Blender problem

[newbie1979]

Hello my fellow soapers (technically, I'm not sure if i can call myself that, as I just made my first batch and it didn't go well haha)...but anyhow..So i just made my first soap batch. I managed to get it done but hit an issue that all my research on this page, and others websites, did not prepare me for.... I had issues with the brand new blender that I bought for soaping.
When i had my oils and goats milk combined in the bowl, I tried to blend it...seemed like the blender would only mix whatever was INSIDE the dome of the blender. When I lifted the blender out to check it, I could see it had become thick trace inside the dome of the blender. It didn't swirl the mix in the bowl visibly at all. I had to keep moving the blender around like crazy and for a long time to get anywhere even close to trace. . When I tried to blender in water it works as expected...swirled the water in the bowl the way I expected to see it do in oil mix.. . Any ideas what the problem is?

This was my recipe:
lye 72g
Goats milk 175g
Coconut oil 150g
Olive oil 187g
Palm oil 162g
I also added a teaspoon of ground oats and raw honey at trace(ish)

Goats milk was frozen and melted in an ice bath with the lye. The oils were mixed at room temp (28 degrees) as I live in the tropics. I mixed the oil with the goats milk without heating the oil. So milk was very cold and oil at room temp.

The blender is the type which has holes in the housing to let the air bubbles out.

Hope I have included all relevant info.

Really hope it's something stupid I did and not a faulty blender

Why oh why do I never got normal issues

 

[Primrose]

What is the brand and type of blender? I'm not sure what the issue is but that seems a logical question to investigate.

I wonder if you had a false trace? Did the batter eventually loosen up while stirring?

 

[lsg]

Sounds like it might have been the blender. A weak or worn-out blender will probably run in water, but not when it meets very much resistance.

 

[jcandleattic]

How old is the blender? ITTA with lsg, could be a worn out blender ready to die and you just need a new, more powerful one.

 

[KristaY]

That is so odd since you said it's brand new and just for soaping. I wonder if you got some air trapped under the bell that didn't come out when you turned it on. That's just a random, and probably weird, thought. I have a particular SB that traps air really easily in the bell so I've gotten in the habit of putting it into the oils and giving it a couple of very quick bursts. I then take the top (motorized part you hold) off and leaving the lower half in the oils. From there I pour my lye in, swirl the mixture around a bit, then reattach the top and off I go. I'm very careful not to allow the bell portion to come out of the batter until I'm ready to completely remove it. It's something to try anyway

 

[earlene]

Perhaps the bell trapped the very cold lye with the room temperature oils and heated them up faster because they were trapped and that's why it created thicker soap within the bell enclosure. Why it trapped them, I am unsure.

It seems to me I have had this happen once with the soap getting thick inside the bell. I really don't remember what the situation was exactly and it has not happened again. As I recall, the only thing I did to remedy the problem at the time, was to disconnect the shaft from the motor, wipe it as clean as I could with the spatula & carefully re-insert the bell at an angle into the batter to 'burp' it, stir by hand for a bit, then reconnect to the motor and pulse while also stirring. It must have been the right solution because if it had done it again, I think I would remember. I am not sure if this happened when at home or traveling (I use a different SB when I travel), so which brand SB it happened with is unknown to me. Perhaps it was recipe related, as in high lye concentration (low amount of water), or soaping too hot, or an FO that overheats, or a combination of those types of conditions.

 

[Nanette]

I had a new blender that I tried in something else, as I hadnt planned on even using it for soaping...and I was shocked at how weak it was. It would never have worked for soaping, as it barely blended at all. It was like trying to use one of those tiny mini blenders..so it could be your new blender.

 

[Saponomancer]

Different blenders for sure blend a completely different rates, you could have one that's just too weak. I have a very good stick blender, and medium good stick blender and I actually prefer the medium one because the other one is actually *too* good for my little batches, I get splash up from it when I try to use it, its been relegated to hot process only, because its a stainless steel one.

 

[newbie1979]

Wow. Thank you all for the comments. I kinda thought as it was such a silly, unusual question people would not be quick to give solutions but you girls are awesome
So my blender is a Klaz brand stick blender. It is 150w (not sure if that is weak but when I hit the button it seems quite powerful).

some extra info which might help find the answer ( I did a lot of searching yesterday after I hit the issue....)

1. This was a small test batch (500g of oils) so it wasn't very deep in the mixing bowl, but it did cover the blender dome
2. I realised I made a rookie mistake and poured oils onto lye/goats milk solution. So the lye was at the bottom with oil resting on top
3. I zap tested the soap after cutting and it made my tongue zap a little. So mix is lye heavy? I used soap calc to calculate my mix. It recommended a water total of 175g so I directly substituted with 175g goats milk....in hindsight this was maybe a bad decision as goats milk has less water in it....Perhaps I should have increased the amount of goats milk to make sure there was enough water to convert the lye?
4. Finally when I cut the soap, about half way through each cut, the soap became crumbly ( I left soap in fridge for around 18 hours then cut immediately after I took it out)
5. I'm not a natural at soap making. In fact I feel like a soaping disaster

 

[Saponomancer]

Pouring the oil into the lye solution is probably your problem here, although its going to be zappy for a couple of days after you make it, try it again in a week. Did you use a knife to cut it? That can make it crumble on the second half because its a wedge shape.

 

[newbie1979]

 

[newbie1979]

 

[newbie1979]

Pouring the oil into the lye solution is probably your problem here, although its going to be zappy for a couple of days after you make it, try it again in a week. Did you use a knife to cut it? That can make it crumble on the second half because its a wedge shape.

Hopefully you can see the pics I posted. The soap is resting on the cutting tool I used

 

[Saponomancer]

When you push it with your finger is it harder at the bottom than the top?

 

[newbie1979]

When you push it with your finger is it harder at the bottom than the top?

No to be honest it feels around the same firmness on top and bottom

 

[Saponomancer]

No to be honest it feels around the same firmness on top and bottom

Then its fine! cut it up into bars and set it out to dry, zap test it in a week

 

[newbie1979]

Then its fine! cut it up into bars and set it out to dry, zap test it in a week

Thank you dragon girl. So you think my cutting tool isn't good?

 

[Saponomancer]

Thank you dragon girl. So you think my cutting tool isn't good?

It crumbles like that sometimes if you're using a bench scraper or a knife and dont cut it within some kind of magical window thats just right. If you can invest in a wire cutter (my first one was for cheeses! I marked off on its little board where an inch was so I could measure out each bar)

 

[Saponomancer]

Like this one!

 

[newbie1979]

Like this one!

Time to start looking some cheese wire then thank you