Hello and my first couple of kgs of soap

[TheUser]

Hello from Finland!

I bought one of those handmade soaps marketed for men and fell in love with proper bar soaps. I used to use liquid soaps and wash gels only. Then I looked at how these soaps were made and thought that might be fun to try. A never ending quest to figure out the perfect recipe, the 4-6 week anticipation and the fact that you still can't be sure what is the final product. I love it! This is my second month making soaps.

Below is a pic of the current bunch curing. A couple of things I've noticed and learned:

• Making soap smell the way you want is hard
• Working without palm oil (mostly availability issue) makes formulating much more challenging
• Coconut oil @ 40% is too much
• Even just 5% castor oil makes the soap really difficult to demould
• A higher lye concetration actually makes the soap not gel fully

That's it for now. Looking forward to getting some of the stuff cured and to share recipes.

 

[justsomeguy]

Hello

 

[akseattle]

@TheUser , first, welcome! Second, Ouch! You've been bit so hard by the soap bug I can feel it all the way over here!

I'm impressed that you just dove in like that! I just made my 30th batch. That took me almost exactly one year. With a few exceptions, I made mainly 1 lb batches I was so nervous about messing up a bunch of soap. My last 3 batches have been 1500 gram batches and I'm really enjoying being able to experiment a little more. I do this for fun and I give it to friends and family, but I think I'm going to run out of donees here pretty soon!

So, thanks for sharing and I look forward to hearing about more of your discoveries!

 

[Ford]

Yup, we got another one..... poor soul. Hook,line and sinker.

Soaps look good. Like the green. Welcome.

 

[AliOop]

Welcome, your soaps look great, and it looks like you have been having some fun while learning lots. I do recommend putting down some baking paper or shelf liner between your soaps and the metal racks to avoid potential rancidity from the contact with metal.

 

[dmcgee5034]

Hi and nice work there. I am curious about the one that looks burgundy color with a pink middle. Looks super cool!

 

[KiwiMoose]

These look great! Ditto about the metal rack. And welcome!

 

[TheUser]

Hi and nice work there. I am curious about the one that looks burgundy color with a pink middle. Looks super cool!

Thanks. That pink area is actually just soda ash. The color I used was just some pink mica I bought from a local crafts store.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Welcome to the forum

 

[Kaybrantley]

Beautiful work. Welcome

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

Welcome @TheUser! Are you using a 10 inch (25 cm) silicone mold? Or one you’ve made yourself? I’m not sure what’s available in Finland. You’re going to have lots of fun here at SMF. Check out the soap challenges. Better yet, make a Scrubby Soap and post an entry!

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum. I use Castor oil in all my soap and have never had trouble unmolding. Is the soap mold silicone or lined with something? If it is silicone, the only thing I can suggest is to leave your soap in the mold longer. Freezing is also a good option to help the soap come out of a sticky mold.

 

[TheUser]

Welcome @TheUser! Are you using a 10 inch (25 cm) silicone mold? Or one you’ve made yourself? I’m not sure what’s available in Finland. You’re going to have lots of fun here at SMF. Check out the soap challenges. Better yet, make a Scrubby Soap and post an entry!

I'm using one of these: https://heirol.fi/en/collections/silicone-baking-pans and one of those cheap Chinese wood moulds with a thin silicone liner (I've insulated the wood with closed-cell neoprene foam). I might make my own moulds from plywood and just line them with baking paper if I increase my production.

Welcome to the forum. I use Castor oil in all my soap and have never had trouble unmolding. Is the soap mold silicone or lined with something? If it is silicone, the only thing I can suggest is to leave your soap in the mold longer. Freezing is also a good option to help the soap come out of a sticky mold.

It was sticking like glue from the bottom even after 96h. This wasn't a problem until I started adding castor oil. No biggie. Gonna reduce the amount to 3% from 5 which I think will do the trick.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I've also never had a problem with castor casting sticking. Was anything else different before you started using the castor? Different temp or different additives?

 

[Tammyfarms]

Welcome to the forum!

Would you like to receive feedback on your recipe? If you provide your recipe, process and an idea of what oils are readily available in Finland I’m sure you will get LOTS of responses. Maybe too many. We are a very helpful group.

I also use castor at 5% and have a rock hard loaf ready to unmold in 18-24 hours. It’s never been sticky. I’m guessing there’s something in your recipe or process causing the stickiness.

 

[TheUser]

I've also never had a problem with castor casting sticking. Was anything else different before you started using the castor? Different temp or different additives?

The soap without castor oil was 45% olive oil, 30% coconut oil, 25% avocado oil, no sodium lactate. Came out easy from the mould @ 24h. Cut without smearing @ 48h.

I added 5% castor oil and reduced the coconut oil to 25% and added 1% of sodium lactate to the recipe. These came out doughy and sticky. They did harden after about a week but unmoulding and cutting was tricky.

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

The soap without castor oil was 45% olive oil, 30% coconut oil, 25% avocado oil, no sodium lactate. Came out easy from the mould @ 24h. Cut without smearing @ 48h.

I added 5% castor oil and reduced the coconut oil to 25% and added 1% of sodium lactate to the recipe. These came out doughy and sticky. They did harden after about a week but unmoulding and cutting was tricky.

Is there a possibility the difference was the lye solution? I’m wondering if the lye in the second batch was less than full strength. Was it master batched? Maybe some of the NaOH crystallized out of solution due to cold temps, making the lye solution weak. Or was the NaOH from two separate packages, maybe with one exposed to air so it was no longer at full strength? “Doughy and sticky” sounds like the ratio of oils and lye were out of balance in the second batch.

Edit to add: which soap calculator did you use? Right now there is a glitch in the SMF calculator for coconut oil and cocoa butter. If you choose plain coconut oil, the calculator enters all zeros for the fatty acids. The recipe will be superfatted by the percentage of coconut oil. Please compare the actual printout of both recipes if you have them.

Note to everyone else, choose cocoa butter with the scientific name or coconut oil 76 degrees to get the correct numbers for your recipe. Do NOT choose the highlighted ingredients or you will have a soaping disaster.

 

[Vicki C]

Welcome! One of my favorite soapmakers is in Finland - Tellervo on YouTube. So soothing to watch.
I don’t have any thoughts about castor oil making your soap sticky other than I use it at 5% and haven’t had the same problem. I do see that some of your soap was partially gelled (which is fine) - was the castor oil soap gelled? Not sure if it would make a difference, but I sometimes have problems when I don’t gel my soap. Also helps with soda ash. All cosmetic issues.