I forgot to add salt & sugar to water, added to oils

[akseattle]

I forgot to add salt & sugar to water.

After my first couple batches of soap when I forgot to add fragrance, forgot micas, etc. I developed a checklist that I must go through to prepare - I lay out all ingredients, pin post it notes, measure anything that can be measured in advance, line it up in order so that I can go through and check off the step. But, it had been so long since I'd soaped (totally buried at work), and I was so eager to make a batch, I decided to do a big batch of uncolored soap purely for the purpose of testing fragrances - to see if the fragrance accelerates, rices, discolors, to see if they fade away and don't survive saponification, and to see the scent completely morphs into something different, et. I was also excited to try out a bunch of single cavity molds I have been buying from Artcraftmolds - really great, detailed single cavity silicone molds.
My computer and printer were all messed up and I couldn't print out my check list that I use. I didn't have alot of time but really wanted to soap. I thought, well, no micas, no efforts at swirling or layering or anything, how hard can this be to do these fragrance tests without my checklist? LIke riding a bike? right?
Well, things were going swimmingly until I mixed my lye water into my water and realized I had forgotten the salt and sugar that I normally add.
I couldn't remember if I could add the salt & sugar to the lye water or if it does something weird if not first dissolved in the water.
I really didn't want to NOT use salt and sugar as I like that they add hardness and bubbles. So, I added both to my oils.
I could not for the life of me get the salt and sugar to dissolve in the oil. I stirred and stirred. Couldn't decide if heating my oils up a little would help or hurt. I looked up on the internet. I said salt & sugar don't dissolve in oil.
In fact it wasn't. Everytime I stopped stirring there was a big mound of salt & sugar in the bottom of the bowl.
I have been reading all the threads on salt soap and considered just adding a bunch of salt to make it salt soap. My better judgment prevailed and I decided the probability was that I'd mess my soap up worse. My recipe had only 23% olive oil. I used 46% lard which is the most lard I've ever used. This was the slowest moving batter in the world. I stick blended in short bursts for a LONG time. It seemed like the graininess of the salt and sugar lessened, but to be honest, I'm not really sure.

I won't unmold these bars until tomorrow. And, the point was to let these bars sit around for many, many months to see if they discolor over time and if some of the FO's lose their potency sooner than others, etc. But, I'm wondering, what is the consequence of adding the salt and sugar to the oil, will the salt still help harden the bar and will the sugar still help with bubbles. This was the biggest batch I have ever made - 1500 grams. I've only made three - 1000 gram batches, I usually just make 500 g. So, was super bummed to have gotten impatient and not followed my practice of always using a checklist , post it notes, etc.

So, i'm wondering what to expect if the sugar and salt didn't dissolve as the internet said? I can also just leave them in the single cavity molds longer if that will help.
Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions!

 

[Misschief]

I can tell you from experience, it won't be an issue. And, FYI, sugar and salt do not dissolve in oil.

 

[artemis]

If this happens again, dissolve the sugar in a little bit of water and then add it to your oils. Also, salt can be added to your water at any time, but you are right that the sugar will do weird things if you add it into the lye solution.

 

[akseattle]

I can tell you from experience, it won't be an issue. And, FYI, sugar and salt do not dissolve in oil.

@Misschief Well, I unmolded yesterday, so they were in their mold for a number of days. Most of the bars had little tiny, light colored blurry specs that I assume were either grains of salt or grains of sugar with a little halo- the more discoloration, the more noticeable. Although I'd prefer a bar without specs, if that is the only consequence of my ommission, I can live with it. So in your experience, the salt in the soap will still help harden even though not dissolved? and will the sugar still help with bubbles? Even though the sugar is not dissolved? I don't really want to use these bars since the point was to save them for like a year to see how they hold up. For most of the fragrances/bars, I had a little bit left over that I poured into small oval molds, so, I should be able to test this batch in 2 or 3 months to see if it is as hard or bubbly as other soaps I've made with a similar recipe. The problem is that I haven't made this EXACT recipe before. I removed the tallow and used all lard in it's place. I think I also reduced the castor oil by 1% and added that 1% to the shea butter.

 

[akseattle]

If this happens again, dissolve the sugar in a little bit of water and then add it to your oils. Also, salt can be added to your water at any time, but you are right that the sugar will do weird things if you add it into the lye solution.

@artemis , thank you for the information. I considered dissolving both the sugar and the salt in a little water but I wasn't sure how much water I would need to be able to dissolve all that salt & sugar (3 TBsp sugar & 1 TBsp salt). When I poured them in my oil it was like a regular beach down there in the bottom of the bowl ! I've really liked using less water because there is less shrinkage. When I look at my old soaps that I made before I started using a higher lye concentration, they look really small! So, on top of not knowing how much water would be enough, I didn't like the idea of my soaps shrinking up.

Anyway, I'm going to make myself a big giant note that I can add salt to my lye water any time !

I'm going to make myself a big giant note telling myself not to take any shortcuts. Until I have alot more experience, I'm going to have to stick to my practice of using checklists and post it notes to remember what I'm supposed to do!

So, thank you @artemis and @Misschief !