Dent in soap

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

robcarr

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2017
Messages
21
Reaction score
8
Has anyone experienced this problem?
Soap comes out of the mold without the dent and 3 to 5 days later the soap develops this.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20200301_075625.jpg
    IMG_20200301_075625.jpg
    156.6 KB
  • IMG_20200301_075856.jpg
    IMG_20200301_075856.jpg
    169.3 KB
Has anyone experienced this problem?
Soap comes out of the mold without the dent and 3 to 5 days later the soap develops this.

Wow, the green one is actually kinda cool looking. Like a little candy dish. :)

I can only guess that it is water evaporation causing the sink hole. Someone with more experience will likely have some valid info for you though.
 
I've never seen anything like that. How much water is in your recipe? What are you doing with the soap once it comes out of the mold?
719 grams of water, 297 grams of lye
3189 grams of oils and other ingredients
 
It might be best for someone to help you if you post your entire recipe. What were the 'other ingredients' and how much you used, as well as your lye concentration. Putting a basic recipe through a soap calculator gave me some very different amounts for the lye and water.

By any chance when the soap came out of the mold, did you try to speed up cure by putting it in a dehydrator? Or something like that?
 
It might be best for someone to help you if you post your entire recipe. What were the 'other ingredients' and how much you used, as well as your lye concentration. Putting a basic recipe through a soap calculator gave me some very different amounts for the lye and water.

By any chance when the soap came out of the mold, did you try to speed up cure by putting it in a dehydrator? Or something like that?
Castor oil 150 grams
Coconut oil 450 grams
Crisco 337 grams
Palm oil (hydrogenated) 690 grams
Stearic Acid 225 grams
Soybean oul (hydrogensted) 337 grams
Salt 150 grams
Sugar 350 grams
Water 125 grams
Propilene glycol 450 grams
 
Castor oil 150 grams
Coconut oil 450 grams
Crisco 337 grams
Palm oil (hydrogenated) 690 grams
Stearic Acid 225 grams
Soybean oul (hydrogensted) 337 grams
Salt 150 grams
Sugar 350 grams
Water 125 grams
Propilene glycol 450 grams
Your recipe seems very unusual and the water amounts you gave in posts 4 and 7 are not the same. Why did you use propylene glycol? I looked it up and learned that it is used for M&P, but I’ve never heard of it being used in CP soap. I’ve also never seen soap that looks anything like yours.
 
I actually do hot process then use the propylenglycol to make the soap fluid and 350grams of 96%ethanol so as to melt and then pour the liquid soap into my silicone molds.
 
Last edited:
Has anyone experienced this problem?
Soap comes out of the mold without the dent and 3 to 5 days later the soap develops this.

If you were baking a souffle, I would say that it 'dropped'. All I can think of is that the sugar caused your soap to volcano...push soap to the outside with an air bubble in the middle that slowly cooled and allowed your soap to settle. The color difference...not uncommon as some colors to morph.
 
I actually do hot process then use the propylenglycol to make the soap fluid and 350grams of 96%ethanol so as to melt and then pour the liquid soap into my silicone molds.
I think your problem is with your recipe and the process. You might consider doing a cold process soap instead of hot and I would definitely get rid of the glycol and ethanol.
 
I actually do hot process then use the propylenglycol to make the soap fluid and 350grams of 96%ethanol so as to melt and then pour the liquid soap into my silicone molds.

What kind of silicon molds are you using that you need your soap to be so fluid?
 
Castor oil 150 grams
Coconut oil 450 grams
Crisco 337 grams
Palm oil (hydrogenated) 690 grams
Stearic Acid 225 grams
Soybean oul (hydrogensted) 337 grams
Salt 150 grams
Sugar 350 grams
Water 125 grams
Propilene glycol 450 grams
This recipe isn’t the same as the one you originally posted. What amount of lye did you use? We can’t put it through a soapcalc to see where you went wrong without the entire recipe although I think cmzaha is right here.
Lots of people here make HP soap and no one I know of uses alcohols except for transparent soap. Some use yoghurt to make it easier to pour.
 
I have re batchedView attachment 44277
This recipe isn’t the same as the one you originally posted. What amount of lye did you use? We can’t put it through a soapcalc to see where you went wrong without the entire recipe although I think cmzaha is right here.
Lots of people here make HP soap and no one I know of uses alcohols except for transparent soap. Some use yoghurt to make it easier to pour.
Lye 297 grams and 719 grams water. The alcohol melts the soap. Not using glycol or eta to make transparent or translucent soap.
 
I see that you are using mostly hard oils. Why not get rid of the glycol and use some more liquid oils? Wouldn't that make your soap more fluid? Stearic acid and Soy wax are both pretty gosh-darned hard.
Thank you!

Thank you all for your support!
Last night I rebatched the dented soap and and here are the results
IMG_20200302_043945.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thank you all for your support!
Last night I rebatched the dented soap and and here are the resultsView attachment 44285
Lovely soap save!!
i forgot to put your recipe thru a soap calc today sorry. Will do tomorrow. But you are using about 10% stearic acid? Most use it about 2% and find it makes soap hard. Try it and see if you maybe have to go to 3% but no more.
 
Back
Top