Diagnose this soap gone wrong

[Catherine Vieira]

Hello all and Good morning,

This is what I cut into this morning and was so shocked. This is just a restock of my mint scrub. I used the same recipe of oils, lye and liquid. Used peppermint,lemon and eucalyptus EO. I did two things differently this time but I'm not sure if they warrant such a reaction.
1.) I infused fresh mint and juniper berries on the stove top double boiler instead of a two week windowsill infusion in olive oil. (It was a very small amount of mint. Just a handful.)
2.) I sprayed three times the amount of alchohol on top to prevent ash.

Can anyone tell me by the looks of the picture if I could rebatch this or should I trash it?

Gratefully,
Catherine

 

[amd]

Looks like heat tunnels, partial gel, and possibly essential oils weeping. I would let it sit a few days and then do a zap test. If it passes zap test, then go ahead and rebatch.

 

[Catherine Vieira]

Looks like heat tunnels, partial gel, and possibly essential oils weeping. I would let it sit a few days and then do a zap test. If it passes zap test, then go ahead and rebatch.

Thank you! I'll do it.

 

[Obsidian]

I wouldn't bother to wait a few days, I would do it now. If those are lye pockets which I don't think they are, they will still be zappy even after a few days. Rebatching would fix that. There really is nothing to be gained by waiting and rebatching is always easier on fresh, soft soap.

As far as the cause, it overheated. Maybe you soaped too warm or insulated too much, hard to say really. It one of those things that happen sometimes, one reason why I never try to gel my soaps.

 

[amd]

If you don't wait, please wear gloves when shredding the fresh soap. I still advise waiting - if the soap is lye heavy, rebatching may not help it unless you add more oils - but how do you know how much to add? yeah, if it still zaps after a few days I toss it. There's no point in rebatching a lye heavy soap when I don't know how much lye heavy it is. I find soap is easier to grate after a few days, it isn't as gummy but still shreds easily.

 

[Catherine Vieira]

I wouldn't bother to wait a few days, I would do it now. If those are lye pockets which I don't think they are, they will still be zappy even after a few days. Rebatching would fix that. There really is nothing to be gained by waiting and rebatching is always easier on fresh, soft soap.

As far as the cause, it overheated. Maybe you soaped too warm or insulated too much, hard to say really. It one of those things that happen sometimes, one reason why I never try to gel my soaps.

Ok I got it into the crockpot! Thank you all for the advice. I really appreciate it.❤

 

[Susie]

If it is lye, then waiting wastes it, and you no longer know how much alkali is really in there as it reacts with air. Rebatching while fresh and soft only requires plopping it in the pot and reheating. It won't be pretty, but it will be safe and usable.

 

[Catherine Vieira]

I'm hopeful that this soap is not lye heavy because I superfat @ 4%? But then again I better check my scale batteries. I will test it in Few days. I gloved up and was able to squish and crumble the soap pretty easily into the crockpot it was really soft and gooey. I still can't unmold it yet it's sticky when i try to pull the silicone away. I had added just a few ounces of water into the crockpot for the cook.
I will post after zap test.

 

[Baqn]

Well it looks like my granny's lard soap With that holes at the top and fibers at the bottom. It looks like it has gone through gel phase in the center but the outer part is too soft. The middle part heated the space above it and formed cavities. But what stopped the gellating process in the upper part ... I have no idea. I had a similar problem when used mint and eucalyptus oil. I am not sure if the essencial oils are problem or that I haven't emulsified the fatty oils well. I got too soft soaps but not that juicy.
Also that soap might been separated. Is the liquid watery or oily? In what temperature you keep it after putting it into the mold?
I suppot that you have to check the pH of your soap but in different parts of it. Let us know the result. I think that if you added more lye, you won't get that result. You will have fully saponified soap with too alkaline pH. But if you have too much lye discount you might have too much excess of oils and they might (if not well emulsified) leak from your soap. Also the soap might be too soft. Do you agree?

 

[Catherine Vieira]

Well it looks like my granny's lard soap With that holes at the top and fibers at the bottom. It looks like it has gone through gel phase in the center but the outer part is too soft. The middle part heated the space above it and formed cavities. But what stopped the gellating process in the upper part ... I have no idea. I had a similar problem when used mint and eucalyptus oil. I am not sure if the essencial oils are problem or that I haven't emulsified the fatty oils well. I got too soft soaps but not that juicy.
Also that soap might been separated. Is the liquid watery or oily? In what temperature you keep it after putting it into the mold?
I suppot that you have to check the pH of your soap but in different parts of it. Let us know the result. I think that if you added more lye, you won't get that result. You will have fully saponified soap with too alkaline pH. But if you have too much lye discount you might have too much excess of oils and they might (if not well emulsified) leak from your soap. Also the soap might be too soft. Do you agree?

Hello, my soap lately has been very unpredictable in the mold. I usually just cover the mold and heap towels on top. It has always gone through gel beautifully until lately. I just made a batch of unscented. Plain soap and it volcanoed slightly enough to ruin my pretty top and push up on the cover...its cold here now about 58-60f and we haven't turned the heater on yet. That's something that's different since i started making soap last spring it has always been warm. Also i noticed that this last batch of lye doesn't get as hot as what I've been used to. It never goes over 90f.
The liquid that was coming out of this batch was oily. It was so soft that i just smushed it up for the rebatch. I rebatched it, cut it and will go zap test and post a pic now.

 

[Kamahido]

Hello, my soap lately has been very unpredictable in the mold. I usually just cover the mold and heap towels on top. It has always gone through gel beautifully until lately. I just made a batch of unscented. Plain soap and it volcanoed slightly enough to ruin my pretty top and push up on the cover...its cold here now about 58-60f and we haven't turned the heater on yet. That's something that's different since i started making soap last spring it has always been warm. Also i noticed that this last batch of lye doesn't get as hot as what I've been used to. It never goes over 90f.
The liquid that was coming out of this batch was oily. It was so soft that i just smushed it up for the rebatch. I rebatched it, cut it and will go zap test and post a pic now.

How old was your lye?

 

[Catherine Vieira]

the zap test was neg. However it usually will taste salty and it tasted kind of sweet. It didn't bubble up much but was more of a creamy lather. I just ordered more lye from a different supplier. Hopefully things will get back to normal.

@Kamahido as soon as it was shipped to me I used it all up. There were 4, 2lb bottles. If it was old then it was shipped to me old how long typically is lye good for?
Thanks!

 

[Baqn]

Well ... There might be some posability the lye to be old. If you have keeped it unclosed, it will be very wet, even liquified. Old lye, if not wetted, tends to aggregate into big hard lumps. Also old lye may have carbonated parts at the edge of the flakes which looks whiter than the other parts. If your lye looks like that, it is not 100% lye anymore. Even in that case you can expect having good soap. Some soaps are made even with 20% superfat! So you must expect more than 20% unsaponified oils in your soap to get that situacion. That means about 10% lost lye. I don't think it may happened.

Have considered any mistakes in calculations or measuring? Check the sum of the water, lye, oils and essential oils and the mass of the soap. Tell us.

Regarding to that free oil I suggest that you haven't mixed the oils and lye solution well. You haven't obtained good emulsion. At what trace have poured your mixture? Was it too liquid?