first started making soap and one from a year later...there is a difference.

4) Once you can make a consistent batch of PLAIN soap, now is time to add some color. Keep it simple...start with a SINGLE color soap; I had purchased a a couple of Mica Samplers. I added it a few different ways...dispersing it and then adding it to my batter, adding it straight into my oils, adding it straight into my batter. From my experiments with using colorants my preferences are to add straight to oils for single-color soaps, for multiple color soaps, I disperse in a bit of oil first. I always disperse oxides, pigments, clays, ultramarines in distilled water. The exception is Titanium Dioxide which is dispersed in oil. You will need to find what works FOR you.

5) Now it's time to add some scent. I'll be honest, I keep it fairly simple. I use my 4" Silicone Square Molds for testing and so when I'm testing new FOs I just dump in a Trial or 1 oz bottle. Nothing else because part of the testing is seeing how the FOs reacts with MY recipe under MY conditions...does it accelerate, does it rice, does it slow down trace, does it discolor and if it does, what is the level of discoloration because even FOs without vanillin/vanilla can discolor...usually a yellow shade.

NOTE: Now not FOs are going to react the same which is why it is important to test them BEFORE you start buying 8 oz bottles only to end up with 50 oz of solid concrete and have to toss a bowl because you destroyed it trying to chip out the soap, and boil the shaft of your stick blender and pray that it loosens said concrete and you don't have to buy another one. Two FOs that I would recommend for a beginning soap maker is Black Raspberry Vanilla and Oatmeal Milk and Honey.

Once you are comfortable with using colorants, now it's time to have some fun. One of the easiest "swirl" techniques is the ITP (in the pot swirl). There are tons of videos online that show you how it's done. Another "swirl" technique is the Drop Swirl. And both of these techniques can be just two-colors or they can be three or more colors...that is the fun of soap making.

6) Not every soap is going to come out the way you want it; the first six months I ran about 50/50...lots of 'opportunities to learn more'. Of course, I didn't know about SMF when I first started out...I was completely out in the wilderness, cold and afraid and lost and they took me in and warmed me by the fire and served me cups of coffee heavily laced with liquor (there was no liquor actually served). I had just had another massive failure and was so dishearten and frustrated. Mind you, I was still making 50 oz batches so I was wasting a lot of money (my failures couldn't be salvaged). I'm on my third year of soap making and I still screw up, but at least they are small because I bought a couple of 4" Square mold...to not only test new scents and colorants but to also test techniques (I also have a 6" Silicone Slab Mold).

Slow down, learn to crawl first.

 

[AliOop]

It is not the percentage of soft oils that is the problem, but the proportions of the different fatty acids that make for a nice soap. You can read a bit about that here: Soapcalc numbers | Soapy Stuff

 

[Mobjack Bay]

You might like that recipe perfectly well and how you make soap is up to you, but there are options. The challenge with a high olive oil recipe is the tendency the soap will have to produce oleic slime when it sits in water. If you haven’t noticed it yet, put a chunk of your soap in a small jar, cover it with water and check it the next day. Coconut oil lathers easily, but it’s a high cleansing oil which is why some makers like to keep the percentages lower. I personally don’t have any skin issues with coconut oil up to 25%. If you add a hard animal fat, palm or a butter like cocoa butter or shea into the recipe, as suggested above, you will get a soap that makes nice lather and lasts longer. The lather will have a creamy component in addition to the bubbliness from the coconut oil and the foamy/silkiness of the liquid oils. The fatty acid breakdown for my “balanced” recipes, regardless of which oils and butters I use is 28-30 stearic + palmitic, 40-50 for oleic, 13-17 for lauric + myristic (lower end for most of my soaps, higher end for soaps for some of my male friends), 3-5 for ricinioleic and the rest in linoleic and linolenic. I also make an 80% olive oil soap using 10% coconut and 5% castor using faux seawater for the liquid. It has 60% oleic, but only 16% stearic + palmitic. The lather it makes will bubble, but it’s it thinner and more lotion-like compared with a balanced recipe. It’s a nice niche soap for folks that like olive oil soaps but want a little more lather compared with 100% olive oil soap.

I’ve been making soap for over three years and still rarely make more than 450-900 g batches. I don’t sell except to friends. Making small batches let’s me try more techniques, colorants, and scents with less risk.

If you’re using pomace olive oil I understand that can cause acceleration compared with regular, virgin or extra virgin OO.

edited a typo

 

[Zany_in_CO]

What did I do wrong?

Absolutely nothing! Majority-of-One here who actually likes and sometimes uses 30% coconut oil in a recipe. Even though I have sensitive, mature skin, I like the squeaky clean feel after showering! (@TheGecko I just heard you fainting! haha) You and only you are the best judge of what works best for you and your skin. If friends/family members complain that it's "too drying" let that be a clue to what you need to adjust.

Is soft oil percentage so high in the recipe?

With 29% coconut oil plus 67% olive oil they balance each other rather nicely, me thinks. That is both highly cleansing and highly conditioning. The only thing I would change is the 4% castor to 5% to add more lather/conditioning and, at the same time, less cleansing by lowering the coconut oil 1% to correct the formula.

I was thinking about the same thing about not making large batches. Could not stop myself.

Poor thing.

But I do have to agree with the others. When this "obsession" starts, and there is no "Soapmakers Anonymous" available, you really do need to curb your enthusiasm before you run out of $$$ to feed it! Plus, with small 500 - 850 gram batches there's an opportunity for more variety in testing additives, tweaking formulas, learning methods and technique, etc.

