Coffee soap conundrum

[ffclowd1]

I recently made a coffee soap with coffee grounds as an exfoliating additive. I also used triple strength coffee for the water lye solution. everything mixed well and had no uneven blotches.
it had no problems coming to trace, not to fast or slow. I then poured it into a PVC pipe for a mold and waited 2 weeks. when I removed it from the pipe it still was a little sticky and the coffee grounds had a whiteish halo around them. I tried to let them dry but it has been a few months now and when I cut into a bar the center is still sticky. any ideas if this soap is ruined. I cant help but think it may have also been the fact it was winter when I molded it and maby it cooled to quick. I am going to attempt to rebatch but am worried about its safety.

 

[heartsong]

hmmmm...I just don't have an idea as to what's going on...after 72 hrs the lye should be completely reacted, so if it isn't lye heavy it should be ok to rebatch...did you touch it to your tongue for a "zap" test? that will tell you if it's lye heavy.

I know coffee is acidic...could it have neutralized too much of the lye, maybe? IDK

 

[newbie]

CAn you post your recipe? I wonder if something was mismeasured accidentally if the soap is still soft after months of curing and you have used this recipe before.

 

[ffclowd1]

I zap tested the soap and nothing, it seems very mild and does not irritate my skin.
my recipe is 10 oz canola 17 oz coconut 45oz olive 5 oz grape seed 10oz sunflower seed oil 12.4oz lye 29oz triple strength coffee in place of water 1/3 liquid to 2/3 frozen so coffee does not burn or boil. added 18 tsp coffee grounds at trace. its a 1% lye discount and an estimated 124ins . I did not think of the acidic level of the coffee that is a good point I had not considered. the recipes was my own creation but I used chris mathes soap spreadsheet to calculate my values as a way of speeding up the process of hand calculating the lye amounts and oil ratios. all my measurements are by weight

 

[dagmar88]

Could you post your amounts of lye and liquid too?

 

[cmzaha]

The white halos I am not sure about, but remember soap takes many many months to completely dry out. They dry for the outside in. I recently cut I soap I made last September to test my theory that it would still be slightly wet in the middle and it was. The other issue I see is you are using very soft oils in your soap, canola, grapeseed & sunflower, (72% unsaturated oils) which is going to require much longer drying time. I make coffee soap with full fresh double espresso in lieu of water with no problems. My double expresso is accomplished by making fresh expresso and adding in additional instant expresso. I also use the used expresso grounds and have not had the halo effect you mentioned.

 

[bodhi]

What water did you use to make the coffee?

 

[ffclowd1]

I used distilled water. I may have been too impatient with the drying usually just after I cut the soap I put it on a box fan to assist with drying this time however I did not because it was sticky. I rebatched it so I will see if it helped. Thank you for the suggestion to add instant espresso I had not thought of that. The little bit of soap that was left in the container from rebatching has not showed the Halos like the previous batch so I may go on the assumption that it was probably mostly due to the temperature at which it cooled. Perhaps the grounds held some heat well the rest of the soap solution cooled at a different pace. For my next batch I will be using harder oils I think.