Small Soaps Keep Volcanoing! Please Help!

[twaburds]

Hi!

I am trying to make love heart wedding favour soaps using heart molds which are about 6cmx6cm but i find that my soaps either volcano and/or get soda ash (even on the sides which are touching the silicone mold).

I assume it is volcanoing because a lot of heat is being created in a small area as when i make the same soap in a 1.5 litre mold it is fine. I soap at room temperature.

Any advise as to how to avoid this would be great as they are so unsightly i am about to give up!

Thanks

 

[lovinglife]

Have you tried putting them in the freezer after you pour them? Maybe you could try a recipe without a lot of heat creating elements like honey. Honey or sugars is one thing that will heat up a soap batter.

 

[Susie]

^^^What lovinglife said. Use a cold mold, then freeze and/or avoid known heating additives.

If you could share your recipe in weights, we can double check it for you.

 

[twaburds]

Recipe is just basic 33/33/34 olive/coconut/palm.

Freezer is a good idea but I would only be able to fit 8 at a time so not really feasable if I had an order of 80 favours.

 

[dixiedragon]

Is it the same FO each time? I'm scratching my head - it's pretty weird that your small molds are volcaning and your large molds do not!

 

[shunt2011]

I have to agree with dixiedragon. I've made lots of soap in small molds and have never had them volcano out of the molds. Most times they don't even gel unless I put them in the oven. They've still never volcanoed on me. So pretty odd that you are having so much trouble with them. I have zero room in my freezer except for the smallest of molds. Hope you figure out the cause.

 

[Susie]

What about your additives? I realize you don't want to give out specifics because you sell soap, so these are Yes/No questions for you to think about, not asking for trade secrets here.

Milks/Sugar/Honey? (honey is the WORST over-heater I use that is not an FO)

FOs-have you used it/them before with this particular recipe?

 

[tigersister]

My experience has been the opposite of yours. There's usually not enough batter for the soap in individual molds to make and retain much heat. The times I've split a batch between a loaf mold and individual molds, if the recipe heats up much, it's the portion in the loaf mold that does.

Adding on to all the other trouble shooting questions above:
Colorant? Source?
Mold material? Have you used this recipe with the same additives and FOs in any other cavity molds?

 

[IrishLass]

I find the volcanoing very odd. I have the same experiences as Dixie, Shari and Tigersister- whenever I make soap to pour into small, individual-type molds, I have to stick them in the oven in order for the batter to generate enough heat to be able to gel.

I'm wondering if it's your FO?


IrishLass

 

[lenarenee]

Hi!

I am trying to make love heart wedding favour soaps using heart molds which are about 6cmx6cm but i find that my soaps either volcano and/or get soda ash (even on the sides which are touching the silicone mold).

I assume it is volcanoing because a lot of heat is being created in a small area as when i make the same soap in a 1.5 litre mold it is fine. I soap at room temperature.

Any advise as to how to avoid this would be great as they are so unsightly i am about to give up!

Thanks

Please don't be insulted by this question, but you said you assume it was volcanoing.
I have no idea how experienced with soap making you are but I wonder if you may actually have separation or gel instead. Can you give us a picture? Are you certain the fo you have is suitable for soap?

 

[twaburds]

Thanks for all your responses guys! Its so nice of you all to try and help.

I am not using any additives, just my oils, water and fo or eos. The fos and eos I am using behave fine in my larger molds, there are no changes to the recipe for larger to smaller molds.

I will post pics tomorrow of examples but I am pretty sure it is volcanoing. Not dramatically but they are bulging in the middle of the heart and cracking open then extreme soda ashing on top that you can kind of brush/roll off and it just crumbles like a soft cheese in your fingers!

Think I have answered most questions!

Again, thanks so much for all your responses! Have a nice day!

 

[Kamahido]

Try adding 2% beeswax to your soap recipe calculations. That should help with the soda ash.

 

[Dahila]

you have 30 % of CO, it could cause overheating. It had never overheat in my individual molds, I am talking about milk soaps with lots of sugar added

 

[dixiedragon]

Are you doing oven process? If so, maybe too much heat too fast?

 

[cmzaha]

My experience has been the opposite of yours. There's usually not enough batter for the soap in individual molds to make and retain much heat. The times I've split a batch between a loaf mold and individual molds, if the recipe heats up much, it's the portion in the loaf mold that does.

Adding on to all the other trouble shooting questions above:
Colorant? Source?
Mold material? Have you used this recipe with the same additives and FOs in any other cavity molds?

I have a recipe and fo that Will overheat in anything including chilled molds.

You could try chilling your molds. I hate that type of ash and only get it with certain fo's and very thin trace pours