Oh no..... Sad day. What do I do!!!!

[CourtneyLynn]

Here I am making a lovely two color rose soap. I am layering it and it looks amazing. It's behaving very nicely. I am feeling really good about it and I look over and OH NO I FORGOT TO A THE REST OF THE COCONUT OIL. So bummed. What do I do? I made a three pound batch. (The four pound mold I got only sadly ended up holding three pounds oh well) anywho. I forgot the add a little less then a cup to my batch (I didn't forget all of it) is the soap safe? What if I let it sit for a super long time? Is it just a goner? If so how do I re-batch it? I have never tried before.
Thank you for all your help!

 

[Genny]

Hi Courtney, I think I replied in your other post. Is the 3 lbs just oils or is it the weight of the entire batch?
8 oz is a lot to be missing, so I'd rebatch. If it's lye heavy, letting it sit for a long time won't change that.
Soapqueen has some rebatch videos, I posted the links in your other post.
But really all you have to do is take your soap (chop it up if you need to) and the missed oil and throw it in a double broiler or crock pot. I like to add about a TBSP of milk, also. Mix the soap a little and then cook for about 20-30 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Then when it kind of looks like oatmeal, scoop it into your mold.

Also, make sure you wear gloves when you're handling the soap since there's active lye in it.

Can I ask how you missed only part of your coconut oil and not all of it?

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Yes, leaving out any oil that calculated into your lye calculation is a problem and will lead to lye heaviness. Letting it sit forever will not correct itself. Is your soap already solidified? If so, then grate it down, put it into a crock pot, let it soften down and then add the Coconut Oil you forgot and continue to Hot Process it until it looks like jelly or until it no longer zaps.

 

[TeriDk]

I didn't run a book recipe through the lye calc and was advised to rebatch and add additional oil. So I did and although it was ugly, most everyone loved it after using it. Not all is lost but rebatching to add the forgotten oil is likely needed. It will be ok.:-D

 

[DWinMadison]

Here I am making a lovely two color rose soap. I am layering it and it looks amazing. It's behaving very nicely. I am feeling really good about it and I look over and OH NO I FORGOT TO A THE REST OF THE COCONUT OIL. So bummed. What do I do? I made a three pound batch. (The four pound mold I got only sadly ended up holding three pounds oh well) anywho. I forgot the add a little less then a cup to my batch (I didn't forget all of it) is the soap safe? What if I let it sit for a super long time? Is it just a goner? If so how do I re-batch it? I have never tried before.
Thank you for all your help!

I'm sorry. That sucks. I've mentioned this before, but if you have a standard recipe you like to use, I highly recommend taking a day when you are NOT making soap and pre-measuring your oils for several batches into resealable containers. There's lots of evenings I'd like to make a batch of soap, but the thought of dragging out all that greasy mess stops me. It's also one less thing to think about when you are in a creative, soap-making mood. I have found that having less clutter leads to fewer mistakes and let's me focus on the more immediate tasks of fragrance, color and molding. I know that doesn't help today. We've all been there. Sorry again.

 

[2lilboots]

Now that is a very good reason to have premeasured batches sitting on the shelf. I just drag everything downstairs when I get into a soaping frenzy mood and measure. Someone said it only takes them an hour to soap. I thought wth? It takes me several hours with measuring and melting and waiting and tweaking. I think the next time I get my oils I will melt them down, measure them out as if I was gonna make a whole bunch of batches. That would save me a world of time.

 

[dianne70]

I'm pretty sure I did the same thing with a batch a couple of weeks ago......my question is though.....I don't know what oil I missed and how much....so if I rebatch...how much oil do I add? and will I have to add more fragrance oil?

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

That's a bit tricky...there's no good way to account for oil and amounts unknown.
Is that particular soap lye heavy? (I am assuming it is if you left out oils). How big of a batch was it and what were the components?

 

[dianne70]

Hi Shawnee...this was the one I asked about in another thread where I said it was crumbly around the edges and a different texture to all my other soaps......I was pretty sure I measured everything properly...but the zapping is still occurring
Recipe was:
500 g Coconut Oil
500g Palm Oil
1000g Olive Oil
750 ml water
282g Caustic
As I said....I was almost 100% sure that I did everything right...but I was on a mission to get enough soap made for a market I have on the 10th February....and it was so hot..... that I must have done something wrong.......

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Are you sure you left an oil out? Your recipe looks right on with a 5% superfat. It may still be zapping because it wasn't completely mixed properly before pouring into the mold. That would account for some crumbly bits too. You could try rebatching and adding 100g of Olive Oil (5% of your recipe) to be try to use up any free lye (up to 13 g) that may be unused in your soap. I would start out by simply rebatching in a crock pot...stir it once in a while until it gets to a gel-ish stage, and zap test a cooled off blob. If it's zapping, add the 100 g of Olive Oil, and cook a little longer, then zap test again.

