M&P immediate skin forming while pouring in mould

[SoapStephanie]

Hi guys!

I'm new to this forum and I've only been in to Melt & Pour Soapmaking for a couple of months now, together with bath salts, lotions and that sort of stuff. :mrgreen: And I love it!

I'm sort of on the breaking point of switching (or at least trying it out first) to Cold Process Soaps at the moment, since there are a couple of things that I think are a bit annoying in Melt & Pour.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or this is just a Melt & Pour thingy! Hope you guys can give me some advise!

So I've been trying to make some nice swirl soaps lately. I just finished one with two colours, purple and white, and I've tried to swirl that together. It's hardening up now.
The point is, whenever I put the 2 different soap (colours) in (at the same time or maybe 2 seconds after..), there's immediately a skin (and lumps!) forming. This is kind of annoying since I want to make a nice swirl (and not a lumpy one)!
Am I doing something wrong? Everything (tools/mould) is at room temperature and the soap isn't to hot I believe. I'm using alcohol and the mix had just the right 'trace' or thickness to pour into the mould, but immediately hardens. roblem: That 'pudding' consistency is gone in a second.

Should I pour immediately when the mix is still very thin?
I usually pour it into the mould when the mix is a bit thicker, since I add herbs a lot. But if the mix is too cold (and therefore thicker) the herbs just sink to the bottom.

Hope you guys can help me out here! :smile:

Greets,
Steph

 

[lsg]

Here are some tips from the Soap Queen blog:

http://www.soapqueen.com/?s=swirling+melt+&+pour

 

[SoapStephanie]

Hi lsg. Thanks, but that doesn't really answer my questions though...

I have seen a lot of video's, especially SoapQueen's, I haven't seen any of the soaps behave like mine does..

 

[Dorymae]

Hi guys!

I'm new to this forum and I've only been in to Melt & Pour Soapmaking for a couple of months now, together with bath salts, lotions and that sort of stuff. :mrgreen: And I love it!

I'm sort of on the breaking point of switching (or at least trying it out first) to Cold Process Soaps at the moment, since there are a couple of things that I think are a bit annoying in Melt & Pour.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or this is just a Melt & Pour thingy! Hope you guys can give me some advise!

So I've been trying to make some nice swirl soaps lately. I just finished one with two colours, purple and white, and I've tried to swirl that together. It's hardening up now.
The point is, whenever I put the 2 different soap (colours) in (at the same time or maybe 2 seconds after..), there's immediately a skin (and lumps!) forming. This is kind of annoying since I want to make a nice swirl (and not a lumpy one)!
Am I doing something wrong? Everything (tools/mould) is at room temperature and the soap isn't to hot I believe. I'm using alcohol and the mix had just the right 'trace' or thickness to pour into the mould, but immediately hardens. roblem: That 'pudding' consistency is gone in a second.

Should I pour immediately when the mix is still very thin?
I usually pour it into the mould when the mix is a bit thicker, since I add herbs a lot. But if the mix is too cold (and therefore thicker) the herbs just sink to the bottom.

Hope you guys can help me out here! :smile:

Greets,
Steph

Honestly this is confusing to me. I have never thought of M&P as having any "trace". The only swirls I've seen with melt and pour, I believe, are like ITP or drop swirls.

What is clear is you are trying to let the M&P harden up, just a little. I would find that an almost impossible task because once it begins to cool it gets hard quickly but irregularly. Meaning that the top and any place exposed to air will solidify before the rest of the soap. If it is that cool swirling will be near impossible because the soap you pour will want to sit on the top of the soap "skin".

I would try heating your soap and keeping it warm in a double boiler.

 

[kimkaseman]

Hi! I'm kinda new to this also. It's fun!

 

[lsg]

The only M&P swirl that I have done is one with three colors poured into individual cube molds. I poured two at one time from opposite corners and then I poured the third color from another corner. My soap was fairly hot and I didn't give it time for a skin to form.

 

[hmlove1218]

Where do you get your base from? I've tried several different places and they all behaved a little differently. Even bases from the same company can behave different than the others. Many of the cheaper feeling bases tend to give me more problems like what you're describing than the higher quality bases.

Point being, if you haven't tried bases from different companies or different types from the same company, I would highly suggest doing so.

 

[lisamaliga]

Steph,
Are you heating with a double boiler?
Are both soaps [white and clear] from the same manufacturer?
What about the temperature? If melting with a double boiler, are you using a medium heat setting?

 

[SoapStephanie]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the tips! Sorry for the late response, I didn't receive any notifications until today. :razz:

I am using the same base when I'm doing this. So from the same manufacturer. I think the quality is very good. And if not, that would kinda suck since this is the only Soap selling company of two in Australia! :shifty: And I use those 2 (I think it's the same base though).

The soap actually turned out great, aside from the problems I had with the very thick soap!

I haven't tried using a double boiler since I've never had any issues before. I think I'm going to try (in the next swirling project) to immediately pour and swirl it in the mould, instead of waiting a bit.


Greets,
Steph

 

[lsg]

Well, your soap looks great!

 

[SoapStephanie]

Thanks!

 

[lisamaliga]

Just going by the picture I'd say it looks like CP soap. At any rate, you did a wonderful job!

 

[hmlove1218]

Holy wow.. that's MP?? That's amazing! My swirl attempts with MP always result in a single colored soap..

 

[SoapStephanie]

Aw! Thanks guys.
As you can see, the soap was a indeed very thick one. I'm surprised it worked actually, since I was barely able to swirl/fold it.