On the drawing board

[John Harris]

The morning after

11 hours later and I thought I would lift the cover and have a peek. I lightly touched the surface. While the very top had developed a kind of soap membrane, the soap itself was extremely soft - jiggly, even. It did go through a gel phase as the mold was quite hot last night.

I guess I'll have to wait another 24 - 48 hours to allow it to set. But, as we all know, the waiting is maddening.

@ResolvableOwl As Ford says, yes, it is an enameled steel pot.

 

[John Harris]

I think my ITP is in trouble. Remember how I told you that a soap "membrane" formed on top of the slab of soap. Well now I am noticing that oil (fragrance, perhaps) is oozing up through the membrane to the surface.
I am not going to cut it yet. I think it is still too soft (after 48 hours).
I had no trouble with making the soap. What could be happening? Do you think that if I cut it and let it cure for six months or so, things will dry up and harden even?

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Is it anything similar to this? misbehaving bergamot!

 

[John Harris]

Well, I cut the ITP project today Below are some pictures. Comments at the bottom.

Some Comments:

Pros:
The name of the soap (and the FO) is Blueberry. I have to say that, at least in person, this really looks like a soap you'd want to call Blueberry!
The accent colors are satisfactory - light and deep blues that were dribbled on the top..

Cons:
The bars are really oily! I can't imagine why. The soapmaking session seemed to go perfectly.
The bars are also rather soft for having cured for 72 hours. These will have to sit a lot longer that the traditional 4-6 weeks.
The pot color was not a deep enough blue.
The accent light blue doesn't stand out enough from the pot color.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Wow! Give them the time they need, and judge them at earliest one week in. Oils reabsorbing is a thing, all is not lost (still worth thinking what could be the reason – overestimated lye purity?)

I'm really happy with the background colour! When I saw the pot, I was unsure about the colour contrast between the azure of the light accent colour and the turquoise/teal of the base, it didn't look right for my eyes. But now it seems like the base has gelled into a slight translucency, and this makes the opaque accents really pop out and no longer be “dissonant” to the bulk.

Does the whole surface have these blister-like pattern (are these the oil drops?)? It looks a bit like water damage – have you done something to it? (spritzing with rubbing alcohol, covering…) Be glad that it didn't turn into soda ash!

 

[John Harris]

Does the whole surface have these blister-like pattern (are these the oil drops?)? It looks a bit like water damage – have you done something to it? (spritzing with rubbing alcohol, covering…) Be glad that it didn't turn into soda ash!

I don't know what those little bubbles could be. The only thing I've done to it is wipe up oil with tissues. I am a good soapmaker, really I am! LOL. It's just this coloring stuff that is new to me.
It was a humid day. The lye was at room temperature an the oils were around 112 Fahrenheit. It did go into gel phase. I'm tempted to try that recipe again, just to see what will happen.

 

[TennisGirl]

If it weren't just on the tops, I'd guess from the pics that the FO separated and riced a bit. But since it is just the tops, based on what you shared, I'm leaning towards condensation drops, assuming you covered it and there was enough warmth and humidity for condensation to drip off the covering onto the soap tops. I've only had that happen when humidity was pretty high. Dunno. Colors and swirls look great to me.

 

[John Harris]

If it weren't just on the tops, I'd guess from the pics that the FO separated and riced a bit. But since it is just the tops, based on what you shared, I'm leaning towards condensation drops, assuming you covered it and there was enough warmth and humidity for condensation to drip off the covering onto the soap tops. I've only had that happen when humidity was pretty high. Dunno. Colors and swirls look great to me.

It's not just on the tops, it's all over and it does look and smell like the FO separated. Why would that be?

Right now, I have moved the bars into my heavy duty soap drying tower. A combination of these two things (below) (with the fan laying flat on the silverware rack)

 

[Zing]

Great job there! I really like the colors, truly.

I'm not an FO guy but I have had EOs pool at the top when I soap too cool -- sounds like you soaped hot tho'.

Just keep watching it. I had some EOs act strange and ugly -- and over several days it got reabsorbed and became what I had originally planned.

 

[TennisGirl]

FOs will do that. They seem so sweet in the bottle, but add them to your batter and they rice, separate, heat up. They like one soap recipe but throw fits in another. They behave one day and have tantrums the next. Like toddlers and teenagers, fickle creatures who cannot be trusted. Keeping good notes can help you predict what might happen, but any given day...

 

[John Harris]

Hmmm... I may have gotten to the bottom of the oily-ness problem. I put in more than double the fragrance oil. I should have added half a cup, but instead put in a cup and a quarter. That would explain why the bars were oozing oil, I would think, and the oil had a strong smell of the fragrance.

 

[dibbles]

That was likely your problem. But now I have to ask, why do you not weigh your fragrance oil? All FOs aren't safe at the same usage rate, and a soap.calculator will help you determine the correct percentage by weight.

 

[Carly B]

Hmmm... I may have gotten to the bottom of the oily-ness problem. I put in more than double the fragrance oil. I should have added half a cup, but instead put in a cup and a quarter. That would explain why the bars were oozing oil, I would think, and the oil had a strong smell of the fragrance.

Ack! How big is your batch?

 

[John Harris]

Ack! How big is your batch?

This batch size was 6 pounds.

 

[KiwiMoose]

This batch size was 6 pounds.

Then you should have been using in the vicinity of 90 -120g FO depending on the FO safety guidelines. And as @dibbles stated - it should have been weighed. I doubt it would have been more than 3/4 cup