First batch of CP soap!

[vedwards]

I've been lurking around here and trying to read as many posts as I can. This is a fabulous place!

I made my first batch of CP soap and I LOVED it! Its been sitting out to cure for about two weeks now, but I wonder if I've done something wrong - can anyone take a gander and see? The soap is still soft if I squeeze hard as well.

I did not tap the molds down (as I should have) cause I wasn't thinking, but I wanted to see if these look like lye crystals or not. I've also attached the recipe as well.

Here's a view at an angle looking down (easier to see the specks)
Image

And a couple general views:
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/photo/cp-soap-1-1376.html
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/photo/cp-soap-1-1377.html
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/photo/cp-soap-1-1378.html

Here's the recipe I used (from Nature's Garden's website)
11 oz water
4.5 oz lye

5 oz canola oil
8 oz crisco
11 oz olive oil
8 oz coconut oil

Thank you very much in advance!

 

[lenarenee]

Those oils make a fairly soft recipe, and that's a nearly a full water recipe, (on soapcalc) so if you squeeze the bar of soap I'm not surprised you'd cause some denting.

Tell us a little more about your process - such as oil and lye temps, did you stick blend or hand stir, did you add any additives, etc.

Have you zap tested? Has there been any weeping liquid?

Btw, I never tap down my molds unless I have massive acceleration and soap turns as thick as sour cream.

 

[Susie]

Congratulations! Making your first soap is an awesome experience!

I never tamp down my molds, either, unless I am dealing with seizing, or horrible acceleration and am "plopping and praying".

As lenarenee said, that recipe will make a soft soap. Give it time, it will harden up. All I do to my soaps at two weeks is turn them over so the other side dries some.

Just a suggestion going forward, you might like to try something like this recipe (you will have to run it through a lye calculator for exact numbers based on your mold size).

Palm/tallow/lard 60%
Olive Oil 20%
Coconut Oil 15%
Castor Oil 5%

Superfat 5%

That will give you a good hard bar with a good lather and not dry out your skin. I suggest Soapee.com for a good calculator.

 

[vedwards]

lenarenee - I added lavender essential oil to it, but that's it. I stick blended to light/medium trace and the oil and lye water were both between 110-120 degrees.

It hasn't weeped any water, and I did the tongue zap test and there wasn't a jolt of any kind. (though I've never licked a battery, so I have no basis of comparison, lol)

They looked like air bubbles when i cut it, but then I did more research and I wasn't sure.

Susie - Thanks! I've done more research on the oils and their properties since then, and I wondered if it might have been the ones I chose causing some of the problems. I've got your recipe written down to try!

Thank you both!

 

[Arimara]

It hasn't weeped any water, and I did the tongue zap test and there wasn't a jolt of any kind. (though I've never licked a battery, so I have no basis of comparison, lol)

Trust us- if your soap zaps you, you WILL know. No battery licking required.

 

[Susie]

Trust us- if your soap zaps you, you WILL know. No battery licking required.

^^^What she said!

 

[penelopejane]

Did you use a wire cutter?
Sometimes little bubbles like that occur with wire cutters.

 

[vedwards]

Susie and Arimara - that actually makes me feel better. lol

Penelopejane - I used a bench scraper that I've dedicated to soaping. It has a pretty thick edge, not thin like a knife. Maybe that was the problem?

 

[lenarenee]

My first instinct was to claim the spots were air bubbles since your recipe and temperatures didn't point to stearic spots.

I never had air bubbles when cutting with a bench scraper, but you may have simply had more of them in your batter.

(I've never had stearic spots or lye issues in any of my batches, so my judgement is simply based on what I've learned from others.)

 

[penelopejane]

Penelopejane - I used a bench scraper that I've dedicated to soaping. It has a pretty thick edge, not thin like a knife. Maybe that was the problem?

I don't know then.
I tap my mold because I am a bit free and easy with my SB which can sometimes cause bubbles. I am pretty sure they aren't stearic spot.

 

[vedwards]

Thanks! I'll just keep curing them and we'll see what happens, I guess!:mrgreen: