Giving up

[Soulboy1973]

Sad to say I've made my last batch of CP soap. I just cannot get it how I'd like it to be. I always do something wrong. The batches are only for me so it is useable but it just infuriates me I can't get it right. I watch Ophelia Soapery with all the amazing colours on YouTube and He/She makes it look oh so easy, it isn't though and He/She has obviously put a lot of work into making the recipe flawless. I'm not selling soap so every batch is expensive.
Today I made a batch to a trusted recipe, mixed in the Mica, all going well, mixed in the FO, all going well, I had only hand mixed the batter up until then, I got the Stick blender in it for only enough to reach light trace, it accellerated slightly, nothing like other oils have, by the time I started to pour the colours into the base it had started firming up so I lost any opportunity to get my swirls mixed again. I'm probably stick blending a tad too long, it seems to go from liquid to stodge in the blink of an eye.
Gutted isn't the word. That's it I'm done.

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

it is hard to have it not turn out how you wanted--sorry. did you read the reviews on the FO you used? How long have you been making soap for? How many colors are you trying to use? I know for myself when I first started I made mistakes--it takes time to figure it out. I was really slow when mixing in the colors. I think if you haven't been making soap for very long you maybe are trying to do too much??
I would say try again but if you are finding it too expensive maybe it isn't the right hobby for you. Maybe you need to try using different oils--I use 3 oils that are cheaper to buy and I like how it turns out. What oils are you using??

 

[Soulboy1973]

Hi Marilyn,
I started using Olive and Coconut which made a good useable soap. The last two I have used Olive,Coconut, Palm and Castor. Palm is the expensive part. for a batch 16oz of coco,palm,oilive and 2 oz Castor, plus mica's, Fragrance and lye it adds up. I think the only problem I have is too much stick blending, to get good swirls of colour the batter has to be liquid, any thickness doesn't allow the colours to blend yet stay individual and recognisable. If it thickens there isn't time and you end up with a homogonised mess, which I have and it's disappointing. I think just a quick 3-4 second blast is all that is needed when using this method, not trying to achieve a trace at all, just fully blended. That's where I go wrong. On a personal level for my own consumption I have around 4 years of soap now. No point making more, you can't sell it if it isn't good enough to sell, so to spend more is just a waste of good money.

 

[BattleGnome]

Is your only issue getting pretty soaps/design issues? If that’s the case you have a great base for your learning. You’ve come a long way, don’t sell yourself short.

One thing I’ve found is that the combination of coconut oil and Shea butter gives me a non-Newtonian batter. If it let it sit it looks likes it’s almost solid but give it a good mix with a spoon and it loosens up again for swirling. I don’t use palm or castor, but you could be getting a similar effect. It’s frustrating but once I realized where the problem was I’ve learned to adapt. If I want to swirl and make a super pretty soap I use a high olive oil recipe or skip the Shea (my most expensive ingredient).

Another idea is to play with the idea of emulsion, don’t get to trace. See how it behaves then

 

[penelopejane]

See the video in this link for all you need to know about emulsion: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/stickblending-to-emulsion.60618/

Give away your soap for Christmas and make some more!
One of my family’s favourite soaps is honey and oatmeal. No colour. Mix and pour - easy.

 

[bookreader451]

Don’t give up yet! When I started making soap I thought I wanted it to be fancy like all the youtube soapers. Then I found out I like the rustic hot process bars I make better. They are simple, not a lot of fancy stuff but for me they are really nice usable soap. I am able to add my superfat at the end and since shea is my fave I always use that but for the batch size it is always less than 2oz. The purple pic is the HP

I did do a couple of fancy CP soaps too but I used a recipe I played around with on soapcalc that was 40% hard oils and 60% soft oils. The pic is a heavy handed drop swirl with too much swirled batter.

I also learned I stink at hanger swirls lol.

I keep trying recipes and learning as I go. I do understand the cost as I have spent a lot on this adventure but I will have a clean family and friends and who think anything I make is nice.

 

[shunt2011]

Soapmakimg isn’t a cheap hobby. However, it sounds like you are going into this with the purpose of selling. I made soap for a year and a half before I even began to think a lot selling and even then when I look back my soaps were nowhere near as nice as the year are now. I spent hundreds and hundreds just enjoying the process with no intention of selling.

Maybe take a break and then give it another try if it’s too costly for you to make and share until you get the hang of it. It took many recipes and tries until I found something I could play with and had time to color and do some designs.

