Butter bars won't harden

[Todd Ziegler]

I have this same issue too. I never had a problem till I started using CA...now my soap has to get super hot before it gels...and at the same time I have to watch like a hawk so I don't get a volcano/tunneling.

What is CA? I'm not familiar with it. These were just test batches. My 4 standard recipes don't include any butters but for selling purposes, I thought I would create a butter recipe. I'm going to try cocoa butter next and get some fresh mango butter.

 

[earlene]

CA = Citric Acid
It is used as a chelator to reduce soap scum.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

CA = Citric Acid
It is used as a chelator to reduce soap scum.

OK that was really obvious, duh.

 

[Megan]

What is CA? I'm not familiar with it. These were just test batches. My 4 standard recipes don't include any butters but for selling purposes, I thought I would create a butter recipe. I'm going to try cocoa butter next and get some fresh mango butter.

Cocoa and shea are a great combination. I think cocoa and mango should be great too. Cocoa has a lot more palmitic acid and really helps to firm the bar up.

 

[Dawni]

I love that mango color!
Can't help either as out of the 3 I've only soaped with mango butter.

I agree that with the lard it should have hardened up by now. Murumuru butter isn't much higher in stearic or palmitic than a lot of soft oils, but the illipe is relatively high on both. Stumped all of us, this lovely colored soap lol

I make n sell a lovely soap that has all 3 common butters - mango, shea and cocoa. Takes a while to cure to get lovely lather, but lovely it is.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I love that mango color!
Can't help either as out of the 3 I've only soaped with mango butter.

I agree that with the lard it should have hardened up by now. Murumuru butter isn't much higher in stearic or palmitic than a lot of soft oils, but the illipe is relatively high on both. Stumped all of us, this lovely colored soap lol

I make n sell a lovely soap that has all 3 common butters - mango, shea and cocoa. Takes a while to cure to get lovely lather, but lovely it is.

Thanks, I am just going to be patient with it.

 

[Dawni]

Try them again though... Make small test batches.

If they harden OK then at least you can eliminate the butters being the culprits and you can use em again. I imagine they didn't come cheap (price is horrendous where I am hence the non usage lol).

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Try them again though... Make small test batches.

If they harden OK then at least you can eliminate the butters being the culprits and you can use em again. I imagine they didn't come cheap (price is horrendous where I am hence the non usage lol).

I want to come up with a good mango, Shea and cocoa butter soap. Either individually or as a combo of the 3. I got all the butters on sale but I will probably only use the mango again of the 3. I might try the mango with one of my standard recipe and see if there is a problem with that recipe.

Obsidian sent me two butter bars that she made and I liked them. However I am looking at this purely from a lable appeal standpoint. I don't plan on making a lot of soap with butters in them unless sales demand it. So far my testers have really liked all my 4 standard recipes which 3 of them just have either goat milk, buttermilk or beer powder added to them as the only difference but the 4th one is a olive oil soap. So butter bars will not be a priority for me. However I still want to try and make a good one that hardens a little faster. I am thinking about swapping out the lard and going with palm oil. Don't really know yet.

 

[Obsidian]

I want to come up with a good mango, Shea and cocoa butter soap. Either individually or as a combo of the 3. I got all the butters on sale but I will probably only use the mango again of the 3. I might try the mango with one of my standard recipe and see if there is a problem with that recipe.

How are you bars doing now that you cut them?
My double butter bars traced really slow but set up like any other recipe.
The high mango recipe however, accelerated like mad and was set up within 30 min. Not sure if the FO played any part or not.

I'd try one butter at a time, replacing say, 15% of the lard with your butter of choice.
That should be plenty to test how the butter behaves and if it brings anything to the soap.
Small batches with a well know behaving FO.

 

[Catscankim]

I too love the mango color!!!

 

[Todd Ziegler]

How are you bars doing now that you cut them?
My double butter bars traced really slow but set up like any other recipe.
The high mango recipe however, accelerated like mad and was set up within 30 min. Not sure if the FO played any part or not.

I'd try one butter at a time, replacing say, 15% of the lard with your butter of choice.
That should be plenty to test how the butter behaves and if it brings anything to the soap.
Small batches with a well know behaving FO.

There drying but still soft. I'm going to buy some fresh mango butter and try it again. The 3 butter bars are still soft and now there oily. I will try your suggestion because I was going to change the recipe myself, to see if it made a difference.

 

[linne1gi]

I made two different batches with butter in them and they won't harden up. Both batches were done at room temperature and I used SL.

The 3 butter soap is 5 days old and when I gently press on it, it leaves a dimple. The butters where all close to a year old but had never been opened from the vacuum seal bags.

I changed the recipe a little for the mango only soap and added some palm kernel flakes to see if it would help it harden and it may be helping a little but it is still softer then I expected for 3 days.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Personally I think you have too much water in this recipe. You have a 31% lye concentration. I generally use a 35% lye concentration and go to 33% for a soap design that uses many colors. I would increase your lye concentration in the future. Also, have you tried using table salt or sodium lactate? Both will help to initially harden up your soap for easier unmolding.

 

[Hope Ann]

I make n sell a lovely soap that has all 3 common butters - mango, shea and cocoa. Takes a while to cure to get lovely lather, but lovely it is.

I am in the finishing stages of tweaking a 3 butter lard soap. Trying to decide if I need all three or not. I do love it though and I think the butter brings something beyond what I got from the lard. I have SWA for my liquid and am working on figuring out the best lower cost sub that brings the same creamy lather. I never thought soap could make my skin soft but this actually is. It's nice a week in from my tester bar and keeps getting better.

Hope

 

[shunt2011]

@Hope Ann I add shea butter to my lard soap at 10%. I really like it. Plus it's label appeal because I do sell and customers seem to like it.

 

[earlene]

I have SWA for my liquid and am working on figuring out the best lower cost sub that brings the same creamy lather.

What is SWA?