Rebatch or Wait?

[Jackie H]

I made a batch of soap on Wednesday (only my 2nd ever) and I messed up I measured my water wrong and ended up adding probably 4 times what the recipe called for. That scale will be going in the garbage! Thankfully I measured the lye and my oils and butters with a different scale so I’m confident those measurements are accurate. Anyway, we’re approaching the 72 hr mark and I have little beads of oil on top of half my soap. It could be essential oils or it could be the olive oil. The soap is soft and sticky and I’m afraid to unmold it. My conundrum is if I let the water evaporate it will take forever to cure and I’ll probably have tiny bars (I was only expecting 6 bars so I knew something was off right away) but if I rebatch it my understanding is I’ll lose some of the essential oils? Should I wait longer and see what happens or just rebatch it and be done with it? Thanks in advance!
Recipe:
175g water (I think I added 4 times that because of a wonky scale)
96g sodium hydroxide
70g butters (I used cocoa and a little mango)
140g coconut oil
490 g olive oil
20g EO (I used lavender, geranium and clary sage)
Oh! Also, when I was stick blending I got a layer of foam on top and it took about 15 mins of pulsing with the stick blender to come to a VERY light trace. This was a stressful batch

 

[Ekuzo]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

The soap looks good - I have the same molds and the details turn up pretty!

If you are sure that only the water measuring was off and everything else is fine - I would keep it and let it be like this. With high % liquid oils and much more water than needed it would take much longer to firm up and lose most of the water, but it will be fine - give it 6 months or so, maybe more if it doesn't feel right. And you would need to wait before unmolding, something like 2 weeks, or even more - why don't you keep it somewhere really hot or give it some oven treatment (like get the oven to 70 C, put the soap inside and turn it off, keep it there overnight) so you speed up the process of losing water?

To me, rebatching will be more work, more trouble and you have a point about losing some of the scent and needing to compensate for it. So I would let the soap be and wait it out, but that's just me.

Nice green color - did you add something for it or is that only the OO?

Edit: I've never made soap with that much water and mine is just a theoretical suggestion. Some people may say that the batter won't set properly if the liquid is too much, so I may be wrong. Let's wait and see what else gets suggested, I'm curious as well

 

[Jackie H]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

The soap looks good - I have the same molds and the details turn up pretty!

If you are sure that only the water measuring was off and everything else is fine - I would keep it and let it be like this. With high % liquid oils and much more water than needed it would take much longer to firm up and lose most of the water, but it will be fine - give it 6 months or so, maybe more if it doesn't feel right. And you would need to wait before unmolding, something like 2 weeks, or even more - why don't you keep it somewhere really hot or give it some oven treatment (like get the oven to 70 C, put the soap inside and turn it off, keep it there overnight) so you speed up the process of losing water?

To me, rebatching will be more work, more trouble and you have a point about losing some of the scent and needing to compensate for it. So I would let the soap be and wait it out, but that's just me.

Nice green color - did you add something for it or is that only the OO?

Edit: I've never made soap with that much water and mine is just a theoretical suggestion. Some people may say that the batter won't set properly if the liquid is too much, so I may be wrong. Let's wait and see what else gets suggested, I'm curious as well

Thanks so much for the suggestion! That’s definitely easier than rebatching it so I’ll give it a try! The bars that are just 3 in the mold turned white overnight and one of the round ones the edges are just starting to turn white so something is still happening Green is just the OO!

 

[AliOop]

You can also cover the molds on a heating pad set to low, to encourage faster saponification and some evaporation of the extra water.

 

[Ekuzo]

Let me guess - the mold with the 3 bars was poured last

I only use pomace OO and it never gives that color - it's a shame the soap won't keep it

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

I don’t mind the extra work as long as it ensures that the soap comes out right, so I would’ve tossed into the pot to finish as a hot process soap ASAP. I found it works especially well to do an oven hot process method because it heats all of the soap evenly and helps evaporate the extra water. There is info here in this forum on doing oven hot process for soap, @Jackie H. I don’t bother grating the soap for oven hot process with newly made soap. I cut fresh soap into 1 inch chunks and toss it all into the pot. Easy!

