Soap disaster

[laVale]

Hello!
I wrote, more or less, the same message in another forum, but I still couldn't understood the mistakes.


A few weeks ago, I made a soap with a recipe I got from an Italian book for soaps:

475 gr olive oil
25 gr wheat germ oil

150 gr pure carrot juice (I made it with a juice extractor, since in supermarkets I couldn't find any pure juice)
64 gr lye

At trace, I pured it into the mould (I use a sylicone plumcake mould), and put it under a cover (with a white sheet of paper to separate it from the cover).
After a pair of hours, I had a look and for the first time in my soap-life, the stuff had risen a lot, like a real plumcake, until it touched the paper I put under the cover, and then "exploded down", I don't know if because it had risen too much, or because touched the paper or what.
I put it under the cover again, and waited 12 hrs, then I went to see, and it was hard (a bit harder then "normal" soap after 12 hrs), with a light layer of something orange (oil? carrot juice?) inside.





After one week I sliced it, and this is what it looks like.
Very very ugly (I was not expecting any better, after the explosion), and it leaves oil on paper.



I thought the problem was that carrot juice had maybe too much air inside (it was something like a smoothie, with some with foam on the edge), so yesterday I tried it again.
I extracted the carrot juice the day before, then removed most of the foam, and put it in the fridge. One hour before soapmaking, I took it from the fridge, to get it warmer.
Then I gently mixed it with a spoon (juice separated in 2 parts), and used it for the soap.
At trace, I poured it into the same mould, and covered.
This morning I went to see, and it didn't explode or anything.
But...there is that strange thing in the center, with a different color, and on the border line there are some orange drops (oil? carrot juice?).
I guess it has to do with the gel phase (incomplete? too hot?)



So, what happened (both times)?
Do you think I can use my soaps anyway, after curing, of course?

 

[topcat]

So sorry laVale that you had this happen to you

I cannot help you with the explosion. I ran your recipe through soapcalc and the lye is correct for a 5% superfat. The liquid seems a little low - the preset amount on this calculator is 38% liquid/water and even at 33% it still says you will need 165 grams liquid, so your recipe is 30% liquid. I haven't soap with liquid/water that low as yet.

I have only added carrot juice at trace to a recipe and blended my lye with water first.

If there is no lye zap on your soap you will still be able to use it for yourself though.

Tanya

 

[laVale]

The liquid seems a little low - the preset amount on this calculator is 38% liquid/water and even at 33% it still says you will need 165 grams liquid, so your recipe is 30% liquid. I haven't soap with liquid/water that low as yet.

I think (but I will check it) that the book I use always calculate water as 30% of the fat.

yes, I checked and the "base recipe" is 1000 gr of olive oil, 300 gr of water and 128 gr of lye. I never had any problem, with this percentage.

Do you usually use 38%?
what is the difference with more/less water?

I have only added carrot juice at trace to a recipe and blended my lye with water first.

so you used half water and half carrot juice?
what colour did you get at the end? did the soap stay of that color? (mine soap is getting a bit lighter)

If there is no lye zap on your soap you will still be able to use it for yourself though.

I will try. For the moment I tested pH, and it's 9.
I think I will cut it into small pieces and mix it with a white new batch of soap.

THanks so much for your help.
Vale

 

[Mandurina]

¿Usas la calculadora on-line, para equilibrar los jabones?

 

[surf girl]

I'm not sure, but it sounds as if your first batch overheated ("volcano"). Soaps containing sugar can be more prone to this, and perhaps the sugar in the carrot juice contributed (I know you probably used carrots without adding sugar, but carrots contain sugars). The chilled carrot juice you used in the second batch may have heated up less.

Still, I've used carrot juice in exactly the way you have, with insulation, without problems. The first few times I used it, I checked my temperatures and soaped with both lye solution and oils at around 110F (43C). The last couple of times, I have not bothered checking temperatures.

If you do a search on "volcano", you can probably find other reasons that may contribute to the problem.

 

[laVale]

If you do a search on "volcano", you can probably find other reasons that may contribute to the problem.

Thanks!
I heard of "volcano", but I thought it was something happening when you poured water on lye without being carefully.
As you guessed, I didn't add any sugar, but the one in the carrots was maybe enough.
I will post a picture of the second soap after cutting, since it's a bit strange, too.

Ciao and thanks again

Vale

 

[topcat]

Hello again laVale!

I have been learning soapmaking for 6 months and started out using 38% liquid, though now I am using 33%. With my carrot juice soap I used 33% - 1000 gram oils and 330 gram liquid. The liquid was 142 gram water with the lye added to it, plus 115 gram carrot juice (that is all I could get from my carrots!) with the difference made up by aloe juice - 73 grams. I added the juices at trace and had actually dissolved 1 tablespoon of raw sugar into them first to boost fluffy lather.

I used a silicone baking loaf mould for this and covered with towels to encourage gel. This soap gelled fully within 2 hours (I peek every half hour :wink: ) so I uncovered and allowed to cool. I think I must have been lucky not to get a volcano - especially with the added sugar, but uncovering must have helped there.

My soap is a lovely carroty gold colour right now but is only 4 weeks old. Time will tell if it fades.

Tanya

 

[laVale]

I will post a picture of the second soap after cutting, since it's a bit strange, too.

Hello!
Here I am with the pciture of the cut soap


I guess it's a problem of partial gel...

ciao
vale