Next question: soft soap

[Buckscent]

Im sure all my dumb questions have been answered before and you all are gettign very annoyed But hey, I'm to lazy to look......
But what would cause a soap to be very soft after 24 hrs in the mold? I mean soft enough to roll it into a ball. Put on heating pad for about 20-30 minutes and left covered. My recipie is:

30% coconut oil
30% olive oil
30% palm oil
5% caster oil
5% rice bran oil

33% wter to lye
5% super fat

I even put 1 TBS of sodium lactate

 

[penelopejane]

Are you sure it got to trace?

Did you divide the mixture? Did you treat each portion in exactly the same way? If not what did you do to each portion?

Did you use a colour?
I find that adding even a tbsp of water to mix water or dissolve salt will make a soft soap. Admittedly I have high OO soaps but I still think it applies. I reserve liquid only use the exact amounts in the recipe or each division and I mean exact.

I CPOP in an oven turned off. I've never used a heat pad so don't know if that works a well but I'd be wrapping it in a blanket and trying that.

Did you use Camden Grey orange FO in this recipe? I can't find an orange FO only an orange EO on their website.

I've used that recipe before and it worked well. It's rock hard from day 1. It does not need SL.

 

[traderbren]

When you say "33% wter to lye", do you mean water to lye ratio, or did you use 33% lye concentration? Did you see the soap go through the gel process?

 

[Buckscent]

When you say "33% wter to lye", do you mean water to lye ratio, or did you use 33% lye concentration? Did you see the soap go through the gel process?

Yes, water to lye on my cals

Yes it did go thru gel, i looked at it when I turned the heating pad of and it was hot, I could see the top changing to a darket orange

 

[traderbren]

33% water to lye is not making sense to me. Perhaps I need more coffee, perhaps it is the wording. How much water did you use and how much lye?
When I make soap, I tick the box that says "Lye Concentration" and my default that I enter is 33%. That would be 2:1 water to lye ratio. Or 29% water as percent of oil weight.

 

[lsg]

Yes, you need to clarify that. What lye calculator are you using. I ran your recipe through Soapcalc with Water as % of Oils=33% and the results should be a hard bar. With a 33% lye solution you would use less water. How old is your lye? I have had to dump a container of lye from Essentisl Depot down the drain as it was not working in my soap.

 

[Susie]

Im sure all my dumb questions have been answered before and you all are gettign very annoyed But hey, I'm to lazy to look......
But what would cause a soap to be very soft after 24 hrs in the mold?

We may eventually (not yet, though) get annoyed at dumb questions that have been answered many times before, but troubleshooting is never a dumb question. And it helps so very many people that are lurking and will not ask the questions.

 

[Buckscent]

Sorry for the confusion.
I am using SoapCalc and the 33% is the "Water as a percentage of oil weight"
Water is 12.54
Lye is 5.45
Based on Total oil weight of 38oz

 

[BrewerGeorge]

24 hours is an awfully short time to be concerned. If it's still like that in 72, then I'd get worried.

 

[cmzaha]

I agree with BrewerGeorge. I would guess the total of OO and RBO is slowing down the solidifying of your soap and maybe your trace. If you poured at a fairly light trace it would tend to stay soft longer. RBO takes longer to harden as does OO. I would have soaped that recipe with a 35% lye concentration if not doing a lot of swirls. RBO will slow trace considerably. Soap can put patience into a different realm... LOL, I hate OO soap and I consider anything over 15% high OO. just me