 

[Jackie H]

I don’t mind the extra work as long as it ensures that the soap comes out right, so I would’ve tossed into the pot to finish as a hot process soap ASAP. I found it works especially well to do an oven hot process method because it heats all of the soap evenly and helps evaporate the extra water. There is info here in this forum on doing oven hot process for soap, @Jackie H. I don’t bother grating the soap for oven hot process with newly made soap. I cut fresh soap into 1 inch chunks and toss it all into the pot. Easy!

Thanks for the info! Unfortunately it took me 3 days to realize what I did wrong or else I would’ve hot processed it I’ll give what @Ekuzo suggested a shot and then if that doesn’t work I’ll try the oven hot process method. I had never heard of that method, thanks for sharing!

 

[Jackie H]

Let me guess - the mold with the 3 bars was poured last

I only use pomace OO and it never gives that color - it's a shame the soap won't keep it

How did you guess?

 

[Jackie H]

You can also cover the molds on a heating pad set to low, to encourage faster saponification and some evaporation of the extra water.

Awesome! Thanks for the suggestion! I wonder if my seed starting mat would be warm enough

 

[Ekuzo]

I don’t mind the extra work as long as it ensures that the soap comes out right, so I would’ve tossed into the pot to finish as a hot process soap ASAP. I found it works especially well to do an oven hot process method because it heats all of the soap evenly and helps evaporate the extra water. There is info here in this forum on doing oven hot process for soap, @Jackie H. I don’t bother grating the soap for oven hot process with newly made soap. I cut fresh soap into 1 inch chunks and toss it all into the pot. Easy!

Sounds like a good idea to me, it's like basically "baking" the soap to get rid of the extra water, I vote for using the oven because it's not that much hassle

How did you guess?

6th sense

 

[Ekuzo]

Awesome! Thanks for the suggestion! I wonder if my seed starting mat would be warm enough

You can check that. If you don't have a thermometer to use, you can just touch it. If it's hot to your hand but not to the point that you can't bear it, it's probably ok. I have 3 different cheap heating mats from Aliexpress and neither of them gets hotter than 50-55 C. If I want to use them for soap (I haven't yet) I'll just set them to the highest setting and it should be enough

 

[missbipbip]

I am with Scentimentally....I would throw it right in a crock pot and hot process it, especially if you know it was too much water. Yes, you will lose most of the scent, but I am not patient enough to let it sit and sit. The newer the soap is, the more smoothly it will hot process. Whatever you decide, I hope the soap turns out well for you, and don't let your first batches discourage you. I remember, in the beginning, I wasn't emulsifying as well as I needed to, and a few loaves turned out an oily, ammonia smelling mess!! I was ready to throw my hands up. I have been soaping a few years now, and I still feel like throwing my hands up sometimes...lol. You will learn from every mistake and get better. And then sometimes, you will have one turn out better than you ever expected, and it will remind you that you really love it..successes and failures alike.

 

[AliOop]

Awesome! Thanks for the suggestion! I wonder if my seed starting mat would be warm enough

Yes, that will work.

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

Sounds like a good idea to me, it's like basically "baking" the soap to get rid of the extra water, I vote for using the oven because it's not that much hassle

Losing the extra water is not the only benefit of hot processing right away @Ekuzo. The bigger benefit is that the entire batch of soap that already shows some signs of separation could be homogenized.

 

[Ekuzo]

Losing the extra water is not the only benefit of hot processing right away @Ekuzo. The bigger benefit is that the entire batch of soap that already shows some signs of separation could be homogenized.

Yeah, but now it's been 96 hours since the soap was made, and if there was actual separation, just heating won't save it. It would need to be grated and rebatched properly. But if she only needs to lose water, heating is fine.

