Pocket of Oil

[soapdope33]

Had a little trouble with a batch of coffee soap that I made. This was my first time using this recipe. Everything went really smooth with the process. The trace was nice and steady, it poured well, and began to set almost immediately. For molds I used a silicone 12 bar mold and a couple of Orange juice cartons that I insulated with towels and placed in my laundry room. I should mention that at about 18 hours into the molding process the dryer, on which the molds were sitting ran for about 30 minutes.

After about 36 hrs., I cut the soap. It had a thin oily layer on top which I thought was of no consequence. When I cut the soap oil began to gush out of the center. My questions are:

1. What caused this to happen?
I have seen many different answers on forums. Overheating? Fragrance? Please as much info as you can supply

2. Can I still use this soap?
With a good chunk of the oil unsaponified is there then excessive lye in the soap?
here is the recipe:
oils: 64oz
olive oil 50% 32oz
coconut 25% 16oz
castor 5% 3.2oz
avacado 15% 9.6oz
Shea 5% 3.2oz

Lye(2% superfat) 9.085oz

Liquid:
coffee 10.56oz
half and half 10.56oz

Other:
coffee grounds(mixed at trace) 8oz
Vanilla extract 1 Tbsp
Cinnamon 3 shakes

Please help if you can! I am a total newbie and would love to not make this mistake again. thanks

 

[bodhi]

I didnt run your recipe through a calc... Without doing so, my guess is that you got a false trace. I wouldnt use it. Rebatch it.

 

[CanaDawn]

I didnt run your recipe through a calc... Without doing so, my guess is that you got a false trace. I wouldnt use it. Rebatch it.

I did and it seemed to work (although I got 0.1 more lye) but then I noticed the half and half and Im hoping someone with more experience with that will chime in.

 

[hmlove1218]

I would guess that it overheated from the sugars in the half and half, plus insulation, plus the heat generated by the dryer. If possible, you should rebatch the whole thing with the oil that gushed from inside.

If it were me, I would have prevented gel in that batch because of the excess sugars and risk of overheating.

 

[bodhi]

I missed the half and half too. I still should have held together even if it overheated. OP, Got any pics?

 

[soapdope33]

Thanks for all the info fellow soapers. I am going to retry the recipe soon and try to prevent gel. Should I refrigerate the soap for the full 24 hrs? Unfortunately I didn't save the oil that leaked out. Should I still rebatch? Will there be excessive lye in the resulting soap?
Thanks again

 

[Obsidian]

You can still rebatch but you will need to add in some kind of oil to replace what was lost, I would use OO. Once your soap is melted down, add in roughly how much oil you lost, cook it for a bit then test for zap. If it zaps, add in a couple more TBS of oil, continue until it no longer zaps.

Refrigerate your next batch for at least 12 hours, 24 to be extra careful.

 

[shunt2011]

It overheated. The addition of vanilla extract may have played a part too. I would rebatch it if you were able to keep all the oils that separated. If not you may need to throw it away. May I also recommend that since you are so new that you might want to make smaller batches until you get the hang of it. That way when you have a problem it's not such a huge batch to figure out. Your batch is larger than most of mine (few exceptions). I would stick with 2lb batches for awhile. Just a recommendation.