I know of one very successful member who made 60 small batches in the first 4 months of learning to make soap. Just think about it. It may be the way to go for you???

ETA: For an informative and fun thread for where you are at in your soapy journey, please read:

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...ou-give-to-your-beginning-soaping-self.62916/

 

[Bilemiyorum Altan]

I want to thank each of you all.
I am reading all your messages and the links u sent (one is so complicated).
I will try to understand that fatty acid issue if I can.
Gonna use small size mold , batch, I will not jump on whatever I read or watch on youtube , I will go slowly and try to learn the logic and digest first.

 

[TheGecko]

Gonna use small size mold , batch, I will not jump on whatever I read or watch on youtube

I often times struggled with "something shiny and new".

Buying new FOs. I was constantly buying new FOs...an ounce here, two ounces there. And then one day I was getting to ready to put away a new order and figured I needed to reorganize my FOs and discovered that I had multiple bottles of the same FO. If nothing else, open a spreadsheet or a word processing document and start tracking what you are buying.

Buying new colorants. This is another tough one...soooooooooooo many colorants. And then one day you're organizing them and realize that you have nine different pinks...from four companies...and they look almost exactly the same. So I've been teaching myself a bit about shades and tones and blend/mixing existing colors to get what I am looking for.

Buying a new mold. I was fortunate to have caught a video in the early days of soap making of a soap maker with a half dozen large tubs of just cavity molds. She talked about how easy it was to get caught up by an article or a photo or a video or sale or even just browsing and having an idea and then you are buying a half dozen or more molds and things kind of just go splat. Which is why I have a bunch of singular cavity molds. LOL And it helps to set a budget...when the choice is: I can buy a dozen of XYZ mold cuz you know I really should make 48 soaps at a time, or I am getting low on Coconut Oil or I just opened my last jar of Sodium Hydroxide?

 

[Bilemiyorum Altan]

 

[janesathome]

It is not the percentage of soft oils that is the problem, but the proportions of the different fatty acids that make for a nice soap. You can read a bit about that here: Soapcalc numbers | Soapy Stuff

That is an excellent article; I learned so much from it and I often send the link to new soapers. I am a newbie soaper of about 5 months, and my soapmaking game changed 2 months in, when I found Soapy Stuff and her generous sharing of information!
(I made my very first “naked” soap this week- took me that long to find beef tallow! I’ve had a few surprises in my soaps but no disasters. But I researched and read for a few months before making my first soap, and I continue to do so. Yes, SMALL batches are important when learning!

 

[Bilemiyorum Altan]

That is an excellent article; I learned so much from it and I often send the link to new soapers.

I was about to say same thing .
I have read two times .
I am gonna read more to understand the logic better.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I am a newbie soaper of about 5 months, and my soapmaking game changed 2 months in, when I found Soapy Stuff and her generous sharing of information!

"her" -- that would be @DeeAnna

TIP: If you put "@" before the name, DeeAnna will be sure to see your comment.
Just the imagine the time it took to write all that wonderful Soapy Stuff and make it available for FREE to all! Then compare that to the time it takes to add an "@" before her name !

 

[janesathome]

"her" -- that would be @DeeAnna

TIP: If you put "@" before the name, DeeAnna will be sure to see your comment.
Just the imagine the time it took to write all that wonderful Soapy Stuff and make it available for FREE to all! Then compare that to the time it takes to add an "@" before her name !

@Zany_in_CO I did not know that!! THANK YOU!! for educating me, I really appreciate learning how best to express my gratitude to @DeeAnna so she will see my comments. I have learned SO much from her generous Soapy Stuff articles.

 

[KiwiMoose]

@Bilemiyorum Altan - your soaps look amazing! Love the designs - even if they were random.

 

[Quilter99755]

The first time I added color to my soaps, I did it at the request of my grandson. Red! He got red soap...and red soap bubbles, and soap scum, and soap drips down the shower wall, and it was hard to get the red out of his wash cloths (finally bought him a couple of red cloths so it wasn't so icky). Then I found this site and went back to no color for a long long time!

I love the soap you made but wonder if it will be the same as I experienced. Unfortunately it was long before I knew enough to keep the recipes and notes on what I put in the soap. So no advice other than small batches...and keep notes.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Gosh, I might be inspired to make red soap after seeing these.

 

[janesathome]

I often times struggled with "something shiny and new".

Buying new FOs. I was constantly buying new FOs...an ounce here, two ounces there. And then one day I was getting to ready to put away a new order and figured I needed to reorganize my FOs and discovered that I had multiple bottles of the same FO. If nothing else, open a spreadsheet or a word processing document and start tracking what you are buying.

Buying new colorants. This is another tough one...soooooooooooo many colorants. And then one day you're organizing them and realize that you have nine different pinks...from four companies...and they look almost exactly the same. So I've been teaching myself a bit about shades and tones and blend/mixing existing colors to get what I am looking for.

Buying a new mold. I was fortunate to have caught a video in the early days of soap making of a soap maker with a half dozen large tubs of just cavity molds. She talked about how easy it was to get caught up by an article or a photo or a video or sale or even just browsing and having an idea and then you are buying a half dozen or more molds and things kind of just go splat. Which is why I have a bunch of singular cavity molds. LOL And it helps to set a budget...when the choice is: I can buy a dozen of XYZ mold cuz you know I really should make 48 soaps at a time, or I am getting low on Coconut Oil or I just opened my last jar of Sodium Hydroxide?

Oh, @TheGecko - you are singing the song of my people. “Shiny and new, and why do I have 4 of the same thing?”