Cp pie failure. I am new to cp soaping.

[Lee Wright]

I am new to soapmaking. My grand daughter received a soap making kit for Christmas. She came over so we could make soap together. We were hooked. The kit was for glycerin soap. Since then I have decided to make cold process soap. I have done pretty well so far. I have made cp and glycerin bars. Some in pvc pipe and some in loaf molds. All has gone well until I tried to make a coconut lime and strawberry pie soap. The coconut pie seized up really fast. But I think I know what I did wrong there. I used two different fragrances. One was for glycerin soap. So it seized really fast. But when I made the stawberry soap everything went really well until I started to cut it. I used the same recipe as I always used for my cp bar soap. The soap cracked on bottom and the top piping came off. Why didn't it stick? Why did the soap come off as I cut it? I poured the soap when it was at a light trace. My bars never cracked when it was cut. How do you combine cp and glycerin without the glycerin dewing? The strawberries dewed the next day. I know this is a long request please be patient with me. I am not very good at computers. I am 63 and still learning. Thank you ladies very much. If I can figure out how to do it I will send a picture of the soap pies. Sincerly, Lee

 

[dixiedragon]

Welcome to the forum! Your pies are pretty good for early attempts! By "glycerin soap" I assume you mean melt and pour - you buy the soap (possibly from a hobby store?) and melt it, then pour it? Vs cold process where you add lye to water, then add the lye water to oils?

Can you tell us where you got this kit? Perhaps provide a link to it?

One potential issue is that your fragrances might not be meant for CP soap. The fragrances you buy at hobby stores (hobby lobby, michaels, joann's) are intended for MP soap, not CP, which is a different beast! Also, make sure the fragrances are skin safe, and not intended for candles. Some fragrances for candles are NOT suitable for soap at all, either MP or CP.

Also, coconut fragrances are notoriously difficult - they cause soap to heat up quickly, to separate, etc.

Your piping is gorgeous, btw! I'm so jealous!

I am thinking that to get the soap thick enough to pipe, you probably soaped it pretty cool - and that cool temperature means the bottom didn't gel, and so the two parts didn't bond.

 

[shunt2011]

Hello and welcome! I agree with what dixiedragon said. I haven't tried to make pie slices but have done cupcakes and ice cream cones. How long did you wait to pipe the top? I generally do it the same day or a day or two later. The longer you wait, the more the soap has hardened and the possibility of it not adhering is greater. It's difficult to get the two to gel as then it affects your piping.

As for cracking and breaking, the sooner you cut it the better. The longer you wait to cut into slices the harder it will be. Your piping looks great!

Fragrances need to be CP stable but you'll also find that they can behave differently from recipe to recipe. Coconut can be a bear to work with. Florals and Ocean scents as well.

MP will sweat depending on the humidity and the quality of the MP soap. Companies make low sweat MP bases and they do tend to sweat less.

 

[dixiedragon]

They actually have wedge-shaped silicone pie molds:
https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/st...tJoQOeysbnv8ZY5iO6JkwINTrMpQJoTxoCjGIQAvD_BwE

Might work better than making a giant round soap and slicing it. Also, I'm a bit concerned that the fragrances you chose are going to turn your soap brown. That's a big risk with many food or bakery scents - they use an ingredient called vanillin that causes soap to turn brown - anywhere from a soft tan to almost black. https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...g-bramble-berry-fragrance-oils-discoloration/

You can almost assume anything bakery is going to discolor. Also sugar-lemon type scents and pumpkin scents.

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum. I like your piping.

 

[Lee Wright]

Thank you for your quick response and wonderful feed back. Yes I meant m&p. The kit came from Hobby Lobby. She made some cute soaps with the kit. I always use fragrances from Bramble Berry for cp and a few other on line soap companies. I would never use candle fragrances. I don't know if they are skin safe. I use m&p fragrances and colors for m&p only. I wasn't thinking when I used the coconut fragrance. I was so excited to try and make the pies, just not thinking about it was for m&p. Lesson learned. I poured at 112 and piped as soon as the soap reached the right consistency. About 20 - 30 minutes later. I made the soap around 2:00 in the afternoon and cut it about 10:00 or 11:00 the next morning. It was still a good consistency like when I cut my bars. It was not hard, a little soft and sticky. Maybe I cut it to soon. My husband came in to see the final product and I told him right then and there I was going to get me a pie wedge mold. No more cutting. I guess we will be giving theses to family members. They are still good soaps and they smell great. I need to learn how to rebatch my fails. I have read about the vanilla turning soap brown. The brown you see is my attempt at making crust. It had no fragrance in it so it did not seize up and get hard. So when I put the filling in it broke through into the crust part. I made the coconut with m&p white and brown. Poured into a small mold, swirled it, let it set up and grated it for a toasted coconut look. Thank you again for your comments. Today is my first day, I will be going through the forum and reading and learning from the best. Thanks again, Lee.

 

[dixiedragon]

Rebatching is a HUGE hassle. I suggest confetti soap. Make new soap (or use MP) and cut your old soap into small chunks, or shred it. Mix the old soap with the new soap and pour into the mold. You will want to gel this, so the old soap gets melted a bit and bonds with the new soap.

Edit: I'm thinking the way to do this might be to pipe your tops by themselves into your wedge mold. Let them get totally cool and firm. Set aside. Pour your crust and filling, then set the piped top into that while it is still liquid and warm. Maybe gently press it down into the filling.