Mushy Crock Pot Soap

[gogo1]

In my first attempt at crock pot soap I used :

16oz Crisco
12oz Pomace
12oz Coconut 76 deg
2.4oz Castor Oil
2oz Aloe Vera Gel
6oz Lye
14oz water
2 Tbs powdered Coconut Milk and Benonite Clay to the oils

I thought it traced well, I thought I saw the "vaseline", then I added Lemongrass EO, Lavender EO, to part and Coconut FO, Lime Juice and Zest to the other part, put all into individual molds and let sit for 2 days.

The soap will not unmold - it makes beautiful lather but it won't get hard - I have rebatched some in the crock pot and it's still a little soft.

 

[heartsong]

hi there! believe me, i'm no authority, but since you used full water it may take a few days or up to a week for it to harden enuff to unmold...someone else here with more experience will jump in here soon...maybe next time reduce the water amount a bit?

 

[Stinkydancer]

That's a lot of water- it will take 2-3 weeks for that to get hard- there aren't any really hard oils in that. Crisco is a little hard but not like full palm. I would give it time and reformulate a recipe using a little more by way of hard oils.

 

[gogo1]

Mushy Crock

Thanks guys!!! Its been about 2 weeks i'll use as soap pudding its too soft to make a soapball!! lol
i guess i shouldve considered a water discount but i heard crockpot soap gets very thick so i didnt - truth be told I'm not sure how to calculate water discounts or superfatting

 

[heartsong]

www.soapcalc.com I use this all the time...wonderful! or google "lye calculators" brambleberry, the sage and summer bee meadows along with a lot of other vendors offer these.

when I soap CP I use a 2:1 water/lye (33%) in other words for 1 grm lye I use 2 grms water...not sure how they calculate for crockpot soap...I leave that to other experts here...would like to know myself...last batch ended in tears-LOL!

 

[Nightlilly]

I'm a newbie but I'm wondering if it could have been the lime juice? I think I read somewhere about it having an effect on the lye, am I wrong? My first batch of soap was in the crock pot and I had the opposite problem, mine hardened up really fast. I used 30% Coconut Oil, 25% GV Shortening, 30% Olive Oil and 15% Castor. My water was at 35% and superfatted at 7%. I can't remember what's in Crisco but the recipe doesn't seem far off from mine.

Nevermind, I just re-read the original post and lime juice was only added to half, so it doesn't explain why none of it hardened.

 

[new12soap]

Is it possible your scale is off? That isn't an excess of water. I am not at all crazy about using shortening in soap but others seem to be okay with it. Not sure about aloe vera gel? I have never put that in a soap. Aloe vera juice yes as part of the liquid but not gel. Even tho it is a very soft recipe it should have hardened up by now. I use full water w HP soap and it is firm enough to unmold and cut in 8-12 hours and then hardens up a LOT over the next week or so.

Are you sure you were using sodium hydroxide? NOT KOH? There is no way it should be too soft to even make a soap ball. How long did you let it cook?

Finally, if you are a relative beginner, I would really suggest keeping it simple and using NO additives or at least limiting them until you get some more experience. Gel, milk, clay, lime juice... you have a lot going on there. You may also want to make smaller batches, that way if something goes wrong you have wasted less. JM2C

 

[gogo1]

I was thinking the same thing new12soap! LOL! Can I add beeswax and rebatch I also have Jojoba wax - I would love to be able to salvage this at least for gifting.