About a Tablespoon of oil separated out

[orangeblossom]

I made on Sunday:

100 oz. basil infused coconut oil

14.66 oz distilled water
14.66 oz. lye (20% discount)
6 T white sugar added to lye water

16 oz. cow's milk added before trace, but after emulsifying the lye water and oils

I took out a third of the mixture and added about 1 t of spirulina to see if there would be a color difference in my already green soap.

Okay, honestly, I made 3 batches of soap on Sunday, and I make my lye all separately for each one, one with honey and 2 with sugar. The one I added sugar to first turned a slightly caramel color. So I added sugar to my lye water after mixing it and it clumped, horribly. It mostly dissolved after an hour or two, but then I strained it out before pouring it into my oils. I don't remember ('cause I forgot to write it down
:roll: ) If the strained lye water was used for this or my castille soap, which turned out perfectly.

I'm thinking that after reading about oil separating in the Natual Soap book, that it is because of the drop in temperature of my wooden mold. The soap got pretty hot before pouring it into my mold, and my mold was not prewarmed in the oven and therefore cooler than my soap mixture.

Okay, so about a T of oil separated out. My brain is caught between "It's superfatted at 20%, don't worry about it!" And "Oil separating out means the soap is now lye heavy, rebatch it". I have had a lot of oil separate out, and this is different.

What do you think?

 

[carebear]

a small amount of oil separating out probably means overheating - and adding sugar increases the likelihood of that. so unless it's zappy, blot it and relax.

the "drop in temperature" wouldn't cause it. I don't think it would cause anything except incomplete gel.

as for adding sugar to the batch - totally dissolve the sugar in the water before adding the lye.

 

[orangeblossom]

thanks so much carebear!

and for the other info too. I'll always dissolve my sugar first now. (it was my first time doing this.)

I think I'll start warming up my molds to help force a gel. It my soap looks like it overheated, but had partial gel. Does that make sense?

 

[Chris-2010]

I'd be using more water than 1:1 weight ratio with the lye.

I'd lower the 20 percent lye discount.

 

[soapbuddy]

Leave it be for a couple of days. Sometimes that oil just absorbs back in.

 

[carebear]

I'd be using more water than 1:1 weight ratio with the lye.

I'd lower the 20 percent lye discount.

I dunno about that - she also added a big slug of milk at trace and ended up with a 32% "solution", and 20% SF is not bad for a 100% coconut oil soap.

 

[ToniD]

I think I'll start warming up my molds to help force a gel. It my soap looks like it overheated, but had partial gel. Does that make sense?

Yes, I often have both partial gel and overheating going on in the same batch. Very frustrating. Maybe heating the molds would help. It is easy to see the problem--the center core of the batch heats up first, naturally, but it starts to overheat before the outer edges get warm enough to gel.

Or maybe if I just didn't peek the bit of oil separation that I see wouldn't make me pull off my towels before I get full gel.

Anyone want to speak wise words into that situation, please?