Horrible coffee soap disaster

[TheUser]

Decided to try my hand at making a coffee soap. A complex recipe (avocado oil, castor oil, coconut oil, olive oil, beeswax, cocoa butter and shea butter) but I've made it before successfully. Everything went smoothly until I added the fragrance oil. I was expecting it to accelerate but not to this level. It literally looks like diarrhea.

I think I'm going to stick with regular soaps at least for a while. The coffee was also a pain to handle as I used frozen coffee so as not to burn it with the lye.

 

[Kari Howie]

Decided to try my hand at making a coffee soap. A complex recipe (avocado oil, castor oil, coconut oil, olive oil, beeswax, cocoa butter and shea butter) but I've made it before successfully. Everything went smoothly until I added the fragrance oil. I was expecting it to accelerate but not to this level. It literally looks like diarrhea.

I think I'm going to stick with regular soaps at least for a while. The coffee was also a pain to handle as I used frozen coffee so as not to burn it with the lye.

View attachment 81230

Give it a couple days to suck up the juice floating on top. I bet it turns out better than you think it will. If that doesn’t work you might be able to rebatch it.

 

[AliOop]

Ugh, so sorry, that is a mess! Honestly, with that much oil floating, I'd put it in a crockpot, or a stainless pot on the stove, and hot process it with some additional liquid. You need to get all that oil mixed in with the rest of the soap, and to do that, you will need to get it softened up.

Which fragrance was this, btw? I think we will all want to make sure we don't buy it!

PS - if it is still soft, you may be able to stickblend it in a bowl, or right in the mold. I have done that once or twice, but I also have a stick blender with a very low speed that doesn't spatter. Use very quick bursts and make sure the head is at the bottom of the mold.

 

[akseattle]

@TheUser , my worst seizing experience was on August 31, 2024 with a coffee recipe. I went overboard with the ground oatmeal, and used two FO's, a Hazelnut FO, and a Vanilla Sugar FO. I had read that the Vanilla Sugar FO could accelerate but I didn't give it that much thought since I was using only a small % of that FO, in combination with the Hazelnut. I was able to chop it up in the bowl, Then poured a cup of boiling hot water into a 1000 gram recipe (really big batch for me at that time), and then as able to scoop it out and smash it into a mold. It was pretty traumatic at the time, I didn't actually really understand exactly what it meant for soap to "seize". It looks like hell, but over time, I warmed up to it. I love the smell and it feels really good. So, all is not lost. You might try one or multiple suggestions for what others have done with similar disastrous soaps.
Good luck and keep us posted on the final verdict!

 

[TheUser]

It was this FO: https://relumee.ee/en/806647-cappuccino-aroomioli-10-ml.html

Thanks for the suggestions but I threw it in the trash. On top of looking disgusting it smelled surprisingly bad.

 

[AliOop]

It was this FO: https://relumee.ee/en/806647-cappuccino-aroomioli-10-ml.html

Thanks for the suggestions but I threw it in the trash. On top of looking disgusting it smelled surprisingly bad.

Awww rats, ok. Just FYI, my experience is that using coffee in soap does create an awful smell initially, but that does subside over a couple of days, and is usually completely gone within a week. It's not the FO, but the coffee itself. So if you try it again, you will be ready with the clothespin for your nose!