First time making hot process soap and need advice.

[Username1]

It's my first hot process soap cake loaf. There are a couple white spots on it (see pics) and I was wondering if anyone had any insight. Could there be lye pockets? I have some PH strips coming in the mail so I can't test the PH at the moment. Besides I'm still curing . I just took the loaf out of the mold this morning (probably about 16 hrs after making) and have on a tray for curing (plan to cure for one week).

I mixed my lye and water and let it cool to between 120-130 and added it to my pot which was about 127 degrees. I used a crock pot and total cook time was two hours and went through the process of the cake batter stage, apple sauce stage, mashed potatoes stage, and Vaseline stage. I did use plastic wrap instead of he glass lid to cover my soap while cooking and to cool down to 180 before adding colors and scents. At the Vaseline stage I turned off my pot and let it cool to 180 degrees and I separated some into a small bowl for my red liquid colorant step and left the rest in the pot to dye it blue. I used art minds soap making liquid soap colorant that I got from michaels...so I know it is safe for skin use. I added the coloring first (1 bottle for the base in the bot and 40% of the red in the smaller batch. I then added art minds soap fragrance oil from michaels (honey almond) 15 drops for the smaller red colored batch and 20 drops for the bigger blue batch and I did notice some tarry/brown spots after I put her fragrance oil in my pot. I should also mention that I got it to trace after one hour and 15 minutes using a paint mixer attached to a drill. I used about 36 oz of olive oil and 12 oz of coconut ooil, three tsp if 2% Greek yogurt, 7.1 oz of lye, and 17.2 oz of h20. It feels sticky at the bottom and dry:hard at the top. I did test it and it didn't irritate my skin today and created a nice lather.
Recipe:
olive oil, coconut oil, some Greek yogurt , fragrance oil and liquid coloring.. and lye of course.

Thanks all!!!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Hi and welcome

Some advice - cut it to cure it. The bars need to breathe to cure, so curing a loaf isn't ideal.

HP needs as long, if not longer, than CP for curing. HP soap performs "as soap" better early on than CP does, but what HP suffers from a great deal is "staying power" in that the bars will be used up a lot quicker unless you give them a good cure. You CAN use it, but it won't be as good as it would be after a cure and you might not like how quickly you need to grab a new bar.

Zap test it. pH tells you..............the pH of the soap. What is the right number for your soap here? You don't know, so knowing the pH tells you exactly that and nothing more. Zap testing will tell you if there is any lye left in there which is not yet saponified - THAT is the important part. Some say it isn't safe, but they are wrong. Wet your finger and rub it on the soap and if you get a tingle, stop. If there is no fingle-tingle, touch the finger gentle and very briefly to your tongue. No reaction? Then take a bar and dab it on your tongue.

When you post a recipe, post it in full - weights of all the ingredients, including water, NaOH, scent - everything. That saves a lot of guess work. Also, try to give as much information on the process as possible - did you soap warm or cold (when doing CP), how long did you cook for? How hot (approx) were the oils and lye when you combined. These are some standard questions which will come and time can be saved if you give it all upfront.

Liquid colours - can you tell us where it is from? Not all are safe for use in soap and/or on the body.

Now, as for the white areas - I would say that it was thicker there and the colour didn't mix in. Or it is the solid bits from the bottom/sides of the slow cooker which got mixed in to the soap. I would imagine that they are totally harmless. Scrape a little off with a knife - if it is powdery, it might be an issue, but if it is just like the rest of the soap, you should be okay, but zap testing them will tell you for sure.

 

[cmzaha]

It looks like dried pieces of soap form the crockpot. If you scraped the edges of your crock pot when molding the soap that is your answer. When using a crock-pot do not scrape the edges when molding your soap. You can scrape the edges and smush the soap into a small mold or roll into a ball

 

[Username1]

Yes I surely did scrape the edges off my crockpot (I'm guilty) and I had no idea not to do that. I learn something new everyday. I did the zap test and no zapping of any sort. I did cut them and they are somewhat soft so I put them aside to cure.