Castile cold process

[Lynda Coleman]

i followed recipe from soapcalc for 100% olive oil soap yesterday mid day and before I went to work last night it looked good. Traced thick enough had swirl design on top.
I came in from work this morning to find oil raised to top . Is this normal for this type soap? Will it just take longer ? What about sitting on top of soap? I’m a newbie, help please

 

[penelopejane]

Welcome to the forum.
In order to troubleshoot for you we will need to know: How much lye and water did you add? What was the super fat%? Did you use any additives?

Did you take the temperature of the oil and lye when you mixed them?

 

[shunt2011]

Hello and welcome. There are many things that could cause your issue. As PJ said, post your recipe and process including additives etc and we are more than happy to help troubleshoot. What kind of mold did you use and did you insulate it?

 

[dixiedragon]

A pic would also help!

Is it droplets on the top? Or more than that? If droplets, it could be glycerin sweat. Especially if you are in a humid area. Leave it alone and it will probably re-absorb. If it doesn't, blot it off with a paper towel.

 

[Lynda Coleman]

I used silicone molds , one loaf and other bars. The bars have droplets but the loaf more. Hopefully will reabsorb most in a few days. First time I make this one. I did Bastille soap two days prior and did beautiful . I have mostly used melt and pour this is my 3 rd batch of cold process. I was looking for good bar for my daughter and grand babies that have eczema.

Only additive was sodium lactate one tsp per pound of oil and lavender essential oil per instruction. Mississippi is very humid and it rained a good bit right after soap made. Thank you for all your help. If you happen to know a great recipe for eczema greatly appreciated as seems my idea of Castile hasn’t quite worked
“yet”

I used soap calc for recipe with 5 % super fats . I measured oil and lye . Oil 110 and lye water 111.

Here are pics of soap this morning

 

[DeeAnna]

"...I measured oil and lye..."

Uh, yeah, but WHAT were those measurements? Water, NaOH, and fat as well as additives. Please be specific to get the best advice.

 

[shunt2011]

I'm wondering if you got false trace then separation. Hard to tell from the photos. Is it setting up at all?

 

[penelopejane]

Did you add the EO at trace or to the oils? Sometimes it doesn’t incorporate well if added at trace. How much did you add?

I’d probably wipe it off but it will probably reabsorb on its own.

I make unscented Castile for those with sensitive skin and eczema. DH was told by his skin specialist not to use fragrance (EO or FO) on his skin as he has eczema.

 

[earlene]

Mississippi is pretty humid, so I'm thinking that's a result of the silicone, the humidity and probably other factors that your full recipe will help ID.

Possible other contributing factors: the amount of SL you added. Salt draws water to itself, so with SL your soap could be drawing ambient water from the humid environment.

I'm not sure about the lavender at that amount, as I always weight my fragrances, rather than using teaspoonsful.

I am guessing from your photos you made a huge batch of soap using 110 ounces of oil? If I plug that in as ounces, (which I don't use anymore - I use grams now), that's a pretty large batch of soap (almost 5,000 grams). You have so many molds full it's got to be close to that, I think. For a beginner, I would suggest starting smaller (500 grams of oil) until you are sure your recipes and technique and process are giving you consistently reliable results. Then you won't have to worry quite as much when something goes wrong, and there's a lot less chance of wasted materials.

But if you used 110 ounces of oil, then your lye solution shouldn't be 111 ounces, but rather about 56 ounces if you used the default settings in your lye calculator (which ever one you used.)

In Soapee, when I plug in 110 ounces of OO and leave everything else unchanged this is what the recipe looks like:

So either I assume incorrectly about what you did, or you made an error with your lye solution. 14.15 oz NaOH plus 41.8 oz water = 58.95 oz lye solution. Or did you accidentally use the grams number for water?

In any case, how much water and how much lye specifically is really important.

 

[cmzaha]

Problem with eczema is not all is the same. What will work for one does not always work for another. You mention babies, what age babies. If they are under 1 I would use water. People mention how great my face looks and what I use. I tell them 90% of the time water and no lotions.

I also have and have had severe eczema since I was 2 so that adds up to 67 yrs I have put up with it. Oops now we know my age . Eczema is so much more than just dry skin or itchy skin, for me it can be life threatening so please test everything used on anyone with eczema. Inside the elbow is a good place to test products.

Sorry I did not help with the actual question, but as everyone mentioned we need the actual recipe to help troubleshoot. I am thinking you may not have reached an actual good trace. The word "Eczema" always shouts out at me, as many do not take it as serious as it can be. There I go again...

 

[DeeAnna]

"...Oil 110 and lye water 111...."

Oh, so these numbers are ounces? It didn't make any sense to me that the oil and lye solution weights are almost the same, so I didn't quite know what they were -- maybe temps or something other than weights. I'm glad your intuition is working better 'n mine, Earlene.

 

[Lynda Coleman]

It looks very soft set but if removed from it from mold I doubt it would stay formed. It looked so good before I went to work . Held a very pretty swirl on top at seemed setting up well. Tonight I removed the visible floating oil in hopes to help it set. Thank you all for your support. Here is the recipe I used

 

[Lynda Coleman]

"...Oil 110 and lye water 111...."

Oh, so these numbers are ounces? It didn't make any sense to me that the oil and lye solution weights are almost the same, so I didn't quite know what they were -- maybe temps or something other than weights. I'm glad your intuition is working better 'n mine, Earlene.

100 and 111 was the tempature of the oil and lye water when added together to mix,

 

[earlene]

I cannot read your recipe. It is too small and my eyes are too old and my screen is a laptop, not a full sized PC monitor. If I could enlarge it, I would, but that's not possible with your attachment as far as I can tell.
ETA: I did do a clip of it and tried enlarging it, but it's too blurry when enlarged.

Maybe you could just type it into a post? Then we'd be able to see it.

 

[saqqa]

Guys, i am also a newbie in soaping but i feel theres some issue with the recipe.
1. See the WATER TO LYE CONCENTRATION and LYR CONCENTRATION. . Did you change them or were they default?

2. WHEN you hold the soap does your hands starts burning ? (if yes they lye is more)

3. Oliveoil is a very delicate oil and 100% of it with 5% superfat maybe also an issue. You can try to reduce the superfat maybe to 2% ?

4. As a begineer, try to make small batch as this is a testing period. Maybe a lye of 25 grams and oils 150grams.

Just test and try what works out for you.

 

[amd]

It was difficult to read the OP recipe, I had to do a few tricks to get it to where I could read it (and I'm on a PC). I've redone it in soapcalc, although I couldn't read her notes, so those are not copied.

The water to lye ratio is good, superfat is also ok at 5%.

150g is much to small a batch to make. typically we recommend 500g. 150g leaves very little leeway for slight measuring errors.

 

[penelopejane]

It could be the lavender EO separating out. Did you mix it with the oils or add it at trace?
What type of OO did you use.
Did you cover it and keep it warm?
That is a big batch. It might be difficult to get it evenly to light trace if you weren’t careful.