Afternoon Soaping... One Small Issue...

[itsmeroro]

Well, I began making a shampoo bar for my new Silver Moon log mold (LOVE THIS MOLD BTW)...

Everything went ok until I experienced my first soap seizure - it made it into the mold -- but was a bit tricky... whew with that one.

Here is my question. I have used the formula for total amount a mold will hold... L x W x H x .40 or 3 x 3.5 x 20 x .40 This number came out to 84 (which I rounded to 85). This would be "total" oils including water and lye -- right??

This amount is shy from the top by 1.5 to 2 inches! Argh. I would like to pour to the very top... any advise would be great.

Hope you all are well -- the board has been sort of quiet lately.

Cheers!

 

[IanT]

Those calculations are based on oils only, all soap molds are apparently made to poundage of oils instead of incorporating the water and lye into the equation. So when you have lets say a 1lb mold, you pour one pound of soap into the mold, and with the added H20 and such it should come up to the top.

The water and lye solution is what will bring it up to the top of the mold, so I would say to recalculate it with 84 or 85 oz of oils (by weight), then it should come up to the top!


hope that helps ya!

 

[itsmeroro]

Mold Capacity and Siezure!

Those calculations are based on oils only, all soap molds are apparently made to poundage of oils instead of incorporating the water and lye into the equation. So when you have lets say a 1lb mold, you pour one pound of soap into the mold, and with the added H20 and such it should come up to the top.

The water and lye solution is what will bring it up to the top of the mold, so I would say to recalculate it with 84 or 85 oz of oils (by weight), then it should come up to the top!


hope that helps ya!

Hi Ian! Thanks for the help... That is what I was afraid of! lol. So it may differ if I change a 6% solution with a water discount of say 16% to get a 33% lye solution?

I need to look at SoapMaker and see how to calculate - uh, I think this "85" would be total base oils... if I am following what you are saying.

I will try again with the same recipe.

?Have you ever had a siezure with a shampoo bar?

Here was the recipe (which was adjusted in SoapMaker for my mold):

352g Castor
132g Palm Oil
242g Coconut
264 Olive Oil (called for Pomace, but I used regular)
50g Jojoba

I used a 6% discount and a 33% solution. Also added 1.5oz of EO - but this was added after it siezed. Temp was 120 deg. Its gloppy on the top and poured with big "chunks" in it. Sort of looked like really really thick pudding with bread in it.

What do you think?

Cheers!

 

[Guest]

Hi!

Not sure why it seized, but that is a lot of castor oil. I think it's going to be really soft. SoapCalc give it a hardness of 29. Stranger things have happened though and soap that you think will never harden does. I would test batch it in a smaller mold first to be safe.

 

[IanT]

yup 85 would be weight of total base oils, Im so bad at discounting and such so I cant really speak on that one Paul is a great source of infor for that stuff...Im just learning it !

 

[mandolyn]

Hi!

Not sure why it seized, but that is a lot of castor oil. I think it's going to be really soft. SoapCalc give it a hardness of 29. Stranger things have happened though and soap that you think will never harden does. I would test batch it in a smaller mold first to be safe.

This doesn't have anything to do with your question, but Marr mentioned it, so I'm following up on that. It's just a friendly FYI. Castor oil is great for lather, but like coconut oil, too much can be drying to the skin. I think the recommendation is to keep it below 12%.

The info on my molds is the wt of the oils only.

 

[itsmeroro]

Thanks to ya'll for the info! I recalculated the oils and made another (BEAUTIFUL) batch late last night. OH it smells devine!

Poured right to the top! Thanks Ian!

The shampoo bar was a recipe off of the Cranberry Lane site and I figured out I would give it a try... I have to make some lip balms, and hand balms - but am thinking of trying this shampoo bar recipe and tweak it a bit. How would you tweak it to make it a bit harder? Castor Oil possibly - and what else?

Thanks again and have a great day.

 

[IanT]

Glad that worked for ya!!!

Im so bad at how to make a harder bar...maybe beeswax or more saturated oils (Palm kernel flakes, cocoa butter, palm oils or lard ???)

 

[Guest]

I didn't realize how hard my soap was until I left that pesky lavender to sit overnight and ended up cutting it 24 hours later. I cut soap with a big knife and OUCH it hurt. Now that I think about it, I only use 2 liquids which comprise about 1/4-1/3 of the batch. The other hard oils are soy, palm, and coconut.

 

[itsmeroro]

Well, I cut the log today and its not bad at all! Which suprised me. I will let it cure and see how it ends out.

 

[IanT]

It will only get harder as the water evaps out of it

pics!?!?!