GRILL me please!

[aphung2]

Please let me know what I did wrong, as I've just finished my first batched. It seems like everything I did went wrong: lye spills, lye on skin, wasting ingredients etc.

So biggest problem, bought the scale new and it came with very, very low battery life. It made it very hard to measure.

So from the beginning, I had a separate container for my lye and a separate one for my distilled water. Combined them, and realized that it was getting HOT. Probably too hot for the container. It was one of those heavy duty $2 ones from Walmart. Dumped out the solution and decided to do the solution in a stainless steel pot.

Then while that's going I put a cheap crappy meat thermometer to check the the heat of the lye water. I mix all my oils together and let them melt. As they finally melted I put my soft olive oil in with it too.

I check the temp on the lye water and it dropped to 80 deg. The youtube video said to keep it at 100. I decided I should turn on the stove with the lye water to bring it back to 100. I think it was around 85 when I mixed it into the 120 oil mixture.

So now I have my mixture sitting on a hot stove, but its off. I need to put my E/O so I measure it while letting the mixture sit on the hot, off stove.

It took a while because the scale was out of batteries and it was one of those dinky drops one, but eventually when I got to put the EO in the mixture... I realized it started clumping. I put the EO anyways and blended it until it looked about right. I was freaking out at this point because I thought it was becoming too hot. So I mixed the EO in the mixture for about 1-2 minute only and I poured it into my poorly made soap mold (lined with butcher paper)

Anyways, thanks for reading, but please, please let me know what else I could have done to do better.

And my biggest concern is the lumping I had. I poured my lumpy mixture into the soap mold when it was still scalding hot.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew

 

[Sunny]

Please let me know what I did wrong, as I've just finished my first batched. It seems like everything I did went wrong: lye spills, lye on skin, wasting ingredients etc.

So biggest problem, bought the scale new and it came with very, very low battery life. It made it very hard to measure.

So from the beginning, I had a separate container for my lye and a separate one for my distilled water. Combined them, and realized that it was getting HOT. Probably too hot for the container. It was one of those heavy duty $2 ones from Walmart. Dumped out the solution and decided to do the solution in a stainless steel pot.

Then while that's going I put a cheap crappy meat thermometer to check the the heat of the lye water. I mix all my oils together and let them melt. As they finally melted I put my soft olive oil in with it too.

I check the temp on the lye water and it dropped to 80 deg. The youtube video said to keep it at 100. I decided I should turn on the stove with the lye water to bring it back to 100. I think it was around 85 when I mixed it into the 120 oil mixture.

So now I have my mixture sitting on a hot stove, but its off. I need to put my E/O so I measure it while letting the mixture sit on the hot, off stove.

It took a while because the scale was out of batteries and it was one of those dinky drops one, but eventually when I got to put the EO in the mixture... I realized it started clumping. I put the EO anyways and blended it until it looked about right. I was freaking out at this point because I thought it was becoming too hot. So I mixed the EO in the mixture for about 1-2 minute only and I poured it into my poorly made soap mold (lined with butcher paper)

Anyways, thanks for reading, but please, please let me know what else I could have done to do better.

And my biggest concern is the lumping I had. I poured my lumpy mixture into the soap mold when it was still scalding hot.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew

What was your exact recipe including the amounts.

What essential oil did you use.

Are you sure the batteries on the scale were low? Some scales have automatic shutoff after 1 or 2 minutes...

Your lye water and solution don't have to be at a *certain* temperature to make soap. It sometimes helps to gauge when it's ready to go, and while I don't know that most people would recommend this for someone new, I literally melt my oils, mix my lye and water, put em together and blend. I have not tested temp since my second batch. If I am using a FO that likes to accelerate trace, then I will soap at room temperature. (This means that the oils and lye solution are cool before starting.)

Use personal protective gear next time so you don't splash on yourself.

Was your meat thermometer made of metal? Was it made of stainless steel? Be sure not to just stick any old metal into your lye water or soap batter.

 

[aphung2]

Please let me know what I did wrong, as I've just finished my first batched. It seems like everything I did went wrong: lye spills, lye on skin, wasting ingredients etc.

So biggest problem, bought the scale new and it came with very, very low battery life. It made it very hard to measure.

So from the beginning, I had a separate container for my lye and a separate one for my distilled water. Combined them, and realized that it was getting HOT. Probably too hot for the container. It was one of those heavy duty $2 ones from Walmart. Dumped out the solution and decided to do the solution in a stainless steel pot.

Then while that's going I put a cheap crappy meat thermometer to check the the heat of the lye water. I mix all my oils together and let them melt. As they finally melted I put my soft olive oil in with it too.

