Soap breaking and crumbling,please help!

[harveybw]

Go for distilled instead of spring water - will be a much better water to use for soaping in general

Thanks for that I'll try distilled instead

 

[Jstar]

Def let us know how it turns out

 

[harveybw]

Hi sorry for going AWOL for a while but you know how life can get in the way;-)
Anyway I tried a new batch using distilled water and although it did cut a bit better it was still crumbly. I think the only reason it improved a little was because I put it in a warm oven to encourage it to gel fully as I could see it was only going to partially gel again

So I finally decided to abandon that recipe and try a new one, I'd had enough of wasting time and money. Basically just removed the sunflower oil and increased the coconut oil. I made a Cedar wood & Sweet orange soap with some Calendula petals added. I made it in my slab mould rather than my loaf mould then placed it in the fridge. I was trying to avoid gel just to see how it would turn out. Anyway it didn't gel and 24 hours later it just looks like a slab of white chocolate and smells beautiful! I think it should be ok when I slice it but at the moment it's still to soft.

I've attached some pics of the old soap and the new soap

 

[marilynmac]

Things that have changed that might affect the soap :
- season?
- moisture content of the air due to the A/C or heating system.
- air temp.
- altitude! Did you move to a different altitude? When I moved to the mountains, everything got different.

 

[harveybw]

Things that have changed that might affect the soap :
- season?
- moisture content of the air due to the A/C or heating system.
- air temp.
- altitude! Did you move to a different altitude? When I moved to the mountains, everything got different.

We have moved from a town to a little cottage in the English countryside. The house is quite old and the air temps can get a bit colder here and their is definitely more moisture in the air.

My sister also said it's probably to do with the humidity. She likes to bake bread and she said that humidity can really affect how well it rises so maybe soap can be affected as well

 

[cascarral]

Hello I'm having the same problem with my last few soaps... I've been reading and my guess is that it has something to do with soaping at a lower temperature or lye heaviness. My soap is very soft and crumbles, like wet sand.

I was wondering if you solved your mystery in the end or if you could stop this from happening...

 

[jcandleattic]

Hello I'm having the same problem with my last few soaps... I've been reading and my guess is that it has something to do with soaping at a lower temperature or lye heaviness. My soap is very soft and crumbles, like wet sand.

I was wondering if you solved your mystery in the end or if you could stop this from happening...

This post is over 4 years old - none of the posters are here and won't see this. Might be better off starting a new thread and asking your question. You'll get a better response that way.