lessons learned

[SoapDaddy70]

Took the day off today and just couldn’t help myself and went ahead and made my 3rd batch of soap. Was hoping to do a tiger swirl but it was an epic fail. Pretty sure i made every mistake possible. Thought I was just at emulsion but before i knew it both colors went from 0 to 60 in a few seconds. Had to glop everything in the mold and then i just started doing all sorts of crazy stuff mixing the colors in the mold. It might look interesting after i cut it but not what i intended to do. Here are all the things I know i did wrong.

1. Too many hard oils in the recipe
2. Lye concentration was 35%
3. Soaped too hot I guess - both lye water and oils around 85 F
4. Obviously overmixed - have to learn to put the damn stick blender down!!

I am waiting for a delivery from WSP but since I was home alone today I just had to make soap!! Great learning experience so was not too upset. Will post pics after I cut it into bars. Forgot to mention that the FO I added was Botanical Bliss from Nurture Soaps so maybe that helped accelerate the trace.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Took the day off today and just couldn’t help myself and went ahead and made my 3rd batch of soap. Was hoping to do a tiger swirl but it was an epic fail. Pretty sure i made every mistake possible. Thought I was just at emulsion but before i knew it both colors went from 0 to 60 in a few seconds. Had to glop everything in the mold and then i just started doing all sorts of crazy stuff mixing the colors in the mold. It might look interesting after i cut it but not what i intended to do. Here are all the things I know i did wrong.

1. Too many hard oils in the recipe
2. Lye concentration was 35%
3. Soaped too hot I guess - both lye water and oils around 85 F
4. Obviously overmixed - have to learn to put the **** stick blender down!!

I am waiting for a delivery from WSP but since I was home alone today I just had to make soap!! Great learning experience so was not too upset. Will post pics after I cut it into bars. Forgot to mention that the FO I added was Botanical Bliss from Nurture Soaps so maybe that helped accelerate the trace.

I routinely soap at over 100F and I also use a majority of hard oils. I would bet it was your FO that caused the most grief as well as over blending. Florals are notorious for accelerating.

 

[SoapDaddy70]

I routinely soap at over 100F and I also use a majority of hard oils. I would bet it was your FO that caused the most grief as well as over blending. Florals are notorious for accelerating.

Thanks Jersey Girl,
Of course like most things in soap making there are different answers to the same question. I added the FO to the oils and blended it for a couple of seconds before adding the lye solution. Should I have waited and added the FO right before it was supposed to be poured into the mold? Also, if it was an essential oil and not a fragrance oil would it be added at a different part of the process? Is there a definitive answer to either of these questions?

 

[dibbles]

Not Jersey Girl, but I rarely add either EO or FO to the oils. I bring my batter to emulsion, add the fragrance and usually only stir with my spatula after that point - even with a well behaved FO. There are a couple of exceptions with fragrance oils or EOs that I know will not accelerate at all, under any circumstances and I will occasionally add those to the batch oils before the lye solution. When doing a soap with layers, I will wait and add the FO to each part just before pouring, but I tend to use accelerating fragrances for those designs.

I think people add at the time that it works best for them, so there probably isn't a definitive answer. I have only forgotten to add my fragrance once or twice in 5+ years of soap making. There are others who find they forget it more often and add it to the oils for that reason. I have also read comments that people find it helps to add a misbehaving FO to the oils, but I haven't personally found that to be the case.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Thanks Jersey Girl,
Of course like most things in soap making there are different answers to the same question. I added the FO to the oils and blended it for a couple of seconds before adding the lye solution. Should I have waited and added the FO right before it was supposed to be poured into the mold? Also, if it was an essential oil and not a fragrance oil would it be added at a different part of the process? Is there a definitive answer to either of these questions?

I wouldnt have added a FO that I had never tried before to my oils before the lye. I would have added it to my batter at light trace before I poured. Anytime I use a new to me FO I make a small batch, plan a simple design and add it at very light trace to see how it behaves. As for EOs...I have only used a handful of them myself. Orange 10x, lemongrass, eucalyptus & peppermint. None of them have caused me any issues.

 

[earlene]

Apparently Botanical Bliss from Nurture Soaps accelerates, (per reviews) even at low soaping temps, so yes, that would be the cause if all else were equal.

But it's unclear to me if you had a high hard oil content in your recipe or what exactly 'too many hard oils' means. 5 hard oils at 5% each? A high percentage of the combined hard oils? If the latter, then perhaps you soaped too cool and not too hot. For intricate swirls using a high proportion of hard oils, I would choose more water so my batter would be more fluid. And a non-accelerating FO.

A tiger swirl for the very first time is still intricate. Later with more experience it won't be considered as extremely intricate, but for a beginning soapmaker, anything that requires separating batter to color and pour in alternating colors to create a specific design is at least somewhat intricate. Plus as we are learning, we tend to be slower and more perhaps more hesitant, so that's not the time to be using fast moving recipes or fragrances.

