Runny batch; botched batch? I don't know what happened.

[Nobellius]

It was just a pound. I used up the last of my peanut oil and corn oil, added some grapeseed and topped it off with soybean.

if these are the only oils that you used then i would wait a little bit longer , maybe two to three days . reason is that they're all soft oils.[/QUOTE]

That makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Nobellius]

If anyone is curious, the soap finally hardened up enough for me to get it out of the mold. It's still pretty soft, though. I guess it'll just have to sit for a while.
Thanks again for everyone's input! ;D

 

[lizflowers42]

Nice swirl!

 

[Nobellius]

Nice swirl!

Thank you, Liz!

 

[judymoody]

Most everything I would say has been said already. If you used all liquid oils and didn't gel, as it appears from your photo and if you used full water, it could take a few days, even a week to firm up. The glycerin's humectant properties likely contributed as well.

Avoid colorants from craft stores. Try Brambleberry for soap safe colorants. The site is very clear about what is CP worthy.

By the way, soybean and corn oil are not good soaping oils and I'd not use peanut oil due to allergy risk. Next time, try the basic trio of coconut, palm, and olive and I'm sure your soap will set up just fine.

Swirl is very pretty, regardless of color.

 

[Nobellius]

Most everything I would say has been said already. If you used all liquid oils and didn't gel, as it appears from your photo and if you used full water, it could take a few days, even a week to firm up. The glycerin's humectant properties likely contributed as well.

Avoid colorants from craft stores. Try Brambleberry for soap safe colorants. The site is very clear about what is CP worthy.

By the way, soybean and corn oil are not good soaping oils and I'd not use peanut oil due to allergy risk. Next time, try the basic trio of coconut, palm, and olive and I'm sure your soap will set up just fine.

Swirl is very pretty, regardless of color.

haha I used what I had. I think from now on I'm going to stick to a Coconut, Castor, and Olive blend.
I decided to use peanut oil because.. well, I'll tell you how my brain works. More expensive => Better oil => Better soap => People think I'm awesome. Hahaha oh well. Mistakes keep a person busy
Anyway, I was trying to not have to order anything online and just get everything locally, but I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet on that one. No, I'm not afraid of online transaction. No, I'm not overly prudent on shipping charges. I'm just big on community
Thank you for you input and hopefully I'll be putting successful, awesome bars up in the future

 

[MaitriBB]

Don't feel bad, I bought some craft store soap colorant when I was just starting out. I bet most of us have made that error at some point

 

[Nobellius]

I think I'm just gonna use them and embrace the surprise factor. Haha life is like a craft store colorant; you never know whatcher gonna get. ^^

 

[Marilyna]

By the way, soybean and corn oil are not good soaping oils and I'd not use peanut oil due to allergy risk. Next time, try the basic trio of coconut, palm, and olive and I'm sure your soap will set up just fine.

Swirl is very pretty, regardless of color.

I do use soybean very successfully in my soap, so I don't think that's a hard and fast rule. It depends on the rest of your oils.

 

[Marilyna]

haha I used what I had. I think from now on I'm going to stick to a Coconut, Castor, and Olive blend.
I decided to use peanut oil because.. well, I'll tell you how my brain works. More expensive => Better oil => Better soap => People think I'm awesome. Hahaha oh well. Mistakes keep a person busy
Anyway, I was trying to not have to order anything online and just get everything locally, but I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet on that one. No, I'm not afraid of online transaction. No, I'm not overly prudent on shipping charges. I'm just big on community
Thank you for you input and hopefully I'll be putting successful, awesome bars up in the future

You can make a nice "grocery store" soap with Coconut, olive, and castor, like you mentioned. You can also use soybean, canola, lard, and meat-based shortening. So, you don't have to go online, but it's hard to find good enough prices on fragrance & essential oils without online shopping.

 

[Marilyna]

I think I'm just gonna use them and embrace the surprise factor. Haha life is like a craft store colorant; you never know whatcher gonna get. ^^

The yellow, orange, red, and blue should be just fine. Except the blue should turn pink to purple. These colorants are the same thing as soap colorants. Nothing wrong with them, in my opinion. Except the green...

 

[Nobellius]

The yellow, orange, red, and blue should be just fine. Except the blue should turn pink to purple. These colorants are the same thing as soap colorants. Nothing wrong with them, in my opinion. Except the green...

My very first batch was crisco with potassium. I used green food dye and it turned deep purple. And it's still purple. Lol pretty cool looking!

 

[Marilyna]

I'd like to see a picture of that one! I got a salmon-reddish color when I tested several green food colors.

 

[Nobellius]

Well, it's in a black pot on my stove, at the moment. I'm not sure a picture would turn out very well. I'm just now getting to the process of diluting it since I just recently learned how to dilute it.

 

[Desert Karen]

Good morning soapers!
Yesterday afternoon I whipped up a batch of Chai Lime soap. (weird, I know. But I really wanted to try chai and I also really wanted to use the lime. Incidentally, I was also low on oils and didn't really want to go to the store, so rather than make two tiny batches, I just did both at the same time.)
I took two chai tea and bags steeped them in about 1/4 cup of hot water, added cold water to meet the recipe (from SoapCalc) and mixed in my lye. That went fine. I heated up my oils, added the lye chai, and when the trace was just barely visible I poured some into a separate contained to mix in the color (green - Something Fabulous brand soap dye from Hobby Lobby), the Lime EO (I know about its phototoxicity, it's ok), and .5 oz of vegetable glycerin. Finished them both up to full trace with the stick blender (individually) and poured them into the mold. A few hours later I went to check it and the green had almost completely faded and it was still pretty runny. Thicker, but not a block of soap. Before work I checked it again: The green was barely noticeable and still runny. Now I am home from work and the green is a light mocha color and it's still runny.
I don't know what happened. I am positive I used sodium and not potassium. Reason being my Na is beads and my K is flakes. Though my measurements were in ounces not grams, they're accurate within .01 ounces. I used all fresh oils. I mean, it traced, I don't understand why I have s'not soap instead of bar soap. I wonder if chai isn't a good substitute for water, but it seems others have done it successfully.
Does anyone have any idea what may have caused this, and is there anything I can do to save it?

See attachments.
Thank you in advance! Hope everyone is having a good Friday!

I've used chai tea in a recent soap, along with peach tea and it turned my natural soap color to a medium brown, I knew this was going to happen so I didn't stress. I use Sodium Lactate or palm kernal flakes to help harden my soaps. I just unmolded my chocolate sopa, and it came out just fie. My citrus soap remains in it's mold. It's still to soft even though the same recipe was used for both soaps. It is the additives that were different as I used coco powder to the chocolate soap.

 

[Nobellius]

I've used chai tea in a recent soap, along with peach tea and it turned my natural soap color to a medium brown, I knew this was going to happen so I didn't stress. I use Sodium Lactate or palm kernal flakes to help harden my soaps. I just unmolded my chocolate sopa, and it came out just fie. My citrus soap remains in it's mold. It's still to soft even though the same recipe was used for both soaps. It is the additives that were different as I used coco powder to the chocolate soap.

Did you use actual chai tea or use chai tea scents? I guess there is a chai tea FO out there somewhere lol