Might get into this.

[artemis]

how about trying an oat milk soap? ...
I use the oat milk as half of the water content for the soap. If I use it at 100% of the water it goes too gluggy and I have to pass the lye solution through a sieve - but it is doable.

I made a batch this weekend and used oatmilk as 100%. I just scraped the "glug" into my oils without straining. It very easily blended right into the oils. I even had time for a simple swirl.

 

[Megan]

About your possible recipe: if it does not get DOS while curing, it will probably have a very short shelf life. You have a lot of polyunsaturated oils in there.

For the beard oil: no honey in there, what you are making is an anhydrous product. It will not combine correctly.

 

[Renraw9002]

So a question. I just made a new batch of soap a few days ago, but I goofed and made too much. My molds said they could hold 42oz each so I made an 80 oz batch thinking that would be about right for 2 molds.

However it turns out they definitely don't hold 42 oz, not sure how much they hold, but it's not 42oz.

Anyway, I used honey and to prevent the soap from possibly heating up too much I put both molds in the fridge after pouring. I just left the leftovers in the bucket and threw it on top of a cabinet figuring I could just cut up this oddball disc eventually and use it anyway. I'm not selling anything.

A few days go by and I notice the soap in the fridge looks normal, nice consistent color, still slightly soft as expected, but the soap that was left in the bucket kind of looks like there's moisture on top of it. Like an amber colored sweat, not a lot, but enough to make me curious. I'm 99% positive my soap reached trace. Whenever I thought I reached trace I've learned to quit stirring for a minute and then pull the stick blender out and see if the drippings go back into the mixture like water again or if they sit on top like it does when trace has been reached.

I was a little short on beef tallow for my recipe so I just made up the amount I was short by using a mixture of other oils and butters I still had plenty of. Including a bit of argan and jojoba oil. I know they're kinda wasted in cp soap, but I figured what the heck? I still had a lot left after making my beard oil.

Anyway I digress. Did I goof something up?

 

[AliOop]

You can’t just sub in one oil for another without adjusting the lye. Each oil requires a different amount of lye to saponify. By not recalculating, you could end up with lye-heavy soap. If you had a decent superfat, you are probably fine. But definitely zap test the soap to be sure.

As for the dewy soap on the fridge, it’s probably the honey. It often makes dew spots in soap, especially if the soap got pretty hot. Honey itself can cause that, but you added the heat from the fridge motor and the room heat that rises to your ceiling. This would have created a much warmer environment for that soap.

The soap inside the fridge probably won’t have that issue since it was kept cooler.

 

[soapmaker]

I have one soap that does that every time. For my soap I believe it's the blend of E.O.s

 

[Renraw9002]

You can’t just sub in one oil for another without adjusting the lye. Each oil requires a different amount of lye to saponify. By not recalculating, you could end up with lye-heavy soap. If you had a decent superfat, you are probably fine. But definitely zap test the soap to be sure.

As for the dewy soap on the fridge, it’s probably the honey. It often makes dew spots in soap, especially if the soap got pretty hot. Honey itself can cause that, but you added the heat from the fridge motor and the room heat that rises to your ceiling. This would have created a much warmer environment for that soap.

The soap inside the fridge probably won’t have that issue since it was kept cooler.

I always do 5% superfat. I also zap test at about a week so I guess I'll find out come Monday. I didn't know you had to adjust lye for different oils. I always assumed it was just a matter of ratios.

I didn't put it on the fridge just on top of a cabinet across the room, but either way I see your point. I put the soap in the fridge because of the extra heat I knew honey can cause.

I have one soap that does that every time. For my soap I believe it's the blend of E.O.s

Oh maybe that's it. I used brambleberry's made to measure which is new to me. On a side note I think they're too expensive especially after shipping. However this made to measure scent smells really good. Definitely my favorite so far.

 

[AliOop]

I always do 5% superfat. I also zap test at about a week so I guess I'll find out come Monday. I didn't know you had to adjust lye for different oils. I always assumed it was just a matter of ratios.

With 5% SF, you should be fine. Yes, each oil has a different saponification value. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have to list them separately in the lye calculator; you could just list the total amount of oils and be done, right?

Regarding the mold size, the difference can come from using more or less water, more or less additives, etc. It can also be that the mold description was for the total mold volume, whereas the recipe was referring to the amount of oils only. Most of us have been tripped up by that once or twice.

A word about trace: what you describe as trace, I would call medium or medium-thick trace. If you ever want to do swirls or designs, you will need to stop blending at thin trace, or better yet, emulsion. There are some good YT videos on how to spot the different stages. Usually it is way less stick-blending than you think, especially for smaller batches.

 

[Renraw9002]

With 5% SF, you should be fine. Yes, each oil has a different saponification value. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have to list them separately in the lye calculator; you could just list the total amount of oils and be done, right?

...I had not thought of that. I assumed it was a convenience thing since I always read stuff like "we recommend this oil/butter at x%". So I figured it was just doing the basic math for you. Not also calculating how much lye you'd need for a given combination of oils/butters.

Regarding the mold size, the difference can come from using more or less water, more or less additives, etc. It can also be that the mold description was for the total mold volume, whereas the recipe was referring to the amount of oils only. Most of us have been tripped up by that once or twice.

Ohhh I see now. I use soapcalc.net. I did not see that the spot I've been typing in my batch sizes actually reads "weight of oils". uhhh woops lol.

A word about trace: what you describe as trace, I would call medium or medium-thick trace. If you ever want to do swirls or designs, you will need to stop blending at thin trace, or better yet, emulsion. There are some good YT videos on how to spot the different stages. Usually it is way less stick-blending than you think, especially for smaller batches.

I tried a swirl once and I'll likely never do that again. I'm actually kind of glad I mixed until medium trace so now I know in my limited experience that I'm definitely emulsifying everything. That's been my biggest concern since I started making my own soap has been not mixing enough. I only ever make soap for myself so I can do without pretty colors or swirls. I don't even square up the bars. I just cut the logs into roughly soap bar sized pieces and call it a day.

The one time I tried a swirl was as a gift for my mother for christmas the year before last. Was aiming for a black and white swirl, what I got was a large grey mass with random pockets of darker grey and white lol.

On the rare chance I'll ever try a swirl again I'll do more research. For now I'm happy knowing I'm reaching medium trace. Pretty sure if I only went to a thin trace I'd get paranoid I didn't mix enough.

Thank you for the knowledge.

 

[AliOop]

@Renraw9002 sounds like you know what you want to do and are very good at researching how to do it.

Yes, those swirls can be tricky. We've all had our share of soaps with muddied colors, for sure. Like you, I also had trouble stopping sooner rather than later. There are some really good YT videos that explain what to look for... but if you are happy where you are, then soap on and have fun with it.

 

[Zing]

I'll just add that you can calculate how much oil you need by measuring your molds. For rectangular molds, do L in inches x W in inches x H in inches. Then multiply that number by 0.4 and that equals how many ounces of oils you need. I always have a coupla single cavity molds and yogurt cups handy for my overflow.

For other shaped molds, read the pinned posts.

What's your EO blend?