CPOP- is this normal?

[whiskandbowl]

Thursday night I tried a new recipe: OO,CO and Castor to try my hand at making bastille. (actually I got the recipe from here..I forget who posted it but I wanted to give it a try instead of a full OO recipe!)

My kitchen is very cold and I've had a hard time getting my soaps to gel even with insulation (about 65 degrees or so since our heat isn't on yet) so I decided to try to CPOP...nothing like two new things at once.
Making the recipe itself was easy. I was worried about over heating so I turned the oven to warm/170* and then turned if off before I put in my mold, which is a square silicone cake pan. I checked on it about 45 minutes later and it had done nothing...no sign of gel or anything so I turned the oven back on to warm and let it go for another hour. I couldn't resist peeking a few times and noticed that liquid kept pooling on top and it was bubbling round the edges, though it did look like it was gelling. Quick run to google...seemed like the pooling liquid and bubbling was a sign of over heating so I turned the oven off again. Let it sit in there for another hour, got nervous about ruining it and took it out.

Let it sit over night and then unmolded it in the morning. It was really wet feeling so I let it dry for the day while I went to classes then flipped it over and let it dry the rest of the night. I went to cut it this morning and it's still pretty wet feeling...is this normal?? I used soapcalc and used 8% superfat and used the standard 38% water. I plan to let it cure as long as possible so if it just has a lot of water...I'm willing to wait.

Sorry for the insane novel but I didn't want to leave anything out.

 

[judymoody]

A picture would be helpful.

It is probable that your soap overheated. The liquid could either be from fragrance or from separation. If your soap looks kind of grainy and feels spongy or crumbly, the liquid is probably lye heavy seepage. If this is the case you can try to rebatch.

When you cut, if your soap overheated, you may see little pockets with liquid seeping out of them. Likely to be lye pockets. You could zap test or just assume the worst and go directly to rebatch.

Sometimes I will put my soap back in a low oven if it's not gelling but I only turn the oven on for a few minutes and then turn it off again. As soon as it shows signs of gelling, I keep an eye on it and when it's mostly complete, I take it out of the oven. This generally works for me.

ETA: If you suspect overheating, always use gloves when handling your soap, the liquid could be caustic enough to irritate or burn your skin.

Sorry this happened, that's a drag.

 

[whiskandbowl]

Forgot to mention- this batch is unscented. No additives. Just water, lye, and the oils I mentioned earlier. It definitely traced and my oils were 95* lye was 106* so I think that nixes false trace.

It was kind of spongy on top. Or bubbly. I'm not sure how to describe it. The spongy layer was very shallow and I was able to trim it off. Was going to make soap balls with the scraps but they won't roll together; they just fall apart.

The cut bars have no pockets or spots that I can see and it passed the zap test last night. EDIT: Tested again and still no zap. It's actually really pretty and creamy looking. Not crumbly or anything either. Could it just be wet because I used the full water amount?

I did and always use gloves when I handle uncured soap.

I'll be back with a pic! PICS ADDED! I left this first one huge so you can see the details.

you can see the bubbles I'm talking about in this one

No spots or anything

Fun Pic!

 

[judymoody]

Doesn't look bad at all. Just minor overheating, whew! Glad it turned out OK.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Soap looks good. :wink:

 

[whiskandbowl]

Thank you! I can't wait to see how it turns out. I have super sensitive skin and homemade soap has been a wonderful discovery. I'm hoping that this will make my skin even happier since it has no coloring or scents.