possible sieze...?

[phpworm]

So I was trying my first batch of whipped soap and got a little anxious. Rather than pouring the lye solution in slowly, I just kinda poured it all in and not long after it thickened up real quick to like a dry mud..

I did the only thing I could think of to save it was splashing in some more distilled water to wet it back up, and continued mixing it the best I could.

Finally (wearing safety gloves) I more or less hand-packed it into my mold. Still thick and pretty dry, but just moist enough to cram it in there. I could see little spots where my colored powder didn't mix, but I knew I couldn't mix it any better and I had already made a complete mess of my kitchen trying to move fast.

What are your thoughts? I don't think whipped soap goes through saponification like normal CP soap, so it doesn't really have anything to "do" other than harden, right? And I know in re-batches you can add extra water, so I don't think the extra water I put in there will cause a problem... Right?

*keeping fingers crossed*

 

[manydogs]

How did your soap come out? I'd never heard of whipped soap until I read your post so I did some internet searching and found Nizzy's site and the David Fisher tutorial on About.com. http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/coldp ... edsoap.htm I guess whipped soap is yet another process I have to try. Hope it went well and perhaps you can post some photos.

 

[MagiaDellaLuna]

What are your thoughts? I don't think whipped soap goes through saponification like normal CP soap, so it doesn't really have anything to "do" other than harden, right? And I know in re-batches you can add extra water, so I don't think the extra water I put in there will cause a problem... Right?

*keeping fingers crossed*

It absolutely does go through saponification, otherwise you would not have soap at the end of the process.

What % of hard oils did you use ?
Did you add any accelerating FO's ?

My whipped soap thickens quite fast when I use Oakmoss, Cinnamon or Clove. Other than those EO's it is always very easy to handle even with 80 % hard oils and I add my lye all at once too.

I use 380 ml water to 1010g total oil. Perhaps you discounted the water.

 

[holly99]

This sounds like my most recent RTCP batch. My temperatures were not right. I put some melted hard oils (PKO and beeswax) in with my liquid oils and then just put the palm oil in too. Mixed together it resembled a pudding. I was going to do the heat transfer method but ended up letting my lye cool too much to melt the solid oils. It turned out to be like thick cookie dough. I added more water and tried to get it smoother but I just couldn't. Ended up putting it in the mold anyway. I ignored the naughty batch but just cut it in the last week. It's grainy buts seems ok otherwise. I think I had a contributing accelerating FO as well.

I think the best way is to heat all the oils together and let them cool to room temp with room temp lye or follow the directions like on Nizzy's site where you use a hand mixer not a stick blender and and whip the solid oils before you add the liquid oils.

 

[phpworm]

I'm still not sure what happened the first time.. It did turn out okay but it's full of white spots where the color didn't have time to mix. I could get away with saying I did that on purpose though

Anyway, I've since made 3 PERFECT whipped soap batches by slowly pouring the lye (2 tblspns at a time) and keeping my additives down to a minimum.

It really is an interesting soap. It feels light and floats, and you can press your finger into it and it bounces back like a sponge. Kind of hard to describe, I think the best word to use is "interesting."

 

[MagiaDellaLuna]

It really is an interesting soap. It feels light and floats, and you can press your finger into it and it bounces back like a sponge. Kind of hard to describe, I think the best word to use is "interesting."

Are all your whipped soaps like that, or only that first batch ?

I get extremely hard bars after a 4 week cure and they last a long time too, but I always add sugar to my lye. Never had one come out spongy even though they do float.

 

[phpworm]

Are all your whipped soaps like that, or only that first batch ?

The first batch that's been curing close to a month is like that, I mean it's still very solid, but if I press my thumb in hard enough I can feel it spring/bounce back. I don't mean to imply that it's soft. That batch was about 80% hard oils. My other 2 whipped batches which are still drying are 100% hard oils and I've yet to play with them (just made those this past weekend).

 

[MagiaDellaLuna]

The first batch that's been curing close to a month is like that, I mean it's still very solid, but if I press my thumb in hard enough I can feel it spring/bounce back. I don't mean to imply that it's soft. That batch was about 80% hard oils. My other 2 whipped batches which are still drying are 100% hard oils and I've yet to play with them (just made those this past weekend).

That is probably the result of that extra water which you added. Given a long enough cure it may well harden up.

I have recently started adding my colour and EO's to the whipped oils before I add the lye and find that I get a more even distribution and no white spots at all. The only EO's which are a bit problematic are the Oakmoss, Cinnamon and Clove even used in small amounts.

 

[phpworm]

That is probably the result of that extra water which you added.

No, the extra water I added was to the original batch that started to sieze up on me. The spunginess exists in both the batch I tried to save (with extra water) and the batch that immediately followed which I made with no problems. I made it sound like I've only made 3 batches of whipped soap when I've actually made 4, but the first I don't really count as a "successful" batch - sorry. I expect the spunginess will exist in my latest 2 batches as well, which in my mind would make sense considering the soap is full of tiny air-bubbles.

You can't give your soap a nice firm press with your thumb and feel a spring?

 

[MagiaDellaLuna]

You can't give your soap a nice firm press with your
thumb and feel a spring? Not even when it's wet?

Nope, not even a smidge of a spring. It is hard as rock, and I use 80 % hard oils. I do however add 60 g of sugar to my lye for the total 1010 g oils. That may be the reason the soap is so hard. I have even had customers remark that they were surprised at how long the soap lasted compared to other handmade soap they had tried.

 

[phpworm]

That's weird.. I put sugar in all of my batches as well, about 1 tablespoon per lb of oil..

 

[MagiaDellaLuna]

That's weird.. I put sugar in all of my batches as well, about 1 tablespoon per lb of oil..

I am using roughly double that amount of sugar. How long before you unmold your logs, and have you ever noticed whether they heat up. Not typical gel, but get pretty hot in the mold.

My logs always get hot and are ready for unmolding within 12 hours.

 

[phpworm]

I know it'll be hard enough to cut after 12-24 hours, so I just leave it alone until that time has passed.. I don't think my mold has ever felt hot but then it's 3/4 inch thick..? I don't know, I guess I never really pay attention to the heat or gel stage.

The only other possibility I can think of is that those two springy batches had a good amount of ground whole grain oats.. Maybe that being in the mix caused some soft gaps in the soap. My newest 2 batches of 100% hard oils are oat free, so we'll just see.