How long does Castile soap take to set up?

[LeahMcK3]

Last night was my first attempt at castile soap... I wanted the pure olive oil because my son has really sensitive skin!
The recipe is as follows:
Olive Oil 85% 4.25lbs
Castor Oil 5% .25lbs
Shea Butter 10% .5lbs
Water as a percent to oil weight was 35%..... so 1.75 lbs
Lye .638lbs

Now I know soap without palm or coconut will be softer, but this morning I woke up to apple sauce like soap in my mold with oil that had leaked all over my counter tops :-/
It has only been 10 hours since I poured my "soap" so I'm trying to not get too bummed out just yet, but I'm not sure what went wrong... Does it just need longer to set or did I do something wrong? First off, I KNOW I made way too much!! I have a 5 lb mold so when I went to do my calculations, I made the total weight of oils set at 5 lbs... I made WAY too much! But even so, I calculated everything correctly so it should work. The only things I can think of that may not have been done correctly was that I don't have a stick blender so I used my hand beater. And I mixed the lye solution with the oils when they were about 120 degrees and not 100. I let it set up for about an hour (maybe a little longer) mixing every 10 mins or so for about 30 seconds at a time before pouring it into my mold. Any Ideas??? Do you think I did something wrong & if so can it be fixed???

 

[IrishLass]

The lye amount was fine, your temps were fine (I soap at 125F all the time without incident, even for high OO soaps), a stickblender would have certainly helped, but it is not absolutely necessary. It sounds to me like you did not reach true trace when you poured into the mold. What did things look like when you poured?

Another thing- the water amount. I would have added much less water than you did. I would have used 25.5 water as % of oil weight (i.e. a 33% lye concentration) instead. The amount that you used is considered a 'full water' amount, and it can cause high olive oil soaps to be quite soft for days if not weeks. The first 100% olive oil soap I ever made had a full water amount and it didn't set up for almost a week, and even then it was still too soft to unmold for another few weeks. That was the last time I ever used a full water amount with my high olive oil soaps.

At this point, it seems like your batch has lost a bit of its oil amount from separation/leakage. If it were me and I was looking at a possible waste of 5 lbs of oils, I would do everything I could to save it. The only way I can think of to save it is to dump all of it into a crockpot or a large stainless steel soup pot and HP it (I like using a big soup pot set it in the oven at 170F when I HP). I would also try to guestimate how much oil was lost and add that much back in as well (I would just add it in as olive oil). As it cooks it should reach the transluscent or vaseline stage (gel), and once it does, I would then check it for zap. If it zaps, I would add more olive oil in (a teaspoon at a time), cook for 10 minutes, check for zap, and repeat in the same manner until all zap has gone. Once all zap has gone you can pour (glop) it into your mold and let it set up. It should be fine at that point.


IrishLass

 

[LeahMcK3]

YES! I am willing to try anything to save it! It's about $40 worth of organic oils! :-/ I have a huge crock pot that would work to HP it. I've never done that before tho... How long and at what head should I let it go? I lost probably about 1/4 cup oil would be my guess... I'll add a bit back in when I mix it in the crock pot. Thanks for you help! I wasn't exactly sure how or if it could be saved. It is slowly getting harder, but my guess is that I just used too much water & it's going to take forever for it to "set". Does HP help it to set faster? I also added some calendula powder to it right before I poured in the mold. Is that going to be ok to HP?

 

[IrishLass]

I have a huge crock pot that would work to HP it. I've never done that before tho...

Well, we are even, then- although I've HP'd several times, I've never HP'd in a crockpot before. Do you know how hot your crockpot gets on each of its settings? If you do, then I would cook it on the setting that gets only as hot as 170 to 200 degreesF. Anywhere in that range should be fine. Even if it goes a little over to 220F, I think that should be okay, too.

As you cook it, I would keep it covered with your crockpot cover and only remove it to stir every so often and to test for zap, because you don't want too much water to evaporate out. Some evaporation is fine, but if you feel that it is getting too dry, you can always spritz the batter with a spray bottle of water. That's what I do. Using a spray bottle helps keep me from over-watering.

You'll want to cook it long enough so that it reaches the gel stage. That's when saponification reaches its zenith and you can test for zap. You 'll be able to tell when it reaches the gel stage by the look and feel of the batter. It will become soft & pliable and somewhat transluscent or semi-transluscent in appearance, taking on a sort of vaseline-like look and feel to it. That's the best way I can describe it. Others have described it as mashed potatoes-like. Here is a great crockpot HP tutorial with pics of the different stages: http://gracefruit.blogspot.com/2006/01/ ... orial.html

Yes- HP will help it set faster.

As for the calendula, I've never soaped with it, but I think it should be fine. Lots of people soap with calendula and let their soap gel, which can reach pretty high temps- upwards of 270F.


IrishLass