First Ever Cold Process Soap

[SockPoppet]

So, my first ever soap was kind of a fail so far, but I thought I'd try to post about it here to see if I could get any advice or suggestions on how to prove. I tried to use a recipe that called for 30 oz of olive oil, 6 oz of coconut oil, 2 oz of castor oil, 12.54 oz of water, and 5.09 oz of lye. Plus it said I could add 1 oz of essential or fragrance oil if I wanted to. I also read you can use coffee if you use the same amount you would of water if you wanted to try for a coffee-type soap.

I ended up finding out that I didn't have enough olive oil in the bottle that I had picked up and only had about 25.5 oz of it. I tried to make up for it by upping my coconut oil to 10.5 oz, and put it into the soap calculator people have been recommending. As far as I could tell, I'm still not entirely used to reading the results you get from it, the recipe should have still made a decent soap so I continued forward.

I'll be honest that I can't get down to the decimals at this moment, just have a non-digital kitchen scale to weigh everything out on. I still tried to get it as close as I could. I followed the instructions and mixed the lye into the water very carefully a little bit at a time, then heated up my oils while waiting for the solution to cool. Once they were about the same temperatures, I poured it together into the pot and did the mixing until I got to what looked like trace. I do not have a stick blender right now and tried a hand mixer on the lowest setting I could get it on. Then I added an ounce of my coffee fragrance oil and a small scoop of finely ground up coffee before putting it in my molds.

They set up pretty well when I unmolded them and I tried a little bit of extra off of the molds on my hands and face. It lathered up okay and hands felt fine, though they did get kinda dry/tight feeling a while after. The main problem was that the moment I started working it over my face, it started to burn a lot and the burn lingered after I washed everything away. It really made my face red, too, like I had just gotten a really bad sunburn.

I'm going to try to give them a little longer to cure to see if it can work out over time, but is there any advice anyone has to try to keep this from happening the next time? I would really like to learn how to improve because I had a lot of fun watching it come together. It's really disappointing that my first experience was painful.

 

[shunt2011]

Congratulations on your first soap. How old was the soap when you used it on your hands and face. There is a possibility it wasn’t done saponifying and still had active lye. Burning sounds like the lye May still be active

I highly recommend doing a zap test after 24-48 hours. If no zap then you should be okay.

Also, going forward, make smaller batches. If something goes wrong you won’t have such a large amount. 1 pound is good with an accurate scale.

Also recommend a stick blender. Makes it much easier.

Just let it cure and then test again.

 

[SockPoppet]

Congratulations on your first soap. How old was the soap when you used it on your hands and face. There is a possibility it wasn’t done saponifying and still had active lye. Burning sounds like the lye May still be active

I highly recommend doing a zap test after 24-48 hours. If no zap then you should be okay.

Also, going forward, make smaller batches. If something goes wrong you won’t have such a large amount. 1 pound is good with an accurate scale.

Also recommend a stick blender. Makes it much easier.

Just let it cure and then test again.

It was a little over 24 hours old when I tried it. I tried to watch videos on when it might be safe to test, and some said that technically it's safe to use when you unmold it after the first day or two. Something about saponifying really happening during the first 16 hours or so, and that the rest of the curing time mainly helped it to last longer through use. Seems that's not entirely true!

I will definitely scale down the batch next time to a pound or so! I'm not used to reading all the measurements together and it was really hard to visualize the end product until it was time to unmold them. I'll try a zap test soon if it fails though is there any way to fix a batch to make it a little less harsh on the skin or should it just be scrapped altogether?

 

[Cellador]

It sounds to me like you tested the soap way too early. I will do that on my hands if I'm super excited about a recipe or scent. But, I would never use on my face without a decent cure time. Face skin is often thinner and more sensitive than our hands. You may find in time that soap you love for your body may not feel great on your face. It may require a different formula.

 

[SockPoppet]

It sounds to me like you tested the soap way too early. I will do that on my hands if I'm super excited about a recipe or scent. But, I would never use on my face without a decent cure time. Face skin is often thinner and more sensitive than our hands. You may find in time that soap you love for your body may not feel great on your face. It may require a different formula.

It is a lesson to be more patient in the future! Should have definitely aired on the side of caution despite what some things online say. Thought maybe since I used a very small amount (like the drippings from the top of the mold) that it might not be too bad, but did not turn out that way. Will give it some more time and if need be try to figure out a different recipe for if I want to use a soap for my face in the future.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Judging by that bright yellow color, that soap is nowhere near finished saponifying. That is, assuming you didn't add a colorant that you didn't mention.

Where they done in silicone molds? Individual silicone molds like that rarely gel, IME, without some extra help. Sometimes they seem to retard things in general, especially the first time they're used according to other posts we've had hear.

Given the coffee. it should probably be something like the color of flan or some species of beige. I wouldn't even zap test it until that yellow fades A LOT more - that's just a recipe for a zapped tongue.

 

[SockPoppet]

Judging by that bright yellow color, that soap is nowhere near finished saponifying. That is, assuming you didn't add a colorant that you didn't mention.

