Batter gone bad?

[Hilge]

I have one question for you all experts. I have done many many different recipes during my soaping years (as a hobby) and in general, I like my batter to trace quite quickly and I expect it to be perfectly smooth, even and not too thick when I pour it into the mould. So obviously I don't like any surprises and FOs that suddenly turn my batter into something nasty. But IF that happens, I usually try to add just a little bit of oil at this point and stir a bit, just enough to get it into the moulds. And even if this goes ok, I still feel like the whole thing is ruined and I start think about another recipe and potential "what went wrong". Now I'm wondering if I'm too hard on my batter, maybe this way it can come out ok too? How often you others come across these bad behaving FOs and what do you do when this happens? Toss the whole thing, try to rebatch (never really got the idea of this) or what?

Anyway, I try to remember the FOs that don't work and stay away from them. Sadly there's some awesome scents.

 

[lsg]

Making notations for each batch of soap will help you to remember which FOs misbehaved. I use SoapMaker Pro 3 and make notations in the "Notes section". With SoapClac you can print out recipes and make notations, then store them in a soap journal.
As for the soap, just because a soap thickens up too quickly doesn't mean it is ruined. I never throw away a batch of soap unless I can't save it, and that is rare. As long as the soap gets solid enough to cut and is not lye heavy or does not have lye pockets, it should be OK to use. Thinking about what went wrong is a good idea, writing it down might prevent that from happening the next time.

 

[navigator9]

I like to soap at room temp, to help things move along as slowly as possible, but there is always the chance of that fragrance that you just have to use, even though you know it misbehaves, because you just love it that much, will do it's thing, and speed things up. I always add FOs to the oil before the lye, and mix well. I'm not sure how much of an advantage this is over adding the fragrance last, but it feels like it helps a bit. I have the mold right next to me, so when the batter does thicken up, I don't have to waste any time grabbing the mold. Although I have never had to try it, I've heard that when ricing occurs, you should add a small amount of warm water and stick blend like crazy.

Sometimes those batches that thicken up too fast, don't look the prettiest after unmolded. Lumpy, with air pockets. In that case, I've cut them up into embeds for other soaps, or sometimes grated them and added that to plain soap batter as "confetti". Or saved it to use myself. Just because it's not so pretty, doesn't mean it's not great soap. Hope this helps.

 

[Hilge]

Thank you for your replies! I think you are right Navigator, that it may not be pretty but it can still be good. Maybe it's the lumps and pockets I hate And indeed, that's a good idea so save if for another use. I tried that "blending like crazy" but with few drops of oil. I'm pretty sure this last one I did will sweat the oil off in mould but we'll see (everything is sweating, it's +32celcius in Finland...)

If something comes out of this ugly looking, lumpy batter I will post photos

 

[MzMolly65]

I'm happy to say that unlike concrete crafting, I have not thrown ONE soap away and I have had a few bad batches. If I really want a soap out of them I'll rebatch them in the crock and they might turn out ugly but they are still very much soap. If I want something prettier I shave them down and turn them into sugar scrubs using Mayren's 1,2,3 recipe and everyone LOVES those.

There are no failures in soap!

 

[DeeAnna]

Or switch to plan B (or C!) and HP the soap.

"...Mayren's 1,2,3 recipe..."

Oooh, just looked at this -- thanks for sharing, Molly!

 

[Susie]

I have made 3 batches of Mayren's 1, 2, 3 sugar scrubs. They are absolutely wonderful! I have repeat requests for them even! AND, even better, I can use those "not quite marvelous" soaps up!

 

[Hilge]

Well, this one turned out to be quite ok. The added oil (before crazy stirring) made it a bit oily at the surface but I'm pretty sure it will dry out. BUT as we all understand, do not shove your sticky and thick batter into this kind of patterned mould... It's way beyond shabby chic! Looks like antique concrete ornament

 

[MzMolly65]

Or switch to plan B (or C!) and HP the soap.

"...Mayren's 1,2,3 recipe..."

Oooh, just looked at this -- thanks for sharing, Molly!

DeeAnna .. they're AWESOME and it's so easy to do. I make a lot of them now. Everyone just grabs them up.

 

[MzMolly65]

It's way beyond shabby chic! Looks like antique concrete ornament

I actually like those .. but that might have to do with the fact that I also craft with cement and they do remind me of old stone!

 

[Hilge]

Thanks MzMolly! I don't hate those either, old style romantic I guess I call the other "Smurf soap" because they are so blue! The scent I used was called winter white and it's really really fresh and clean, like old school soap.