 

[SoapDaddy70]

Apparently Botanical Bliss from Nurture Soaps accelerates, (per reviews) even at low soaping temps, so yes, that would be the cause if all else were equal.

But it's unclear to me if you had a high hard oil content in your recipe or what exactly 'too many hard oils' means. 5 hard oils at 5% each? A high percentage of the combined hard oils? If the latter, then perhaps you soaped too cool and not too hot. For intricate swirls using a high proportion of hard oils, I would choose more water so my batter would be more fluid. And a non-accelerating FO.

A tiger swirl for the very first time is still intricate. Later with more experience it won't be considered as extremely intricate, but for a beginning soapmaker, anything that requires separating batter to color and pour in alternating colors to create a specific design is at least somewhat intricate. Plus as we are learning, we tend to be slower and more perhaps more hesitant, so that's not the time to be using fast moving recipes or fragrances.

Sorry. Should have listed the recipe in the original post but it was something I just threw together because I was home alone and bored and needed to make soap. Lol. Here it is. It fits into the Crafters Choice 1501 which I think makes 2.5 lbs of soap.

Olive Oil - 40% - 317.6g
Coconut Oil - 33% - 262.02g
Crisco - 16% - 127.04g (not sure why I added this but I did)
Shea Butter - 6% - 47.64g (this was the last of my shea butter)
Castor Oil - 5% - 39.7g

35% Lye Solution
7% Superfat

40g of Botanical Bliss

 

[earlene]

Is the Crisco the kind with animal fat or the kind with palm oil? Either way, I don't think that's too high hard oil content overall. I'd say it's all about the FO, based on that recipe. I don't think the temp was the issue at all for said recipe. Still the other info in terms of water, I'd still use more water to get a more fluid batter for a tiger swirl soap.

My entry in the SMF Tiger Swirl Challenge without any accelerating FO was made with [33% Lye] Concentration and 70% hard oils and the pour was a little challenging as the batter thickened toward the end of the pour, without any accelerating FOs, but I was happy with the result. The Tiger Swirl I made before that one was 48% hard oils and [31% Lye] Concentration, but poured at a thinner trace with different results (pictured in this post.) The latter recipe was somewhat similar to yours in overall make-up (per fatty acids) without an FO because I forgot to add it after measuring it out.

If you want to use an FO that accelerates, try dividing it into the number of portions you have your batter divided into, and don't stir the FO in until right before you pour that portion, that way the FO won't accelerate faster than you can pour.

 

[Zing]

I soap at temps anywhere from room temperature to low 100s. My recipes are typically 60:40 hard oils:soft oils. I use only essential oils for scent.

Here's my process:
- Combine oils and lye liquid to emulsion or thin trace.
- Pour into separate containers.
- Add colorant and essential oils to each container.
- Hand stir (I rarely stick blend after this point unless I want a medium to thick trace)
- pour into mold and voila!

Congrats on your 3rd batch! You'll still get homemade soap!

 

[TheGecko]

1. Too many hard oils in the recipe
2. Lye concentration was 35%
3. Soaped too hot I guess - both lye water and oils around 85 F
4. Obviously overmixed - have to learn to put the **** stick blender down!!

1. My recipe is 60% hard oils/butters (Coconut and Palm Oils, Cocoa and Shea Butters)...no problems.

2. During the Fall/Winter my Lye Concentration is 35%...no problems. I live in the Pacific Northwest and it rains a lot so less water is a good thing for curing time.

3. I have used the "heat transfer method" (using freshly made lye at 220F to melt your hard oils/butters) and soaped at around 150F...no problems. A lost of folks soap around 100F-120F.

4. Yep...been there, done that, have a draw full of T-Shirts. Like so many other new soapers, I watched a LOT of YouTube videos. I watched them without considering that the majority of these folks are making five pound batches of soap while I'm making one and two. To break myself of that bad habit, I literally hung up my Stick Blender on a hook and put a whisk next to my bowl.

I added the FO to the oils and blended it for a couple of seconds before adding the lye solution. Should I have waited and added the FO right before it was supposed to be poured into the mold? Also, if it was an essential oil and not a fragrance oil would it be added at a different part of the process?

Honestly...it depends on the FO and your recipe. I have a FO that behaves very badly...the first time I used it I had to throw my bowl away and boil the bell of my stick blender to get the soap out of it. The second time I lowered the temp of everything as much as I dared without getting false trace...it didn't seize, but I had pudding. I then got the idea to add the FO to the Oils/Butters, then add my lye solution. Success...I poured at a medium trace. Same with using an EO.

 

[bookreader451]

I had a soap accelerate on me last weekend. I know the FO I used doesn't accelerate, but sometimes soap does what it wants. Don't be discouraged by the "not perfect" batches. On my soaping journey I have learned to just roll with it because no matter what, it will get you clean, and your family will use it because it is free.