Arrrgh!

[koisan]

I just made a VERY BAD BATCH OF SOAP!!! I need some help understanding where I might have gone wrong. 32oz Batch recipe included coconut, palm, olive, and castor oil. I used a teaspoon of sodium lactate added to the water before the lye. The recipe called for 9.6 oz of water and 4.6oz of lye. I wanted to use a hydrosol, so I used 4.8oz of water mixed with sodium lactate and lye. I got my oils and lye to the right temps and combined them. It was really slow coming to trace. Once I had a very light trace, I mixed in the 4.8oz of hydrosol (lemon verbena). My very light trace instantly turned to a hard lump of goo.
One thing I forgot to mention is that I chilled my hydrosol along with my water for the lye. I put the mass in the crockpot to try a hot process with it and it seemed to go through gel stage, but the smell was terrible. Do you think it was the temp of the hydrosol? Any reponse would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Yes, I think it was the temperature of the hydrosol that did it. I made a batch with hydrosol the other day and I just mixed the lye into it and soaped as normal with no problems. Any time that I've added anything cold at trace, it has sped things up considerably.

 

[agriffin]

Well, I'm not real familiar with hydrosols...but I was doing some research...
According to Mountain Rose Herbs:
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/ ... rosol.html

Hydrosols are acidic. So just like adding a cup full of vinegar to your soap...it will curdle it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrosol
" these distillates also contain many of the plant acids"

Maybe some hydrosols are more acidic than others...
I'm not sure why it works from some though...hopefully others will chime in that have more experience.

I don't see how it could be the temp though. I think it was the hydrosol.

 

[cwarren]

wow - thanks for the info Agriffin .. so when do you add such a thing ??

 

[agriffin]

wow - thanks for the info Agriffin .. so when do you add such a thing ??

Lol, I don't use them. Hopefully someone who has a bit more first hand experience will chime in.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Interesting. I'll have to test the PH when I get a minute. :wink:

 

[carebear]

what hydrosol did you use? curious what the pH is.


i don't think adding an acid to the mix would cause it to seize - rather the opposite, actually - I'd expect if your mix isn't already saponified it simply wouldn't, and if you already had soap you'd end up with sludge as the salts of fatty acids break down.

I do believe that the temp difference could be an issue - since you have oils in your mix that are solid when cool, it's entirely possible that the chilled hydrosol simply caused them to solidify, resulting in a kind of false seize.

 

[ToniD]

Sometimes hydrosols are preserved with alcohol, if that was the case with yours--I have read that adding alcohol will cause the soap to seize.

 

[koisan]

Thank you!

Thanks to all for the responses! I bought the hydrosol locally at the farmers market and it is supposed to be an all natural. organic air freshener/aromatherapy thing. I don't see a ph on the bottle, though, this opens up a new question for me, what is the best way to test the ph of soap? I think I will wait to try using hydrosols in soap until I am not such a novice soapmaker!
I did put my lump of soap goo in the crockpot to see if I could re-melt all the oils and do a hot process, but the smell was...off. I ended up tossing the hardened mass.

 

[ChrissyB]

Yep I agree with the temp diagnosis, the cold hydrosol would have caused your coconut and palm oils to resolidify.
But if you got it through gel stage HP'ing it, it should be ok. Put it up in a box in a cupboard somewhere and forget about it for a few weeks, you may find that the smell dissipates and becomes quite pleasant.
Bear in mind that I haven't used hydrosols soaping before, I have used floral water though.