CP soap troubleshooting?! Help!

[Maxine]

Hey all! So, I made (or, rather, tried) to make CP soap today for the first time. And it didn't work.

I followed the directions and am 98% certain that I measured everything perfectly. I'm not sure if it would be the temperature, the ingredients I used or what....

The recipe:
6 ounces distilled water
2.25 ounces lye (sodium hydroxide)
10 ounces extra virgin olive oil
6 ounces coconut oil
1 tblsp castor oil

I waited too long for the lye to cool and it was 108F when I mixed it into the oils (which were also the same temp. - the book I have says that they should both be at 110F). I don't have a small hand blender (my other one is for lotions), so I hand stirred it by hand.
And I stirred.
And stirred.
and switched arms and stirred some more.

In all I stirred it for over an hour and nothing. I am positive that it did not trace.
It smelled slightly olive oily and is yellowish, but I don't think it worked.

I poured it into a mold anyway, and I'll check it out in a day or two just to see what it's doing, so I know what not to do next time.

And help or suggestions as to what I did wrong? Or should I try it again with a different recipe?! Ingredients? I am definitely going to buy another small hand frother, but any other advice?

Thanks!
Cheers,
Maxine

 

[Sunny]

The temperature doesn't matter as far as I know - people have their own opinions about this.

I think the problem is, were you stirring by hand? With just a spoon? That can take forever, hours literally from what I have read - you need to use a stick blender to trace faster.

You can get one for $20 bucks at Target or Wal-mart. (everywhere I read says you can get one for $10, I searched everywhere and that was not the case. $20 was the lowest I found.) It is a necessity for soapmaking.

As far as I am concerned, and I don't know what the experts think, as long as I knew that I cleaned my stick blender well, I would use it for both lotions and soaping.

ETA: I didn't check your recipe, it could be that, make sure that you always run your recipes through a soap calculator to see that they're safe.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Yep, a stick blender would have made all the difference. :wink:

 

[ToniD]

Hopefully it worked for you--even with a stick blender, I don't wait for my soaps high in OO to come to a thick trace before I put them in a mold. They just have to be blended enough that they do not separate.

If yours does separate, I am pretty sure you can save it by remixing, but I don't have any experience with that.

Hope for the best.

Lower temp wont matter.

 

[honor435]

go to used store, i got sb for 5$, still working after 150 batches!

 

[karajan]

extra virgin olive oil takes a long time to trace especially if you hand stir. If you have to hand stir I suggest to use pure olive oil but that still will take over an hour to trace.

 

[carebear]

my first (only) hand stirred olive oil soap took more hours than the day was long...

99.9% sure that it will be in separate layers in your mold at this point - just put your gloves on, get out a towel or two, and pour it back into the bowl and keep at it. even if it's kinda jelly line in part. you need it mixed smooth and so that it doesn't separate within a few minutes. you CAN do it by hand but I absolutely recommend a stainless steel whisk over a spoon.

 

[Maxine]

Thanks for all the replies.

So clearly it was my stirring

I hadn't bought a stick blender as the stainless steel ones are kinda expensive, but I guess I'll see if I can't pick one up on sale somewhere.

Thanks guys!

 

[Maxine]

Update: I went out and bought a stick blender the next day. My soap was still really soft and mushy and had oil sitting on the top of it, so I blended it back together and I am fairly certain it traced!

When I went to unmold it the other day, it is still really soft and it was cracks were forming in it as I tried to unmold it.

Should I just leave it in the mold longer? Or is it just gone >,<

Thanks for the help!

 

[donniej]

I didn't look up a lye calculator but just off the top of my head I'm guessing that full sap would be ~3.5 ounces lye... Assuming I'm correct, I'd say that's too much lye discount or superfat. That will also slow things down and make a very soft & oily soap.

 

[Maxine]

Oh wow. That recipe is from a book, it never even occurred to me to double check the calculations.

Lesson learned I guess >,<

Assuming the the pH for the soap (once I test it) is ok, could I reuse this to make a M+P soap? I could add some beeswax to add hardness, right?

Thanks again

 

[dtkpmom]

Frankly, at this point I would pitch it and start over, its such a small batch, the cost of the ingredients wasn't so much. I ran it through my soap software and you are taking an 11% lye discount. I usually only superfat to around 7% lye discount. With your recipe, that would be about 2.37 oz of lye, a little more than you are using. If you are using a digital scale that measures in grams I would measure everything by weight in grams. With such a small batch, there is less room for error.

I ran it through my soapmaker software and converted to grams. This is what I would do if you can. If you can only weigh in ounces try to get to 2.3 ounces of lye

in grams you should have
284 grams of olive oil
171 grams of coconut oil
15 grams of castor oil
make sure you scrape every last drop of oil out if you are measuring into one container and then pouring into the other oils.

151 grams of water by weight = 10% water discount
(you could go as low as 142 which would be a 15% water discount and a 32% lye solution-I wouldn't go any lower than that)
67 grams of lye