Is my latest batch going to set?

[Egzandra]

I made another batch of soap today using a recipe, but halved from the Millersoap website. It was called Imitation Castile. I used co 12 ounces, lard 9 ounces, olive 12 ounces, and tallow 10 ounces. Should have been 19 oz for the tallow but I replaced part of it with lard.

I used 18 ounces of water and 6.2 ounces of lye.

It took ages to trace, and I had to go out before I was able to be really satisfied with the trace. I divided it between two milk cartons and put it in the airing cupboard wrapped with a blanket, this was about 2pm. At 7pm I have peeped at it and it still feels like a liquid, with a layer of oil on top. Do you think this is going to set? Should I give it a shake or something?

At trace I added 20g of apricot kernal oil with a mixture of lavender and patchouli.

Thank you for your comments, I know someone will respond when you are able to.

 

[mamaT]

Has it set up yet? When I make what I call the old fashioned lye soap, just lard, lye, and water it takes what seems like forever to trace. If you have enough lye in the mix, there's quite a bit of hard oils in the recipe so it should be a pretty hard bar. I didn't run the recipe thru soapcalc but looks like a whole lot of water for the amount of oils.
Sorry I can't answer your questions.

 

[Guest]

I believe the high amount of water was responsible for the long trace time.

 

[xraygrl]

If it has a layer of oil on top, then it most likely separated...probably because you didn't achieve trace. If it's still liquidy, then take it back out of the molds, and stick blend the oils back in, then put it back in the molds. . Turn your oven on warm let it heat up, then put your molds in there and turn the oven off, then leave them overnight. This should fix it.

 

[honor435]

yikes, use less water next time, it will harden much faster.

 

[carebear]

you didn't reach complete trace so it's separated. it's not going to make decent soap unless you get the oils and water truly emulsified so dump the whole thing back into your bowl/pot/whatever and mix until you get true trace.

lard and olive both take FOREVER to trace, so it wasn't that you are doing anything wrong - that's the nature of your oils.

your water is a bit on the high side, but not absurdly so. I would suggest going with less next time - with this recipe I'd say a 30% solution is probably fine even for a beginner.

 

[Egzandra]

Thank you all so much for your replies. On the basis of them the answer seems to be that I used too much water and trace took a long time, because of using too much water and the nature of the oils.

I thought I had left myself loads of time but each time I went back to the pot there was a layer of oil on top to stir back in, which got less each time but never completely went. As for the water, I used mid way between what the recipe said and what Rainbow Meadows said when I put the oils through the calculator.

By the way, isn't Rainbow Meadows fab? I love the way it gives you different amounts of lye for the degree of superfatting you might want. I had checked the amount of lye on a piece of paper first, so I knew what they were saying must be right. I'd come up with exactly what they did for 0 superfatting. I actually used their amount for 5% superfatting. I could print out the recipe as well and it looks pretty. Wonderful.

As for my soap, I left it overnight in the airing cupboard next to the tank, and when I got up the containers felt quite firm but there was still a layer of oil sloshing about on top. I don't think it's too much though.

Maybe I will leave them until this afternoon and then see how much oil there is, if it is nearly reabsorbed I will just cut up the soap and let it cure and hope for the best and if there is a lot of oil I will have to mash it all up again. Maybe if I lose a bit of oil it will not matter, as I have done a 5% superfat?

Next time I will not use so much water and leave more time for trace - thanks everyone.

 

[carebear]

It's not due to the use of "too much water", but of your slow-to-trace fats.

Good luck with the reabsorption thing.

 

[Egzandra]

I have just turned the soap out of the milk cartons and to my relief there was only less than 1.5 ounces of oil running out, so (as I superfatted at around 5% and then added a bit more oil with the essential oils), I don't think I need to rebatch. I have cut the soap, it cut very well, although the bars don't look as good as some of the bars on this site, and I am posting pictures of it later.

Thank you again for your replies and help.

 

[carebear]

are you sure that's just oil and not lye? and be sure to check your bars for free lye (the zap test).

 

[Egzandra]

Thank you carebear for your message.

The stuff that has run off does look and feel very oily and smells strongly of the essential oils. It has thickened up in its little pot. I wonder if there is some lye in there and whether it will turn into soap eventually.

I am not sure what a zap is like and all the soaps I have tried just taste soapy, not like an electric shock from a battery. I have just put one of the new bars to my tongue and the taste was not much different to the cured bar I have in my kitchen. Didn't feel like a shock.

Maybe I just managed to do the right thing, putting the moulds into the airing cupboard next to the tank - might have brought on gel. The soap certainly cut quite nicely.