Where they done in silicone molds? Individual silicone molds like that rarely gel, IME, without some extra help.

Given the coffee. it should probably be something like the color of flan or some species of beige. I wouldn't even zap test it until that yellow fades A LOT more - that's just a recipe for a zapped tongue.

No colorants, no. I read in reviews of the dye at the craft store I went to that they could sometimes mess up the process entirely. Making it kind of curdle and stuff?

I did do silicone molds to set them up, yes, what kind of extra help have they needed in your experience? I haven't read too much about complications those sorts of molds can make in the process.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

No colorants, no. I read in reviews of the dye at the craft store I went to that they could sometimes mess up the process entirely. Making it kind of curdle and stuff?

I did do silicone molds to set them up, yes, what kind of extra help have they needed in your experience? I haven't read too much about complications those sorts of molds can make in the process.

Individual silicone molds are hard to gel because they don't have enough mass to "work together" so their own heat can help them gel. With CPOP (using the oven) they are likely to get silicone blisters. I personally just don't bother trying to gel the individual ones.

Soap doesn't need to gel to be perfectly safe and usable, things just take longer. You pulled those WAY too soon - I'm surprised they weren't too soft to unmold given how yellow they are.

 

[SockPoppet]

Individual silicone molds are hard to gel because they don't have enough mass to "work together" so their own heat can help them gel. With CPOP (using the oven) they are likely to get silicone blisters. I personally just don't bother trying to gel the individual ones.

Soap doesn't need to gel to be perfectly safe and usable, things just take longer. You pulled those WAY too soon - I'm surprised they weren't too soft to unmold given how yellow they are.

They look paler in person, more like a milky sorta chocolate milk? There is still that tinge of yellow though in the brown that's showing up a lot in the picture. A lot of it might be getting exposed through the lighting in the laundry room and/or my phone. Still, will give it longer and let it cure now that it's been cut/unmolded. I appreciate all the advice though! Do hope to learn and keep trying to get better.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

If you're interested, try posting another pic of one of the bars on a sheet of white printer paper for comparison.

 

[SockPoppet]

If you're interested, try posting another pic of one of the bars on a sheet of white printer paper for comparison.

Sure! Here.

 

[shunt2011]

Not done saponifying. Still lye active. Looks quite soft

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Sure! Here.

That looks WAY better. Has it changed from the first pic to this one? How much time passed between the two pics?

Or is the first one just THAT far out of whack for color?

 

[SockPoppet]

That looks WAY better. Has it changed from the first pic to this one? How much time passed between the two pics?

Or is the first one just THAT far out of whack for color?

It hasn't really changed that much, only a couple hours apart. I know the first time I saw the picture I took I thought that it was off but didn't realize it was by that much. Might just be from taking it while it was high on the shelf and not having a good base to compare it to? Still, it is soft, so definitely needs a few weeks to harden.

 

[amd]

I'm not sure the color is a good basis for saying it's too soon out of the mold - although the picture does look like the soap is soft. It's been my experience with coffee FO's and using coffee grounds that it will have a yellowish color. It depends on how you added the coffee grounds - I've added them dry and gotten less yellow, or I've added them damp (used) and gotten a strong yellow color. It fades as it cures, or if there's vanillan in the FO, until the vanillan takes over the soap.

 

[cmzaha]

Soap can easily take up to 72 hrs to finish saponifying, especially an un-gelled soap. Never try a soap on your face that is not at least 72 hrs old, even then it will not be a nice soap

 

[BrewerGeorge]

I'm not sure the color is a good basis for saying it's too soon out of the mold - although the picture does look like the soap is soft....

I would generally agree, but there is a particular bright yellow color that I have seen several times with unsap'd soaps in silicone and that first pic matches it pretty closely. Now that we know it's just bad lighting....

 

[dixiedragon]

I agree with the others - definitely too soon! But I think you've successfully made soap! now put it aside for 6-8 weeks to allow cure.

Where did you get your coffee FO? It's possible that your FO isn't skin safe.

 

[SockPoppet]

I agree with the others - definitely too soon! But I think you've successfully made soap! now put it aside for 6-8 weeks to allow cure.

Where did you get your coffee FO? It's possible that your FO isn't skin safe.

Will do, definitely! I wanted it a little soft to make it easier to cut. The bars/slices are from a bundt cake mold. And I picked it up from Hobby Lobby. Tried the Soap Expressions brand so hopefully it's safe. I looked into other options, but couldn't make sure that it'd be safe for skin.

 

[amd]

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-H...aking/Coffee-Liquid-Soap-Fragrance/p/80827087

Looks like it's only meant for m&p soap - this is just based on their description "Simply add to soap mixture before placing in a soap mold. Once cooled completely, you'll be able to remove your soap and use it." It may not be suitable for CP soap, that's why the soap is soft or discolored.

I've never heard or seen the discoloration that BGeorge speaks of, but I use wooden molds for my loaves and only occasionally use silicone cavity molds, so it may be that my experiences are different.