Hello from U.K

[alib]

Hi everybody, I'm new on here & was hoping for some advice, I have recently made my first ever batch of soap following a very basic reciepe using vegetable fat (I used trex) - I wanted to see that it would work before I moved on to nicer soaps with more exspensive ingredients. The soap is about half way through its curing time, this morning I took a peak & each bar is covered in small cracks, it looks like it would all fall apart if I picked it up
This is not mentioned in the troubleshooting section of the book I have.
Does anyone know why this might have happened?

 

[Hazel]

Hello,

Welcome to the forum. I'm not an expert but my first thought was maybe your soap overheated. But I could be wrong. As long as the soap isn't lye heavy, you can still use it. Perhaps you could rebatch it. Hopefully an expert will be along soon to give you advice.

What was the recipe?

 

[alib]

The recipe was 16oz vegetable fat, 2oz sodium hydroxide, 5oz spring water & that was all.

 

[Hazel]

I searched for trex but I couldn't find out what vegetable oils are in it. I use soapcalc.net to calculate lye and it only shows Crisco new with palm, old Crisco with soybean and cottonseed and Walmart GV shortening (soy and cottonseed). Do you know what oils are used in trex? Did you insulate the batch? What lye calculator did you use? The forum is kind of quiet this weekend. Maybe in a couple of days more people might respond.

Here's a couple of sites that discuss troubleshooting.

http://www.colebrothers.com/soap/trouble.html
http://www.millersoap.com/trouble.html

What oils do you consider more expensive? If trex is a blend of palm and soybean oil, I have a recipe that makes a nice soap. I don't know about the UK but here we can find olive and coconut oil in grocery stores. I also found castor oil in the pharmacy section at Walmart's.

30% Olive oil
30% Coconut oil
30% Crisco new w/ palm
10% Castor oil

7% superfat

 

[alib]

Thanks Hazel I appreciate you taking the time to help me with this.
Just looked on the Trex box & it just says vegetable oils (not very helpful).
I did insulate the batch, the bars are wrapped in a towel & put in a cardboard box - is that sufficient?
I didn't use a lye calculator I just followed the recipe word for word from the book I have (The Handmade Soap Book by Melinda Cross), in the recipe it asks for 'vegetable fat (shortening)' - but I'm guessing now that the contents of the vegetable fat could make all the difference.
I don't mind using more exspensive oils, just thought that for my first attempt I would try one of the 3 very basic recipe's in this book, & as the other 2 contained animal fats (something I wouldn't use) I went for the vegetable fat one.
Will look at the sites you sent me links too.
Thanks again.

 

[Hazel]

You're welcome. I wish I could help more.

I'm not familiar with this book so I went to look it up. About half of the reviewers mentioned the recipes are lye heavy. One even commented that with the amount of lye in the recipes that the soaps will be crumbly. I'd say double check this recipe on a lye calculator if you haven't already.

I wrap my bars in a towel but I don't put them in a cardboard box. Maybe the towel and the box held too much heat and the lye heavy recipe caused the cracks.

Which lye calculator are you using?

 

[Mayren]

Not an expert either but here's my thoughts for what it's worth:

The problem with vegetable shortening is that not all of them
have been properly calculated for their SAP values and each
brand is a little different.

I would reccommend that even if you find a recipe in a book
to please use a lye calculator you can find online to run
the recipe through and get the proper lye/water amounts.

From soapcalc.net I ran this recipe to get as close to yours
as possible using the WalMart GV Shortening as the oil as it
"seems" to be the closest.

Here's the closest i got:

16 oz Shortening
5.05 oz Water
2.16 oz Lye

That recipe has a 5% Super Fat with a 30% lye solution conentration
factored in so your recipe wasn't too far off from a normal recipe.
I'm guessing that the shortening you are using could be the problem?

I do like the sample recipe that was posted.
You could also start out with a nice 100% Olive Oil recipe
knowing that it will take a longer cure time?


Oh - And Welcome!!

 

[HenleyNatural]

Hi alib and welcome to the forum. Try using distilled water instead of spring water. Spring water, just as tap water, has a higher amount of minerals which bond to the lye leaving fewer lye molecules to bond with oils molecules. Distilled water goes through a distillation process which removes the minerals.

Using filtered water is another alternative. When I make soap I use water from my refrigerator which is filtered. Another possibility is rain water. I've made a batch or two this way and they came out fine. Just strain the water through a cheese cloth to remove any leaves or debris.

Steve

 

[HenleyNatural]

Also, make sure you are mixing the batch to trace. A batch that is not mixed to trace will cause the lye to settle on top making the batch the flakey.


Steve

 

[alib]

Wow, thank you all so much for your advice & suggestions, will take it all on board & try again. Was quite surprised to have had so many new responses, what a helpful forum this is, thank you all again.