Botched batches.....

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Oh Great and Mighty Admins,

We most humbly approach thy most awesomeness and beseech thee that thou might
hear our hearts' desire. Please, your most amazingnesses (wth?), that thou may find it
worthy to pin this simple yet precious thread?

Hmmm....maybe I should ask Shawnee to do this for me? She's pretty good at this prayer stuff :wink:
 
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Badger, if you didn't coat the inside of the PVC with mineral oil or the like, it might be difficult to unmold.

Ugh - the batch that I made last weekend nearly gave me heart failure. I've finally ventured into playing with swirls (yes, I am slow to the game) and did a modified funnel pour (read as - glopped the batter into the mold because it hit trace much more quickly than I anticipated) into my PVC mold which was coated with mineral oil. Because I used orange EO blend, I stuck it in the fridge until it solidified a bit more and then into the freezer it went. (It has to be lying down to fit in the freezer.)

I pulled it out and kept an eye on it for the next day or so waiting for it to harden up enough to unmold. For some reason, it was extremely soft, even for a soap that I didn't gel. Finally, I was able to pull the cap off and there was approximately 1/4 teaspoon of some orangish colored liquid in the bottom which I am guessing was some of the EO, but I have no idea since everything was a medium to heavy trace when it went into the mold. It was still so soft that there was no way to unmold it. I kept thinking of R&R digging out the batch from the column mold and I swore that wasn't going to happen.

I stuck it back in the freezer for a day or so. When I pulled it out, I ran it under hot water for 20 seconds and tried to unmold. Normally, this is pretty easy, I stack up a couple of cans of diced tomatoes which are just under 3" diameter and push the pipe down over the top of them. Usually the soap slides out with a bit of muscle. I think I tried 4 or 5 different times, freezing it again, running it under hot water, pushing, swearing (silently so my 4 year old doesn't repeat my longshoreman's vocabulary at preschool). No dice. I was just about to call it quits when, on a whim, I flipped the pipe over so that instead of putting the cans into the pipe to push it out, I put the pipe over the cans so that the bottom was down.

I nearly wept when the soap started to slide out.

It still had to sit for another 2 days before I was able to cut it. I used the lavender Brazilian clay from BB and because the base soap is a creamy color, it came out more greyish than I would have liked. It smells divine with 3:1 orange:ylang ylang EO mixture.
 
Did the EO reabsorb into the soap? It sounds like a wonderful mix of oils, I am glad it smells good even if the color is not what you wanted... I think I am going to toss mine in the freezer and then try to get it out. I used Parchment paper to line the pvc, but the paper didn't behave and came loose into the center of the soap I had poured, so I had to pull it out... had no idea what else I could do at that point. I was able to pour the one I did tonight into the mold with just a glopping mess, but the parchment paper behaved better.

I will see what happens with my soap after putting it in the freezer for a bit and then will see if I can get it out of the pipe.
 
Hmmm....maybe I should ask Shawnee to do this for me? She's pretty good at this prayer stuff :wink:

I prefer "incantation", but whatevs...;-)

OK, here goes (everyone must hold hands and form a circle for this one...oh, and take your shoes off...it works better that way) ~

<Hey you, with the bell...ring it now>

High Priestess of the Ancient Soap Pot stands in the center of the circle with soap cauldron in front of her:
"O Mighty Soap Gods, the Holy Scented and Unscented, we humbly come before thee with sacred and unified intention that thou may hear our most solemn wish."

<Insert incense lighting here> <and stop ringing that bell!>

SMFers: "We offer our oils unto thee as a token of our devotion"

<High Priestess adds 3 most powerful and divine oils to the cauldron: Olive, Coconut, and Castor>

<Everyone start moving clockwise...uh, no...you're "other left">

HPotASP: "We come before thee as pure as Castille with the one desire to have the beloved thread of "Botched Batches" bestowed with the highest honor of being transformed from 'common thread' to 'sticky post' "

<right hand puts Calendula into the soap cauldron while left hand holds stick blender pointed towards the heavens>

SMFers: "Admins and Mods, we raise this nectar of sodium hydroxide in honor of your benevolence!"

<raise stainless steel chalices of lye solution in salute...Very. Carefully.>

<Each SMFer kneels and pours ther NaOH into the cauldron>

HPotASP & SMFers: "By the power of Olive, and Coconut, and Castor - the spell be done!"

<flames erupt from cauldron...a little soap batter volcanos...so we decide this will be a "hot process" spell>

...and the smoke clears...

DID IT WORK? :wtf:
 
<Head stuck in cauldron>
Hello?! Anybody in there? :eh:
<echoes>
Hazelllll? Gennyyyyy?
<knocking on the outside of the cauldron>
JudyMoody? Paillo?
<more echoes>
Lindy? Are you in there?
<Knocking harder on the side of the cauldron>
:shock:
Who had their fingers crossed? You NEVER cross your fingers when doing a soap spell! Everyone knows that! :roll:
 
This makes me feel better. I have 3 batches of 'failed' soap I still don't know what to do with. They are from my first-ish batches of milk soap - traced so quickly I couldn't get the oxides/oats mixed in well enough, and were so thick so there are air bubbles and unevenly mixed soap. Sad cause its a lot of soap. 3-5 pounds in each bat h

Who thinks they are even worth a rebatch? I'm thinking to just give them away, not sure if its worth the precious time rebatching. There are clumps of oat powder and uneven color in them. Definitely usable, that's why I'm leaning towards freebies to friends.
 
Who thinks they are even worth a rebatch? I'm thinking to just give them away, not sure if its worth the precious time rebatching. There are clumps of oat powder and uneven color in them. Definitely usable, that's why I'm leaning towards freebies to friends.

Do you have pics? I'd vote for rebatch, you just might come up with something great!
 
OK, the good news is that I saved the soap.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXJL06gye8g[/ame]

The bad news is that I think the smell is going to have to grow on me. I am not sure I like it. It may just need to cure. It makes me unhappy I sacrificed the design I wanted for a scent I'm not sure about.
 
OK, the good news is that I saved the soap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXJL06gye8g

The bad news is that I think the smell is going to have to grow on me. I am not sure I like it. It may just need to cure. It makes me unhappy I sacrificed the design I wanted for a scent I'm not sure about.

I like it. I think the simple design and light colors go with what I would envision sweet pea to look like.
 
It turned out very nice, Dana. I know you are not that fond of the scent, but maybe it will come together for you. I keep thinking of cherry blossoms looking at the soap...
 
It turned out very nice, Dana. I know you are not that fond of the scent, but maybe it will come together for you. I keep thinking of cherry blossoms looking at the soap...

I think the scent just needs to mellow a bit, and I can still smell the oils. I didn't gel this soap, so I think I need to give it a week to saponify a bit more, and then we'll see. Sweet Pea is a popular scent. Someone will like it.
 
uglysoap_zpsc55088bf.jpg


Still not sure what happened with this one. I *think* that the goat's milk burned from the lye. The only thing that I did differently with this batch was that this was my first time adding tussah silk and I tried adding it to the goat's milk before I added the lye, and it didn't dissolve as I'd thought it would. Also I was trying a new coffee FO. I have just have crap luck with coffee FO's.
 

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