I check the temp on the lye water and it dropped to 80 deg. The youtube video said to keep it at 100. I decided I should turn on the stove with the lye water to bring it back to 100. I think it was around 85 when I mixed it into the 120 oil mixture.

So now I have my mixture sitting on a hot stove, but its off. I need to put my E/O so I measure it while letting the mixture sit on the hot, off stove.

It took a while because the scale was out of batteries and it was one of those dinky drops one, but eventually when I got to put the EO in the mixture... I realized it started clumping. I put the EO anyways and blended it until it looked about right. I was freaking out at this point because I thought it was becoming too hot. So I mixed the EO in the mixture for about 1-2 minute only and I poured it into my poorly made soap mold (lined with butcher paper)

Anyways, thanks for reading, but please, please let me know what else I could have done to do better.

And my biggest concern is the lumping I had. I poured my lumpy mixture into the soap mold when it was still scalding hot.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew

What was your exact recipe including the amounts.

What essential oil did you use.

Are you sure the batteries on the scale were low? Some scales have automatic shutoff after 1 or 2 minutes...

Your lye water and solution don't have to be at a *certain* temperature to make soap. It sometimes helps to gauge when it's ready to go, and while I don't know that most people would recommend this for someone new, I literally melt my oils, mix my lye and water, put em together and blend. I have not tested temp since my second batch. If I am using a FO that likes to accelerate trace, then I will soap at room temperature. (This means that the oils and lye solution are cool before starting.)

Use personal protective gear next time so you don't splash on yourself.

Was your meat thermometer made of metal? Was it made of stainless steel? Be sure not to just stick any old metal into your lye water or soap batter.

Thanks for the quick response!

Palm Oil 7oz
Coconut Oil 4oz
Olive Oil 7 oz
Shea Butter 2 oz
Lavender EO 1.0 oz
Lye 2.8 oz
Distilled Water 6.85oz

Yeah my scale was definitely low on batteries. It kept shutting off while I was taring, and weighing. Also it took a while for it to turn on, plus it said "Lo". Not a fun time that was!

But overall it was a great experience.

My biggest concern was that my whole mixture was sitting on the hot stove while I was mixing the EO and oats together. It was pretty lumpy when I was adding the EO in it, so I mixed it for about 1-2 mins and poured the mixture in my soap mold. Now its sitting under 3 towels, with no top cause I was stupid not to make one. :roll:

 

[Sunny]

Your recipe looks right according to soapcalc - just a note, always make sure you round DOWN your decimals for lye, and not up.

The soap was on a heated burner (which was turned off, if I'm reading that right)? That's not necessary. It's probably just fine though. In CP soap you don't need to add a heat source (or, like I said, don't need to have anything at a specific temperature).

You were mixing the EO and oats INTO the soap or you were mixing the oats into the EO? Just in case, that's not necessary either, you can add both to the soap batter at trace.

I don't have a top for my molds, any of them. If I want to make sure the soap gels I usually put it on a heat pad on low/med for a bit.

The lumps are probably okay - the soap was probably starting to set up more quickly because of all the heat. I would wait after unmolding, and if you don't see any weird speckles, holes, oozing or weird stuff, zap test it. Show pics if you can.

 

[aphung2]

Thanks for helping on my first batch making ever Tasha. I really appreciate the help. This is how my first batch turned out... so awful After 24 hours, I still find some sort of liquid on top of the soap as you can kinda see.

 

[Sunny]

I pm'd you before I saw this thread, lol, hope it helps!

 

[tlm884]

From the pictures, I would recommend a rebatch. The soap looks salvageable and if all your measurements were right you won't have to worry about too high of a superfat or a lye heavy soap.

Using gloves, take the soap out and put it in a stainless steel stock pot. I am assuming its still pretty soft so don't try grating it. Put it in the stockpot and try cutting it up with a knife or mashing it up with a potato masher. Then put it in the oven at 170F. I leave mine for about 30 minutes then come back and stir it up with a wooden spoon. Then I put it back in for another 30 minutes. Keep checking and stiring every 30 minutes. You will know it is ready when it starts to look like applesauce. It will be a bit translucent and start smoothing out. It can take a couple of hours. My last rebatch was in the oven for 2 hours. After it looks like applesauce, glop it into your mold and try your best to get the bubbles out. Let it sit for about 24-48 hours before taking it out of the mold.

Because the soap is so fresh I wouldn't add any additional liquids to it. It should still be plenty moist for melting, especially if you didn't use a water discount.

Hope this helps.

 

[carebear]

cover the pot in the oven.