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

Yeah, but now it's been 96 hours since the soap was made, and if there was actual separation, just heating won't save it. It would need to be grated and rebatched properly. But if she only needs to lose water, heating is fine.

Please reread my post @Ekuzo, because with fresh soap you can HP/rebatch without grating the soap. Cutting it into 1” chunks works for me, which is great because I’m all about saving work when it isn’t necessary. And @Jackie H stated in her original post that after 72 hours she had oil droplets on top of the soap. An oven hot process would fix her soap issues.

 

[Jackie H]

So I tried the preheating the oven, turning it off, leaving the soap in overnight method. It didn’t make much of a difference. Then I moved on to the crockpot method which turned out to be good, when I took the bars out of the mold there was a bunch of water/oil underneath the bars. Once the water was cooked off (about an hour) I tested the ph and it was about a 12 so I added more oil, stirred, cooked and tested again. I kept adding oil and mixing, probably added 3/4 cup of oil, a mix of coconut and olive oil. Eventually I ran out of time and had to get ready to leave so I turned the crockpot off. I came back in 20 mins to mix it one more time and lo and behold it was hardening and thickening! I tested the ph and it was 10 so I scooped it into my molds quick and stuck them in the fridge for an hour since that’s what the directions in that oven rebatch post said to do. I took it out an hour later (as the instructions say) and it was so soft that just touching the top got a dollop of soap on my finger. I googled how long hot process soap takes to harden and the consensus was 24 hrs so I have it on the counter top for the past 2 hrs. I needed to move the big log mold and the top stayed intact but anything below the surface looks liquid and was sloshing around (I didn’t have a loaf style soap mold so I’m using a glass bread loaf lined with parchment paper so I can see inside). It’s way softer now than when it came out of the crockpot. I don’t know what’s going on

 

[Jackie H]

I am with Scentimentally....I would throw it right in a crock pot and hot process it, especially if you know it was too much water. Yes, you will lose most of the scent, but I am not patient enough to let it sit and sit. The newer the soap is, the more smoothly it will hot process. Whatever you decide, I hope the soap turns out well for you, and don't let your first batches discourage you. I remember, in the beginning, I wasn't emulsifying as well as I needed to, and a few loaves turned out an oily, ammonia smelling mess!! I was ready to throw my hands up. I have been soaping a few years now, and I still feel like throwing my hands up sometimes...lol. You will learn from every mistake and get better. And then sometimes, you will have one turn out better than you ever expected, and it will remind you that you really love it..successes and failures alike.

Thank you for the pep talk, I needed it!

 

[AliOop]

Once the water was cooked off (about an hour) I tested the ph and it was about a 12 so I added more oil, stirred, cooked and tested again. I kept adding oil and mixing, probably added 3/4 cup of oil, a mix of coconut and olive oil.

Oh no! The pH of soap does not tell you whether there is any extra lye in it, and fresh soap will almost always have a fairly high pH. Adding more oil was completely unnecesary and just made for a very high superfat - and very soft soap, as you found out.

Next time, just hot process it as-is, without extra oil, and don't worry about the pH. Also, if you have questions, reach out to us before adding more stuff to your soap. We can help you avoid those kinds of mistakes.

I'm sorry this second batch has been so stressful for you, and I do hope you will try again!

 

[Jackie H]

Oh no! The pH of soap does not tell you whether there is any extra lye in it, and fresh soap will almost always have a fairly high pH. Adding more oil was completely unnecesary and just made for a very high superfat - and very soft soap, as you found out.

Next time, just hot process it as-is, without extra oil, and don't worry about the pH. Also, if you have questions, reach out to us before adding more stuff to your soap. We can help you avoid those kinds of mistakes.

I'm sorry this second batch has been so stressful for you, and I do hope you will try again!

lesson learned so along those lines…all the YouTubers I have been watching on soap making use ph strips to test, but then researching today I learned ph testing isn’t really accurate. So how do you know when your soap is safe to use/not lye heavy?