Don’t give up. You’ll get it eventually.

 

[Soulboy1973]

Soapmakimg isn’t a cheap hobby. However, it sounds like you are going into this with the purpose of selling. I made soap for a year and a half before I even began to think a lot selling and even then when I look back my soaps were nowhere near as nice as the year are now. I spent hundreds and hundreds just enjoying the process with no intention of selling.

Maybe take a break and then give it another try if it’s too costly for you to make and share until you get the hang of it. It took many recipes and tries until I found something I could play with and had time to color and do some designs.

Don’t give up. You’ll get it eventually.

Hi,
I think I explained I only soap for myself, I am one of those people who enjoys watching someone make something then having a good go myself. Sometimes it works sometimes not. I have not yet ended up without a nice useable soap, it's the colours and fragrance I suck at. Something is going wrong between the mica and FO stages. I think I am stick blending for too long. My mind plays tricks on me. I tell myself it is mixed enough, then bloody give it a little more which tips the batter over the edge making it too thick for pretty colour swirls.

 

[lsg]

Don't give up. Experiment with small batches (1 lb). Get a small loaf mold and practice your swirls. Liquid oils take usually take longer to trace than hard oils/butters. Maybe use more olive and less palm and coconut.

 

[Soulboy1973]

Does anyone have a small batch recipe please using just Olive and Coconut please?

 

[Cellador]

In my opinion, design is THE most difficult part of soaping. It is the culmination of all the steps throughout the soaping process- the recipe, temperature, FO, color choices, trace, etc. It all feeds into a design and how well it "succeeds." You have to take the time to learn how all of this plays into your vision, and you have to be prepared to handle any surprises.
That being said, I'm sure your soaps are beautiful. Part of soaping is artistic and much like other art, your soap designs may never look like someone else's. I know that I may never achieve the flawless designs others seem to achieve effortlessly, but maybe that's for the better. Maybe it's just not my style. Or maybe it's just going to take years and years and years of hard work and effort....
Lastly, I think a person who doesn't make soap isn't going to judge a soap the same way another soapmaker would. I have made some pretty terrible and ugly soaps...and my friends and family always seem delighted with it. They usually don't give a second thought to how it looks- they are usually more concerned with the scent, really. I have pulled off some pretty nice looking designs (I think), and I usually feel like most people don't appreciate the difficulty of a particular swirl or technique. But, why would they? It's my hobby and passion, not theirs.
So, do it for yourself.
Soap if it makes you happy and you enjoy the process. If it's casusing too much frustration, maybe take a break. You will come back to it if you are meant to.
(Sorry this is so long. *hugs*)

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I haven’t made recipe a that’s just OO and CO, but @szaza may have, so maybe will jump in here. That much OO should slow trace as long as you’re not using pomace.

I have a couple of base recipes that are very swirl friendly when I mix them at room temp. This one is very simple and close to what you’re thinking about:

high oleic (OO, or other) 60%
CO 20%
PO 20%

33% lye concentration

The recipe was inspired by one Holly of Kapia Mera uses (you can find her on YouTube). This is not a recipe that wants to firm up quickly, but the soap is nice after a few months and it’s easy to vary oils within the high oleic fraction, based on what you have or like, with little change in behavior of the batter. If you decide you want to add a little castor oil (3-5%), subtract the percentage from the high oleic oil. I’ve made the recipe with and without castor oil with no problems. I have also been adding sodium lactate because I have it, but a little salt would also help to produce a harder bar more quickly.

 

[djk17]

I have mostly lost interest in design, except to clap and coo “oooohhhhh pretty!” at other people’s soap.
At the moment (e.g. the past 5 years) I have gone back to my original idea for making soap—calming down my special rainbow unicorn annoying skin.
Turns out that lots of other people in my world seem to want that too.
I typically give my soap away as gifts and over the years I have built up a small and loyal following who now order from me. (Not my end game—at this point it’s simply my hobby)
Periodically I go wild and play with colourants, scents and swirls but I have come to recognise that I want something else from my soap.
I react to SLS and EDTA, and a few essential oils (uh-huh. Special annoying snowflake skin) and while the creative side of soapmaking is exciting, it’s only one part of soapmaking.

My point: maybe go back to the beginning and make a few tried and true simple recipes again to regain the pleasure of it all.

