Oatmeal soap help

loveit_latherit · May 15, 2010

Hello all and thanks in advance for your reading this..

I made oatmeal soap and used this recipe because I loved the resuls with the clay and have added apricot scrub to it too:
Oily skin/acne soap Recipe
Summary:

Soap for acne or oily prone skin

Ingredients:

Makes 2 lbs.
6 oz distilled water
6 oz aloe vera gel
2 oz castor oil
4 oz cocoa butter
4 oz coconut oil
12 oz olive oil
5 oz palm oil
5 oz palm kernal flakes
4.4 oz lye
2.5 Tablespoons bentonite clay or other drawing clays (OMITTED THIS)
1 oz essential oil/blend

OK - So I figured why not add oatmeal instead? Pft! No big deal right , OK well I added 1 cup oatmeal to the oilve oil and castor. Blended. Then added my melted oils - blended - EO - blended and then my lye - never got a nice trace.

Issue 1: Did a batch with 2oz FO - COMPLETELY seperated. Big gel blob floated to top - So I would like some advice on rebatching the solid block in th middle. Any suggestions? Can I do it captain??
Issue 2: Did 2 more batches with EOs 1- 1.5 oz and they look ok except for very oily top and bottom and sides. Wiped down and was wondering if you think this wil cure after a few months?

What is the issue do you think? Too much oatmeal?? Should I have increased Lye? My other soaps with this recepie are magnificent - minus the oatmeal!! Is there a trick to using oatmeal? This was 'old fashioned oats' not instant that I ran through the chopper and was more powdered because I personnaly don't care for the scraping that oatmeal does to my skin when not chopped up.

So - who's up for the challenge? I really want to make a nice bar with only veg oils ...

Thanks everyone! :?

maryannm · May 15, 2010

Based on the little bit that I do know - I think that the oatmeal should be blended in at trace - and that it was way too much based on your total oil amount. For a 60 oz batch, my instructor put in about 1/4 cup (if memory serves). My first batch was honey & oatmeal and both additives went it at trace - it came out great.

gekko62 · May 15, 2010

Dunno about the rest of it but thats one heck of a lot of oatmeal.I do 1 tabs ppo,whole rolled oats cos I find the finer the grind the scratchier actually.Bigger bits are scrubby not scratchy.Added at med/heavy trace so they don't all sink to the bottom.

loveit_latherit · May 16, 2010

Thank you maryannm & gekko62
Do you have the recipe you used - I'd like to try a proven one. I will do as you suggested - reduce the oatmeal. I'd love to try Oatmeal & honey.

Any suggestions on rebatching anyone?

Update - the ones that come our oily that I wiped down that contained the EOs are starting to look better - but the one I made with FO is still rather soft on top - I'll see after a few days. Have them curing with a space heater in the basement :?

Thank you so much for your help!!

IrishLass · May 16, 2010

I completely agree with maryannm and gekko62- that's a lot of oatmeal! :shock: But that's the fun and adventure of soaping, we learn as we go.

I use 1 tbsp. of baby oatmeal per pound of oils in my oatmeal, goat milk and honey soap. I like the baby oats because they are in a flaked form and not at all scratchy in my soap. The brand that I use is Earth's Best Organic Whole Grain Oatmeal for babies. I buy it at my health food store. The ingredients are: Organic whole oat flour, organic rolled oats, vitamin E, amylase (an enzyme), and electrolytic iron. I add it at trace, right before I pour into my mold. It's great stuff if you like soothing oats as opposed to scrubby or scratchy oats.

I'm big on trying to save botched batches if at all possible, but I don't know that I'd try rebatching the batch you made with the cup of oats. That's a lot of oats. It might be more trouble than its worth to try to save it. You can try it, for sure, but if it were me, I would call it a loss and start over.

To make an oatmeal soap, you can actually use any soap recipe that you like, the only difference being that you add 1 tbsp. of the oats of your choice at trace.

IrishLass

Soapmaker Man · May 16, 2010

I use the same oats as you do, IrishLass. I buy mine at my local Wal-Mart Supercenter. They are located in the dry baby food area. I like making oat-milk out of these also.

Paul :wink: