bad soap, please advise

[ilovedoxies]

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This pink stuff wouldn't trace, I sb'd it for like 35 minutes. I have made this recipe many, many times. It has rose clay and red clover tea (Willow Woods) fo. The only thing I could guess was it was too cold, I soaped at 100 degrees. Sooo... I put it back on the stove, heated to 115 and sb'd again. Still no trace. I poured it anyway and now it looks like it's separated. It's been in there for about an hour.



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So now for this mess.... lol. Same recipe, added some baker's chocolate and used chocolate espresso (Brambleberry) fo. I soaped at 120 degrees and it seized, I put it in the mold and five minutes later I have cracked up mess. I touched it and it was blazing hot, so I took it out of the mold and let it sit and cool a little, put it back in the mold and covered it with a towl.

Any comments are welcome!!

 

[ilovedoxies]

I just checked in on it this morning and the pink stuff is still liquid. I poured it out into my mixing bowl. The brown has sunk a little but is hard as a rock.

 

[miaow]

I just checked in on it this morning and the pink stuff is still liquid. I poured it out into my mixing bowl. The brown has sunk a little but is hard as a rock.

I don't know what to say except I'm sorry.
:cry:

Oh also, I made this beautiful cp goat milk loaf. Maybe the prettiest I ever made.. but because I'd been making so much hp I forgot to insulate it.
Part of it solidified, but the bottom was like dark brown jelly. I zap tested the top solid part and it was okay, so I thought maybe I could just cut the bottom off and save the top.
I sliced all the way through the soap and it was hollow!
Oil started spilling out all over the floor
I'd never seen anything like it and I hope I never do again.
I need a drink :?

 

[agriffin]

The first one you had to of mis-measured. Also make sure your lye is stored well and very airtight. I used some old lye and it had soaked up some moisture. So it was heavier becuase of the moisture and made my measurments all wrong.

The second one looks like overheating. Did it gel? I know you said seized...

If it did gel, be sure you remove any insulation after it's completed so it can start cooling down.

 

[mariflo]

Hi there,
Just like agriffin said, you might have miss-measured somewhere and there is not enough lye in the soap to do its job. Or, the lye you used could've been too old and therefore not powerful enough to saponify the quantity of oils. The same thing happened to my mom. She had a container of older lye, measured everything properly, but it wouldn't trace. It kept separating ... She saved it, however, only to be used for cleaning the floors and the bathroom tiles. What she did was add little by little strong lye solution till it started to trace. Once it traced, she cooked it in the oven till it was done (all the extra water she added evaporated and it was fully cooked). The PH of the soap was only half a point higher than a successful batch of the same recipe and didn't zapp. She cured it for a few days, grated it and boiled it with some borax and washing soda and it turned out a really nice and efficient cleaning solution. It was a whole batch and so she had a rather clean household for a looong time after that
As for the second one, if I were you, I'd chop it up or grate it and use it as embeds or confetti in a contrasting color new CP batch. But if you want to save your batch you could also pour over the top a tiny amount of a very thinly traced or MP contrasting color soap to fill up the cracks (or even carve out some more soap around the cracks) and make the surface sticky enough to sprinkle something on it like calendula petals or cocoa powder... It would look like an original design
Just my ideas

 

[ilovedoxies]

Thanks for the sympathy everyone, lol

I warmed up the pink stuff this morning and added some new concentrated lye water, nothing. I just dumped it outside.

As for the brown soap... I had a sneaking feeling I should have cut it up last night but I thought nahhhh, if it looks ok in the morning I'll drizzle a little white CP over it and fill up the cracks like mariflo suggested but when I got up this morning it was hard as a brick and I couldn't cut it.

 

[jarvan]

Oh, my...this is horrible. My sympathies.

 

[mariflo]

Aww, I'm sorry it didn't work out.
But that's ok, it happens to all of us. At least you tried to save them. Good for you!
What fun memories of our soaping days would we have if it wasn't for the stubborn crooked odd batches that would just not behave