 

[Soulboy1973]

I'll unmould my soap tomorrow, cut it and see what I have, I have Olive , Coconut, Palm and Castor still in for another batch. How emulsified does the batter have to be to set? Can I stick blend the full batch to just emulsify but not to tracemix then use a hand whisk to blend in the mica's and Essential oils?

 

[djk17]

I very often stickblend to emulsification then do a few quick pulses and stirs to incorporate e.o. and other additives.
Make sure you are indeed getting to emulsification though.

 

[Arimara]

Have you posted the recipes you have been using anywhere?

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Wow, this is a long post...

Using the recipe I shared above, I would aim for stickblending in short pulses until I’m sure I have a good stable emulsion or very light trace. I judge that I’m at that stage when a dribble of batter almost wants to sit on the surface of the batter. It’s okay to pulse for a few seconds then stir by hand to get a feel for what the batter is doing. Some recipes can handle a lot of stick blending and some can’t. If you can be patient, letting the batter sit undisturbed for a minute or more after the initial stick blending will give you useful info. For example, is it staying fully mixed/not separating? Is it getting thicker? If it’s not fully mixed, you can SB, or, better yet, hand mix a little more.

Many of the experienced soap makers on Youtube are using very thin batter and I personally think that stage can be very tricky for beginners. It was for me! The trace level of the batter is super important and it’s much better, IMHO and after plenty of fails, to bring the batter to a stable emulsion slowly so you don’t overshoot with too much SBing.

Having multiple plans can also be helpful. If you get the batter to the exact trace level you want you can make the swirl you were planning on, but have a plan B in case it gets thicker than you intended. You can make nice swirls in the pot (ITP) or spoon swirls in the mold even if the soap is getting close to medium trace, while thin line pours are going to require really thin batter. I’m less experienced with hanger swirls, but I think you need the batter at light trace for some line definition. If the batter goes to a heavy trace for some reason, which it shouldn’t with the recipe I shared made at RT, spoon plop it in the mold in a nice pattern and bang it down like crazy. You can end up with pretty soap across all of the trace levels, with the possible exclusion of “soap on a stick” which will still get you nice soap if the recipe is a good one.

One last thing is to stay away from problematic FOs. You want one that does not accelerate or even one that decelerates trace slightly. Mixing the FO into the oils is a fine strategy if you know the FO is well behaved. I add micas as powder after I portion the batter and I sometimes add FO at that point, especially if I know it might speed things up. I usually hand stir the micas into the batter, but you need to keep checking to make sure that it’s thoroughly incorporated/no clumps. If I’m adding the FO to a portion of batter, I do the same, and hand mixing very thoroughly is key.

 

[shunt2011]

You can blend just to emulsion. I use short bursts and stir in between just until there is no visible oil on top. It’s still very fluid.

 

[Soulboy1973]

Have you posted the recipes you have been using anywhere?

No not yet, It came from Brambleberry and is their basic lathering soap.

 

[Karmic]

Today I made a batch to a trusted recipe, mixed in the Mica, all going well, mixed in the FO, all going well, I had only hand mixed the batter up until then, I got the Stick blender in it for only enough to reach light trace,

I'm only three batches made and three months of studying into this hobby myself, so feel free to take my advice with a grain of salt, but I'm curious why you're adding everything before getting to trace instead of after? Unless I'm reading that wrong then forgive me.

I'm always afraid I'm going to end up with soap on a stick after I put in my fragrance oils so that's the last thing I put in. And I try to aim for light trace before adding the micas. My first batch went to trace extremely quickly and was almost pudding when I finally went to put it into the mold so I couldn't really try anything interesting with it, but it's made me more careful since and more mindful of what the batter is doing. Now I really only use the stick to light trace and then when I add my colors or FO it's hand mixing with a plastic whisk or my silicone spatula only. It takes a little longer to make sure everything is incorporated but I think I'm getting a better feel of what's going on in the bowl and it hasn't run away from me again.

To be fair, I also gave myself training wheels so to speak. I got two 8 lbs jugs of preblended oils from NS when they were selling the "Royalty Soaps" blend, so I'm not having to mix and measure oils before I can start each batch. I figured it would be easier and cheaper for me to do that and get a hang of things before trying to play around with different oils, and that way if I decided that I didn't want to keep doing this then I wouldn't end up with random amounts of oils I'd never use for anything left over. If you're having trouble with recipes maybe you could switch to a pre-made blend and try that till you get things going more the way you want? I know you probably don't want to spend more money and buy more oils at this point but it might be a consideration.