First soap fail and a few questions on pouring time and zap test

[melonpan]

So I had my first soap failure yesterday (which I knew it was a matter of time and part of the learning curve but still bothers me lol, especially because in hindsight I think I could have taken a different approach and prevent it).

My idea was to make a two colour CP soap, pouring a green-coloured batter in diagonal in my mould and then shaping it to resemble half of a tree so it would be visible in section when cutting the soap into bars. Then pouring the rest of the batter. I even cut out a tree shape out of cardboard so I could scrape off the green batter and be left with the half tree silhouette - which didn't really worked. I did all my batter soap including adding the FO, then split it out to try the tree-shaping part.
It took me a few minutes to understand that the cardboard tree-shaper was not working, then I resolved to do small peaks with my spatula to resemble the tree (which came out nice actually!).
And this is when I turned to my other half batter which I had forgotten to check over until then.
The rest of the batter was so hot and almost solid, it also had a crack in the middle so it could have been either a volcano or seizing? (I didn't think to take a picture for reference)
It might have been the FO as I've done this soap recipe before but it was the first time using that specific FO (a cedarwood one).
I stubbornly tried to mash the second part of the batter so I could pour it in my mould and ended up mashing all together.

I could have left the green batter alone and try to remake the rest of the batter later, but I had finished one oil I needed for the recipe. In hindsight I could have done a few things differently, I could have split the batter before adding the FO to have more time?

Would it have been best if I left the first half batter in the mould and try to recreate the second half later?
I'm wondering if there is a 'pouring window' where it's still okay to recreate the batter without it affecting the cutting time/start of gel/etc of the first batter.
Possibly a few hours within each other?
Or using the first half as embed for the second batter?

Also how early is too early for a zap test?
I'm not sure my soap is safe to use and wondering if best to throw it out, or to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Thanks for any help

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I'm not sure what happened but there is a technique called soap welding. I use it when I add different shapes that I cut out of an already finished soap and add it to the soap I am making.

It is basically getting your new soap pour hot enough that it melts the old soap shapes just enough that they all become the same soap and the added shapes don't fall out of the new soap when you cut it and use it.

I hope that helps.

 

[DawninWA]

Your soap is perfectly safe to use, don't throw it out. If you wanted to try again, make the tree part first, shape it, then make the second half of the batter and pour it in

 

[TheGecko]

I've never done a zap test myself, but my understanding is that you need to wait a few days after the initial 18 to 24 hours.

From lessons learned (it only took me two times), I test all my FOs with a small batch of soap (14 oz/396.893 g of oils/butters). Yes, it sucks if you really like the outcome and now you have to wait to buy more, but if you have a badly behaving FO, you're only out $5.00 in ingredients and the FO.

With that said, you can still work with an accelerating FO. As you noted, you can separate your batter, add your colorants, and then add your FO just before you are ready to pour. A lot of folks do that when working with multiple layers. I have a very badly behaved FO...it seized with my Regular Soap recipe, but is only 'fast moving' with my Goat Milk soap; I think the reason is that it doesn't like Cocoa Butter.

And though I haven't done it myself, I have seen others make their layers over the course of a few days. Key it seems, is to keep your soap covered tightly so that it stays soft. It's what I do with my embeds; I let them fully saponify, then I wrap them in plastic wrap, or put in zip lock bags.

If you're going to make a scraper out of cardboard, you're going to want to wrap it in plastic wrap or use some SuperGlue along the edges to harden it.

 

[melonpan]

I'm not sure what happened but there is a technique called soap welding. I use it when I add different shapes that I cut out of an already finished soap and add it to the soap I am making.

It is basically getting your new soap pour hot enough that it melts the old soap shapes just enough that they all become the same soap and the added shapes don't fall out of the new soap when you cut it and use it.

Thank you Todd, that's really interesting! I wish I had left my tree part alone to try this. I will remember this for next time.

Your soap is perfectly safe to use, don't throw it out. If you wanted to try again, make the tree part first, shape it, then make the second half of the batter and pour it in

Thank you DawninWA, that's a relief. So is there no need to rebatch?

From lessons learned (it only took me two times), I test all my FOs with a small batch of soap (14 oz/396.893 g of oils/butters). Yes, it sucks if you really like the outcome and now you have to wait to buy more, but if you have a badly behaving FO, you're only out $5.00 in ingredients and the FO.

Yes, I think I should have done this. I've read this somewhere but I kind of hoped for the best this time because for a number of reason I didn't have the time for a proper test. But lesson learned! I will factor in more time for the next ambitious project.

And though I haven't done it myself, I have seen others make their layers over the course of a few days. Key it seems, is to keep your soap covered tightly so that it stays soft. It's what I do with my embeds; I let them fully saponify, then I wrap them in plastic wrap, or put in zip lock bags.

If you're going to make a scraper out of cardboard, you're going to want to wrap it in plastic wrap or use some SuperGlue along the edges to harden it.

This is really good to know, thanks!
Can I ask how much time do you usually wait between the embeds and the main soap? Just getting my head around timings.

And I should have mentioned that I did actually wrap my scraper in plastic tape before using it, as I saw a fellow soapmaker doing so somewhere. I'm thinking the angles of the scraper were possibly too narrow and ambitious for a beginner

 

[TheGecko]

Can I ask how much time do you usually wait between the embeds and the main soap?

Depends on what I am making. I've used them as soon as they are ready and I have some that I made several months ago that are still soft.