Hello, I've just made the three cold process soaps so far, and the last one seems a bit weird. The other two were internet recipes and they came out fine (except in No.2 I experienced what I now know to be almost 'seize'). But this last batch seems really, really soft.
For this I used a recipe from a very well-known soap-making book for beginners. It was 9.5oz olive, 5oz coconut, 1.5oz palm kernel and 0.5oz castor oils. I also added 25g different fragrance oils and used 2.4oz lye in 5oz water. I was keen to make a thin-ish batter I could split into 3 colours and try to be creative with, and everything seemed to go well. poured the colours when things were just beginning to thicken up (they were thin to begin with but became 'medium' trace before I'd finished putting all the colours into the mould). But things seemed to go wrong when I tried to cut it.
My first attempt to cut was the day after. It came out of the mould fine, but was clearly way too soft when I made my first cut. I left it unmoulded for a few days but same problem. I then left it out in my bedroom (the only warm room in the house) for over a week, but trying to cut it tonight has resulted in the same issue - it's the texture of very soft fudge.
My other batches were proper hard, but tonight I cut a sliver off this one to test the texture, and when I rolled it in my hands it just produced a VERY sticky mess - similar to thick cake mixture.
Does anyone know if this batch will be ok? I'm really surprised it's so soft after almost a week in my very warm, dry bedroom!
For this I used a recipe from a very well-known soap-making book for beginners. It was 9.5oz olive, 5oz coconut, 1.5oz palm kernel and 0.5oz castor oils. I also added 25g different fragrance oils and used 2.4oz lye in 5oz water. I was keen to make a thin-ish batter I could split into 3 colours and try to be creative with, and everything seemed to go well. poured the colours when things were just beginning to thicken up (they were thin to begin with but became 'medium' trace before I'd finished putting all the colours into the mould). But things seemed to go wrong when I tried to cut it.
My first attempt to cut was the day after. It came out of the mould fine, but was clearly way too soft when I made my first cut. I left it unmoulded for a few days but same problem. I then left it out in my bedroom (the only warm room in the house) for over a week, but trying to cut it tonight has resulted in the same issue - it's the texture of very soft fudge.
My other batches were proper hard, but tonight I cut a sliver off this one to test the texture, and when I rolled it in my hands it just produced a VERY sticky mess - similar to thick cake mixture.
Does anyone know if this batch will be ok? I'm really surprised it's so soft after almost a week in my very warm, dry bedroom!
