AcornSky's Troubleshooting First Batch

[grayceworks]

I have a recipe, the very first one I ever made, and although I liked it, hubby didn't as there was very little bubbly lather after the 4wk cure -- it was all creamy lotion lather. I tucked it away and forgot about it for a few months... just started using it last month, and was surprised to find it lathers just fine now! I'm very glad I saved the recipe.

 

[AcornSky]

I'm in luck! I have a folder with lots of printed out recipes for soap and lotions etc, and I knew it was one of those that I had used. Fortunately I had halved the quantities, so there was writing all over the recipe - no question at all about the one I used!

I won't be putting witch hazel in it next time though. :lolno:

 

[Chefmom]

Yes, yes, yes, write every recipe down and date it!

I found a small tub of bits and pieces of soap, weird cuts and end cuts. I started using them up as hand soaps and one stood out. I really liked it and didn't remember the scent.

I went back and back in my notes and found the recipe and the soap just held enough scent for me to pin point it. I had in my notes that it was nothing remarkable, took a LONG time to trace and was squishy for a long time.

However, after many months it was rock hard and the lather was wonderful with a nice clean rinse (hubby wants NO oils left after rinsing). It was one of my first soaps and I didn't know that high olive oil recipes needed a longer cure. Live and learn... It's now a recipe I make for my husband to travel with...but I give it a 9 month cure!

 

[Hazel]

That's great that you found it! Now make several copies of the recipe and save them in different locations...just in case.

 

[AcornSky]

It is very interesting looking at it now, because it was a straightforward recipe and I didn't do any checking (I hadn't learned to use soapcalc myself then). The amounts are all in weights rather than percentages so I didn't have an immediate perception of the overall balance of it. I can see now that it was 50% Olive Pomace, 30% Coconut and 20% Palm. I'm quite surprised to see the coconut was so high.

I have also just realised that it contained grapefruit seed oil which I now know speeds up the trace. I'm beginning to think that the seizing wasn't the fault of the witch hazel - or not entirely. Certainly the odd scent is down to the background scent of the witch hazel. If I do ever use witch hazel in soap again (and I suspect I won't) I'll choose scents to complement it.

 

[Hazel]

Where did the grapefruit seed oil come from? BTW, it's unnecessary to add it to soap. Although, I add tocopherol in oils when I open them to extend their shelf life since some oils take awhile for me use. You could use rosemary oleoresin instead of tocopherol.

 

[AcornSky]

It was in the recipe - this one. It is also in every recipe in my (otherwise excellent) first soap book.

That was before I'd read around the subject very much. I haven't used it in soap since I discovered that it's at best only minimally a preservative, a preservative isn't necessary anyway, and the other things it brings to the party, like being an anti-oxidant, aren't really of much value in soap.

I have a lot less respect for recipes now!

I was reading about adding Vitamin E to oils to extend their shelf-life last night - I was really delighted to see it was a good idea since I accidentally emptied a pipette of Vitamin E into the wrong bottle of oil when making a cream last week! (Only about 5 drops.)