A little screw up that it seems like repeating (lately) :)

[Piero]

Hello people,
I am currently trying to produce some soap for our first small market happening in February. However, these days I guess many things are not aligning (stars, work, my emotional and mental state ) and it is really bringing my motivation down to produce soap for it

The above is our soap formula that we have been using for quite some time.
However, the soap is really gooey these days and normally I would stamp it two days later after making it, this week I had to add another day since yesterday it was really really soft. I stamped some but noticed it cracks on the side and it brittles quite a bit. Honestly, I really do not know how to fix this.

I made some last week and it had a crack on the top, I googled it and it said that it could be caused by too high temperature. Saturday, when I made the two above soap I then waited longer for the lye to cool down as well as the melted butters and oils to cool down as well. It did not have a crack on top, but it is really weird and I do not understand why.

Yesterday I made the below soap. I checked them now and they cracked as well. I am really lost at this moment.

I am mixing lye and oils at less than 42-45 degrees and it still cracks.
What is hard for me to comprehend is: what am I doing that is causing this to happen?

Bring some good vibes people, I defo need them

 

[MrsZ]

Have you always used so much water? You have a lot of water in your recipe and that might make remain soft for longer. I'm not sure about the cracks, but I know a high water content can make it heat up more so possibly the cracks are from that? It'll also make it deform more as it cures from all the evaporation.

I hope you can find out what is going wrong!

Also, I have entered my recipe into Soapcalc before and forgot to change the lye concentration when I did. It automatically sets the water as percent of oils at 38%, which is a lye concentration much better suited to hot process soap. It definitely messed up my recipe when I forgot to change that!

I use 35% lye concentration myself, and I know several here use a higher concentration than that.

 

[Piero]

Have you always used so much water? You have a lot of water in your recipe and that might make remain soft for longer. I'm not sure about the cracks, but I know a high water content can make it heat up more so possibly the cracks are from that? It'll also make it deform more as it cures from all the evaporation.

I hope you can find out what is going wrong!

We have always had this much water, yeah. I might try it with lower tomorrow and see how it comes out. Which Lye concentration should I aim then? Thanks

 

[MrsZ]

We have always had this much water, yeah. I might try it with lower tomorrow and see how it comes out. Which Lye concentration should I aim then? Thanks

I like to use 35% lye concentration myself. I'm sure there will be more experienced soapmakers than myself who will have more advice for you soon, too.

Do you use any fragrances or other additives?

 

[Piero]

I like to use 35% lye concentration myself. I'm sure there will be more experienced soapmakers than myself who will have more advice for you soon, too.

Do you use any fragrances or other additives?

Only EO, less than 5% of the total volume.

Ok, so your water to lye ratio is something like 1.8571:1 a lot less than mine...will try it tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion @MrsZ

 

[MrsZ]

@AliOop I hope you don't mind me tagging you. Do you have any advice on this one?

 

[AliOop]

I agree with @MrsZ's recommendation to change your lye setting. Instead of 38% Water as Percent of Oils, choose "Lye Concentration" and try it at 33% - that's a good spot for starters. As you get used working with to less water, you can increase the concentration to 35% or higher. Having less water (higher lye concentration) means that your bars will firm up sooner, and they will require a higher temperature to gel.

Your recipe has a large combined percentage of CO and shea. Those both heat up easily, and can cause cracking. I would make sure that both of them are heated to 160F, before adding the room temp OO to cool them down. Maybe try cooling to less than 100F before adding the lye solution, and see if that helps avoid the overheating/cracking.

Blending the CO and shea very well before adding the lye solution can help you avoid false trace. Blending them well after adding the lye solution also makes sure you don't have unmixed portions of batter. It's hard to tell whether that's part of what's going on, in addition to the partial gel rings.

Three other thoughts:

1. Have you changed EOs lately? Different EOs affect the batter differently. As an aside, some of them are not skin-safe at 5%, either. Hopefully you are using something like EOCalc.com to make sure you are using safe amounts of each specific EO.

2.When you mix your lye solution, is it heating up as much as it has in the past? Is the dry lye clumpy at all? If it isn't getting as hot, or if it is clumpy when dry, those are signs that your lye has weakened bit due to exposure to air, moisture, or both. That can result in softer soap.

3. Have you been making soap year-round for awhile? If so, you have probably observed that the behavior of soap often changes with the ambient temperatures and humidity. This isn't caused only by a change in seasons; even changing to a different room in your house can be enough to alter how your batter and soap behaves. If you notice that a change in seasons makes a difference, you can try to adjust for that with your HVAC settings, your lye concentration, whether you add heat to force gel, etc.

PS - you indicated that there were no additives except EOs, but I see lots of dark blue spots in the top soap. There has to be some other additive you used which caused this: clays, colorants, botanicals? Every single thing you add to your soap affects it, so please let us know about every ingredient used, even if you think it isn't important. That means specifying each EO, each clay, every botanical, sugar, goat milk, etc.

 

[Piero]

PS - you indicated that there were no additives except EOs, but I see lots of dark blue spots in the top soap. There has to be some other additive you used which caused this: clays, colorants, botanicals? Every single thing you add to your soap affects it, so please let us know about every ingredient used, even if you think it isn't important. That means specifying each EO, each clay, every botanical, sugar, goat milk, etc.

I will start with this one
I just grated old soap and added it, it is just old grated soap nothing else
I saw someone on the internet doing it and I just wanted to try it.

1. Have you changed EOs lately? Different EOs affect the batter differently. As an aside, some of them are not skin-safe at 5%, either. Hopefully you are using something like EOCalc.com to make sure you are using safe amounts of each specific EO.

Nope same provider. Thanks for pointing it out. I am following the EU requirements for soap makers. I am aware that a few essential oils cannot go that higher (cinnamon for example can only added for a max of 0.5%)

I agree with @MrsZ's recommendation to change your lye setting. Instead of 38% Water as Percent of Oils, choose "Lye Concentration" and try it at 33% - that's a good spot for starters. As you get used working with to less water, you can increase the concentration to 35% or higher. Having less water (higher lye concentration) means that your bars will firm up sooner, and they will require a higher temperature to gel.

Ok, will definitely try it tomorrow then with a KG and see how it reacts. I might be able to cut them already after 24hrs then?
I am asking this since I am leaving for holidays on Saturday and want to make sure I do not leave soap to be cut

Your recipe has a large combined percentage of CO and shea. Those both heat up easily, and can cause cracking. I would make sure that both of them are heated to 160F, before adding the room temp OO to cool them down. Maybe try cooling to less than 100F before adding the lye solution, and see if that helps avoid the overheating/cracking.

I have been told in the past, exactly on this forum, about this very important thing to avoid stearic spots. I am melting them to 70C, in order to avoid them. Sometimes they still appear to be honest even though I am bringing them to quite high temperature

 

[melinda48]

Only EO, less than 5% of the total volume.

Ok, so your water to lye ratio is something like 1.8571:1 a lot less than mine...will try it tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion @MrsZ

I do 1.8:1, generally speaking, as my ratio and it works well for me.

 

[Piero]

Yesterday I made the below soap. I checked them now and they cracked as well. I am really lost at this moment.

This is how the soap looks after being cut

I am always mind blown by what I do without knowing how I did it
Any clue of what could have happened here?

I made new soap with the new formula, let's see what happens when I cut it :

I am always mind blown by what I do without knowing how I did it

This soap has 2gr of purple mica since I was aiming for a purple soap, I guess I will have it grey