 

[dianne70]

like I said...really not sure what happened.....but the texture of it is weird too......almost like store bought soap....not at all like it should be. I used TD also.....but not enough to make it the super white colour that it turned out! really bummed because I absolutely nailed the swirls in it!! Anyway...can't dwell too much...haven't really had that many disasters in the 10 years that i have been doing this....just kills me that I can't figure out what I have done..... I will try the rebatch thing.....but thats for another day.....its raining and cool here for a change, so I'm going to make some soap Thankyou

 

[kdaniels8811]

Today is just a weird day. I was making a batch of soap from my standard recipe and I also forgot to put the olive oil in. How on earth did I miss it? Fortunately, I was reading this forum - thanks, guys!! so I warmed it back up in the microwave, added the olive oil, and stick blended again. It was just at a thick trace so all was not lost. I have never forgotten an oil before, I was distracted. I will try to make some more tomorrow and see if I can remember everything!

 

[deg195]

Does any one know...if your soap is lye heavy and you aren't sure what oil/butter you left out could you rebatch and than add a little oil or butters and instead of zap testing could you check PH? Say if you got to 9 or 10 - would that be ok? would the PH drop so rapidly?
Barb

 

[CourtneyLynn]

Hi Courtney, I think I replied in your other post. Is the 3 lbs just oils or is it the weight of the entire batch?
8 oz is a lot to be missing, so I'd rebatch. If it's lye heavy, letting it sit for a long time won't change that.
Soapqueen has some rebatch videos, I posted the links in your other post.
But really all you have to do is take your soap (chop it up if you need to) and the missed oil and throw it in a double broiler or crock pot. I like to add about a TBSP of milk, also. Mix the soap a little and then cook for about 20-30 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Then when it kind of looks like oatmeal, scoop it into your mold.

Also, make sure you wear gloves when you're handling the soap since there's active lye in it.

Can I ask how you missed only part of your coconut oil and not all of it?

Thank you for the reply. It is 3 pound oil.
I am going to rebatch... Hopefully it goes over well.
Oh i missed only some coconut oil because the glass container i microwave the oil in was too small so i had to split the oil up. I must have forgot about it in the microwave. So upsetting.

 

[CourtneyLynn]

Yes, leaving out any oil that calculated into your lye calculation is a problem and will lead to lye heaviness. Letting it sit forever will not correct itself. Is your soap already solidified? If so, then grate it down, put it into a crock pot, let it soften down and then add the Coconut Oil you forgot and continue to Hot Process it until it looks like jelly or until it no longer zaps.

Thank you so much for the advice.. I am going to do that today.

 

[CourtneyLynn]

I didn't run a book recipe through the lye calc and was advised to rebatch and add additional oil. So I did and although it was ugly, most everyone loved it after using it. Not all is lost but rebatching to add the forgotten oil is likely needed. It will be ok.:-D

Hahaha Thank you...I am going to rebatch.
I am just so sad its not going to look the way i want but practice makes perfect.
How long do i have to wait to be able to use the soap?

 

[CourtneyLynn]

I'm sorry. That sucks. I've mentioned this before, but if you have a standard recipe you like to use, I highly recommend taking a day when you are NOT making soap and pre-measuring your oils for several batches into resealable containers. There's lots of evenings I'd like to make a batch of soap, but the thought of dragging out all that greasy mess stops me. It's also one less thing to think about when you are in a creative, soap-making mood. I have found that having less clutter leads to fewer mistakes and let's me focus on the more immediate tasks of fragrance, color and molding. I know that doesn't help today. We've all been there. Sorry again.

Thank you so much for the advice. I am going to do that! That is so helpful.

 

[squigglz]

Does any one know...if your soap is lye heavy and you aren't sure what oil/butter you left out could you rebatch and than add a little oil or butters and instead of zap testing could you check PH? Say if you got to 9 or 10 - would that be ok? would the PH drop so rapidly?
Barb

A Ph of 9-10 is perfectly normal for handmade soap. I made a post here in the CP forum about Ph, but it got pushed down

And by rebatching, you're basically cooking the soap, so saponification happens then. I do HP, and 30 minutes after my mixture traces, it tests at 8-10ph after I cook it. So yeah, that could work.

 

[soap_rat]

deg195, I saved a huge mismeasured batch by doing that. (the container must be smaller than your scale. No one ever told me that. Is that common knowledge?)

I added oil bit by bit, letting it cook until the pH looked good and it stopped zapping. It took over a day. I had it in the oven and I had to add more water because it dried so much I couldn't stir in the oil. I recall the pH did drop rapidly--after a day of not budging. This was a batch with alkanet, which is green at high pH and purple at around 10, so I had the color, my pH strip and my tongue telling me the soap was now a good pH. It seems like you don't normally lick your soap, but I think to be safe with a batch like this you should. Tip: if you do not cool the glob of soap, it is very hot inside and will feel like a zap.

I then added more oil to ensure it was superfatted. I started out adding both olive oil and cocoa butter, then switched to only cocoa butter in case I ended up with a really high superfat. The soap is still great 1.5 years later. I wouldn't recommend selling such an experimental soap!