HP shaving soap turning to cream!

[fireweed]

Help!

After years of success with the same recipe, all of a sudden it's failing over and over again... Looks fine when finished but after a few days it starts to soften until it's a very soft cream

I've lowered the glycerin from 5% to 2.5% and reduced water by 10% but to no avail.

Here's my original recipe (% of total amounts):

Stearic Acid 25.7
Tallow 10.7
Castor 4.3
Coconut 2.1

NaoH 1.5 (1:4 ratio)
KoH 6.8
Water 42.5

Glycerin 5.7
Clay 0.7

A small gift to anyone who can provide the answer! I'm desperate...

 

[SudsanSoaps]

Not sure where you're from but I would say it's absorbing moisture from the air so maybe your humidity is higher than usual.

Or maybe check that batteries on your scale or check and make sure it's still calibrated properly.

 

[cherrycoke216]

hi, I run your recipe through soapee calculator, and at 1:5 ratio, it's KOH 1.44 oz, (@preset 90% purity ),and NaOH 4.86 oz.

May I ask which calc you use,and purity of your KOH?

another thought is that is your Lye or KOH old? and how do you store it? it can absorb water/ moisture just in an hour!

just my two cents.

 

[DeeAnna]

Cherrycoke -- reverse your percentages. The OP is doing 1 part NaOH to 5 parts KOH. You're doing vice versa. That might help!

 

[fireweed]

Oops, correction- it's 1:4 NaoH to KoH

I'll check the calibration.

KoH is 90% pure, had it awhile but I just got a new shipment so I'll try again with the new stuff.

I use the S3 calculator.

Thank you for your comments!

 

[DeeAnna]

Fireweed -- Your water content at 554 doesn't make sense in context with the other numbers, by the way. Why don't you edit your original post to make these corrections? Will save some confusion.

 

[cherrycoke216]

Cherrycoke -- reverse your percentages. The OP is doing 1 part NaOH to 5 parts KOH. You're doing vice versa. That might help!

Oops! Apparently I did not have enough caffeine today.
Thanks for the correction, DeeAnna.

 

[Ivanstein]

Cure it on top of the fridge which is a notoriously warm and dry place.

When I made croaps, I made the mistake of curing mine there and they became pucks. Now I cure them in the linen closet.

 

[fireweed]

Fireweed -- Your water content at 554 doesn't make sense in context with the other numbers, by the way. Why don't you edit your original post to make these corrections? Will save some confusion.

Thanks for that, DeeAnna- panicking and not thinking! I've edited the original post now.

 

[fireweed]

Cure it on top of the fridge which is a notoriously warm and dry place.

When I made croaps, I made the mistake of curing mine there and they became pucks. Now I cure them in the linen closet.

Thanks Ivanstein- I'm in the UK which means my fridge is actually more like a beer fridge and it sits under the countertop :/ Good advice but my latest batch failed in air tight conditions so wasn't exposed to excess moisture... very humid in the UK so I thought of this as a factor.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Try curing them outside of air tight conditions - curing happens best with airflow

 

[Ford Prefect]

Are you using distilled water? If you are using tap water or spring water, that might have an effect. Have you started using fats from a different batch? Have any of your ingredients gone past their "use by" date? Dunn's book, Scientific Soapmaking, outlines a procedure you can use to determine the SAP for your recipe, it also has a test procedure you can use to test suspect lye. Both are pretty easy to do and if you've lost control of your process, would be something to look at. Assuming your soap is not CP, how about time and temperatures during the cook process? Any changes there? Also, it might be helpful to draw out a process flowchart (block diagram) outlining everything that went into your original process in detail so you can look to see what might have changed. If it used to work, and now doesn't, something has changed in your process or your raw materials, and once you figure out what has changed, you'll be be able to get it back on track. Good luck!

 

[fireweed]

I am using distilled water. Fats are from different batches but the same supplier.

Excellent advice all around, thanks to everyone- I've now acquired a copy of Scientific Soapmaking and will test my lye... I will report back!