OH. MY GOSH. You guys!! What a night!! Since my husband normally goes out to a group thing on Thursday nights, that's when I usually plan to make soaps, bath bombs, lotions, etc. On tonight's list was a sample soap for this Challenge. Had some embeds to use up, and got an idea for something "simple and quick." I wanted to show that you don't need column molds to make the shape go through the soap. Easy-peasy. HAHAHAHA. Riiiiiight.
Batch #1: Using heart-shaped M&P mini-soaps, I stacked them 4 high in my slab mold. Went to make soap. All went well till I added the lye solution to the oils. It turned light orange but seemed pourable. As I started pouring it over the embeds, it went thick. Still smashable, but definitely thick, and still quite orange. CC's Tonka & Vetiver was supposed to be a very well-behaved fragrance, but what else could have caused this, right? Oils and lye were room temp, and I had barely given it 2 seconds of stick-blending. Since I'd already covered some of the embeds, I smashed the rest of the batter over the top of the rest of them, and decided to try again with my T&S mold, this time without the fragrance.
Batch #2: Stacked the remaining embeds into the T&S mold. I think it's going to be cute! Because I had used the last of my previous oil MB (cue the tense music here), I made another batch with just lard, coconut oil, and OO; I left out the castor and the fragrance. Room temp lye, oils at 100F. Poured the lye into the oils, and BAM! Dark orange concrete. WHAT??? At least this time I hadn't started pouring it over the embeds. Whew! I got out another mold and plopped it in. Within minutes, it had cracked and looked like it was going to volcano. Half was concrete, half was lava. Sigh. Dumped everything into a bowl and popped it in the microwave for 30 secs to hot process it. THEN MY HUSBAND WALKED IN TO TALK TO ME. He knows better, I know better, but I turned around for seconds to listen to him. When I turned back, the batch was overflowing into the microwave. Yanked it out, got it all cleaned up, stirred up, and into the mold. Looks like a newbie hot process loaf with overcooked pieces everywhere. And it is ORANGE.
OK, time to really think. What was going on here? The only common denominator between batches 1 and 2 besides the lye solution was... drum roll ... the store-bought lard. You know, the one with preservatives that is supposed to last longer than my home-rendered lard? Yeah, that stuff. Well, the coconut oil, the sorbitol, and the citrate were also the same, but I was pretty sure they weren't the culprits. It had to be that the lard was rancid. Soooooo.....
Batch #3: 80% OO, 20% CO, AVJ for my extra water, and no sorbitol or citrate. The lye solution did turn a bit yellow when I added the AVJ, but the batch stayed nice and fluid when I poured in the lye solution. It quickly reached emulsion and... stayed there. I cautiously split some off, blended in some dry TD with the SB, and then poured the white cup of batter back into the batch. As I hand-stirred, it was still at emulsion, not yet at a light trace. Took a chance and hit it just a bit with the SB to hopefully blitz out any TD lumps. STILL FLUID. AND NOT ORANGE!
Let me tell you, when I finally poured that fluid white batter into my T&S mold, and none of the embeds fell over or misbehaved in any way, I wanted to cry with relief.
Now that the dust has settled, I can look back and see that my last ten batches or so have all accelerated. Every time, I have blamed the FO, never imagining that it could be RANCID LARD.
But you guys, it doesn't smell, and none of those soaps have gone bad, either. WTH?? Still, I'm tossing it because I'm sure that's the issue.
Oh well. Batch #3 is on the heating pad and will hopefully be able to cut it in the next day or two. But it is 80% OO and was barely at light trace when I poured, so even with 40% lye concentration, it may take a bit to firm up. I'll post pics of the cut when done, but for now, here are some of the mold set ups.
Just remember, all this was done to show you guys how EASY it is to make a soap with SHAPES.
Batch #1: Using heart-shaped M&P mini-soaps, I stacked them 4 high in my slab mold. Went to make soap. All went well till I added the lye solution to the oils. It turned light orange but seemed pourable. As I started pouring it over the embeds, it went thick. Still smashable, but definitely thick, and still quite orange. CC's Tonka & Vetiver was supposed to be a very well-behaved fragrance, but what else could have caused this, right? Oils and lye were room temp, and I had barely given it 2 seconds of stick-blending. Since I'd already covered some of the embeds, I smashed the rest of the batter over the top of the rest of them, and decided to try again with my T&S mold, this time without the fragrance.
Batch #2: Stacked the remaining embeds into the T&S mold. I think it's going to be cute! Because I had used the last of my previous oil MB (cue the tense music here), I made another batch with just lard, coconut oil, and OO; I left out the castor and the fragrance. Room temp lye, oils at 100F. Poured the lye into the oils, and BAM! Dark orange concrete. WHAT??? At least this time I hadn't started pouring it over the embeds. Whew! I got out another mold and plopped it in. Within minutes, it had cracked and looked like it was going to volcano. Half was concrete, half was lava. Sigh. Dumped everything into a bowl and popped it in the microwave for 30 secs to hot process it. THEN MY HUSBAND WALKED IN TO TALK TO ME. He knows better, I know better, but I turned around for seconds to listen to him. When I turned back, the batch was overflowing into the microwave. Yanked it out, got it all cleaned up, stirred up, and into the mold. Looks like a newbie hot process loaf with overcooked pieces everywhere. And it is ORANGE.
OK, time to really think. What was going on here? The only common denominator between batches 1 and 2 besides the lye solution was... drum roll ... the store-bought lard. You know, the one with preservatives that is supposed to last longer than my home-rendered lard? Yeah, that stuff. Well, the coconut oil, the sorbitol, and the citrate were also the same, but I was pretty sure they weren't the culprits. It had to be that the lard was rancid. Soooooo.....
Batch #3: 80% OO, 20% CO, AVJ for my extra water, and no sorbitol or citrate. The lye solution did turn a bit yellow when I added the AVJ, but the batch stayed nice and fluid when I poured in the lye solution. It quickly reached emulsion and... stayed there. I cautiously split some off, blended in some dry TD with the SB, and then poured the white cup of batter back into the batch. As I hand-stirred, it was still at emulsion, not yet at a light trace. Took a chance and hit it just a bit with the SB to hopefully blitz out any TD lumps. STILL FLUID. AND NOT ORANGE!
Let me tell you, when I finally poured that fluid white batter into my T&S mold, and none of the embeds fell over or misbehaved in any way, I wanted to cry with relief.
Now that the dust has settled, I can look back and see that my last ten batches or so have all accelerated. Every time, I have blamed the FO, never imagining that it could be RANCID LARD.
But you guys, it doesn't smell, and none of those soaps have gone bad, either. WTH?? Still, I'm tossing it because I'm sure that's the issue.Oh well. Batch #3 is on the heating pad and will hopefully be able to cut it in the next day or two. But it is 80% OO and was barely at light trace when I poured, so even with 40% lye concentration, it may take a bit to firm up. I'll post pics of the cut when done, but for now, here are some of the mold set ups.
Just remember, all this was done to show you guys how EASY it is to make a soap with SHAPES.
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I'm on a kick of trying to use up things that I have around, whether that is ingredients in my soaping room, food in my freezer, office supplies in the cabinet, etc.
I would like to try and get her out to perform for people again because she loves singing/performing so much.
At least the orange color toned way down!
It’s not perfect but I am happy. These challenges have really helped me increase my skills. 
