Rookie mistake - help requested

[BlackDog]

Hey everybody,

It's been a while since I made soap and haven't been around much. I'm getting low so I was making a big batch of my go-to recipe tonight and did a boo-boo.

Here's the recipe:

50% lard (38 oz)
28% OO (21.28 oz)
17% CO (12.92 oz)
5% Castor (3.8 oz)

34% lye concentration, 5% SF.

Here's what happened - I was following my usual process, which is to melt the lard and CO together, then add OO and Castor to help cool it, then add the lye solution.

BUT I somehow wasn't focusing and flip-flopped the OO and CO percentages, realizing it right before I added the Castor oil. So now on my counter I have 38 oz lard, 12.92 oz OO, and 21.28 oz CO all mixed up and ready to go, with 20.47 oz water and 10.55 oz lye mixed up as well.

Nearly 30% CO is way too much for my dry-ass dragon hide. Math nerds, what's the easiest way to fix this so the soap doesn't peel my skin off? I need it to be under 20% CO. I'd rather pour a little of this oil mix out and waste a bit of oil than have several pounds of soap that I can't use because it dries me out.

 

[Kittish]

To me, the easiest solution is going to be recalculate how much other oils, water and lye you need to add to bring the total CO % down where you want it, and wind up with a larger batch of soap than you intended. If you've got the mold space to do it that way, it's what I'd suggest before you look at removing anything.

 

[BlackDog]

I thought about that too and don't think I have enough extra castor oil to get me there....

 

[dibbles]

Find out how much castor you have, and make up the rest with OO or lard. I've made soap many times with only 2-3% castor oil when I want lots of working time, and I think it is one of the few that you can still see a benefit from under 5%.

 

[DeeAnna]

Okay, so to recap -- you now have this sitting on your counter --

CO ... 21.3 oz ... 29.5%
Lard ... 38 oz ... 52.6%
OO ... 12.9 oz ... 17.9%
Total ... 72.2 oz

are all mixed together.

If you measure out a total of 43.7 oz of this mix, you will have in this portion of the mix --

CO ... 12.9 oz ... 29.5%
Lard ... 23.0 oz ... 52.6%
OO ... 7.8 oz ... 17.9%
Total ... 43.7 oz

Set the rest aside for another day. This 43.7 oz portion contains the CO weight you wanted in your original recipe. Now add more lard and OO to this portion to bring their weights back to the original recipe weights --

Lard = 38 - 23 = 15 oz to add
OO = 21.28 - 7.8 = 13.48 oz to add

Final mix --

CO ... 12.9 oz
Lard ... 38 oz
OO ... 21.28 oz
Total ... 72.18 oz (probably a little rounding error on my part)

That should bring the weights of all 3 fats to be correct for the CO, Lard, and OO in your original recipe. Hopefully you have enough lard and OO to do this?

 

[Susie]

Have been there, have done that. Had to do what DeeAnna suggested...more than once. Don't feel bad.

 

[BlackDog]

Thank you! This board is so helpful. If I've learned a lesson tonight it's to not go so long between batches - forget what I'm doing! Even as I was portioning out the coconut I was thinking to myself, sheesh, am I not done with the coconut yet? *face palm*

 

[Soapprentice]

It’s a very common mishap... I made my fav body butter the other day and my mind was somewhere else n added 50% mango butter when my recipe calls for 5 and didn’t even realise it till everything melted...

 

[shunt2011]

I've done it myself....the wonderful people on this board helped me too. Hopefully it worked out for you.

 

[BlackDog]

Update:

The soap was saved! Just cut.

I was so excited to use this fragrance - BB Pineapple Papaya. I got a sample a while back, used it in a sugar scrub and fell in major love with it, so I ordered a bigger bottle. It accelerated a bit so I did the layers, and it says it discolors to a light tan but in my experience BBs oils don't discolor as much as they say they will a lot of times. So hopefully my colors stay bright. Thanks again for saving my suds!

 

[dibbles]

Glad it worked out for you. They look perfect!