Seperation?? Should I remelt?

[Cristy]

Hi all...I think that I messed a batch of soap up tonight, but I'm not sure.

I made up a batch of basic soap, poured it into my pvc molds and covered it up with towels. When I took a peek an hour later I saw big, deep cracks on the surface and the substance inside looks kind of jellyish and it has kind of oozed out of the cracks.

Is this a seperation?

I found this recipe on a good website but didn't check a lye calculator, so my bad....it looks like it's a little lye heavy.

28oz water
12oz lye
39oz olive oil
24oz coconut oil
1tsp paprika for color
...I also meant to ad 1oz fragrance but forgot it! :?

Anyways, should I consider remelting this tomorrow if it's funny when I unmold it, which I suspect it will be?? If I do should I add in some additional oils?? It looks like if I were to ad 2 oz's of palm oil and 2 oz's of jojoba then the 12oz of lye that I originally added would bring me to 5% superfat.

Ugh, this completely sucks...I did my first two batches with no issues and though that I was probably some soaping wizzard.

Thanks!

Cristy

 

[judymoody]

What you describe sounds like your soap gelling and overheating. If you remove the insulation and put it in a cool place, then you "might" save it from separation. The only way to tell for sure is after your soap has cooled down completely.

However, your soap is also lye heavy, and more than a little. I ran the numbers through soap calc and that amount of those oils at the default 5% superfat calls for a little over 9 ounces of lye. Recommended water at standard 38% is 24 ounces.

Four ounces of additional oils is not going to compensate for an extra three ounces of lye. What lye calculator are you using?

Also, 1 ounce of fragrance added to nearly 4 lbs of soaping oils is likely to yield a very faint scent level.

As a beginner, it might be better to practice with smaller batches - maybe 1.5-2 lbs of soaping oils - until you get more experience.

Good luck!

 

[AmyW]

Did you get this recipe from somewhere?

Even 0% SF (no extra oils) only calls for 9.6oz lye- that's some really caustic soap!

You would need to add about 25oz of olive oil to get to 5% SF.

 

[Fragola]

Make sure you wear gloves while handling it.

 

[Cristy]

Thanks everyone for the responses, I really appreciate it.

Judy...I agree that I need to cut the size of my batches in half while I'm experimenting. How much fragrance oil do you normally use per lb of soap? I'm using the MMS lye calculator at the sage and it shows that with the oils that I used last night I would need 11.64oz of lye. I just checked the calculator at bramble berry as well and it said 11.45. Which calculator do you use? Maybe I'm missing something?

Amy...yes, I got this recipe from Kathy Miller's website, I still should have run the lye calculator though.

Fragola...I definatly wear gloves, thank you!

 

[dieSpinne]

Cristy,

I just ran the numbers you gave us through the MMS Lye Calculator and got similar numbers to those given at Soapcalc.net.

Are you sure you didn't leave out an ingredient in your description?

 

[judymoody]

I think you copied the recipe down incorrectly. If you did the "soap classic" recipe which has 39 oz OO and 24 oz CO, it also calls for 18 ounces of palm oil. If you left out the palm oil, there's your problem.

Or did you just copy the recipe down incorrectly on your post?

www.soapcalc.net is what I use to check or develop recipes. Your recipe (including the palm oil) comes up at about 2% superfat which is a pretty slim margin for error.

Regarding fragrance, .5 oz per pound of oils (PPO) is generally a good starting point. Many soapers use .7 or even 1 oz PPO depending on the individual fragrance and how strongly they like their soaps scented.

Hope this helps.

p.s. The first recipe I did was Kathy Miller's "sudsy all vegetable" soap. That was over a year ago and I still have at least half of those bars lying about. Her recipes are written to correspond to a 12 ounce container of lye so you don't have to fiddle with measuring it out. That makes for LARGE recipes. I subsequently used some of her recipes but cut them down to 1/3 the size and ran them through a soap calculator. Her favorite Castille II makes a nice bar of soap.

 

[Cristy]

Hi Judy...I copied the recipe down wrong on my post! I did ad the 18oz of palm oil. So, even with that slim margin I should be alright IF my soaps made it (I moved them to the basement so hopefully they cooled down enough, when I checked them this morning they seemed good except for their cracked tops, so I guess I'll see).

Thanks for the suggestion on trying the "Favorite Castile II" too, I might try that one next.

 

[soapbuddy]

If the top of your soap starts to crack, it means it's overheating. Put it in the fridge or the freezer to help cool it down and don't insulate. Or elevate the mold and put a fan on it.

 

[Cristy]

Thanks for the idea....I put it in the cold basement and it probably helped!