Soap hasn't set - help!

[joannaf]

Hello SMF!

My partner and I recently made our first soap for Homemade Christmas.

We used a recipe for Glycerin soap from James Wong's book

Briefly the recipe is:
500ml each of flower water & glycerin
1/2 bar white unperfumed soap
oil to fragrance (we used Apple Spice incidentally!)

So the soap has been in silicone molds for 2 days and we just took one out to test and it hasn't set. It practically comes apart in your hands, all gooey.

Any advice or help anyone could offer would be so helpful as we still have the ingredients to make another batch if we can get it right.

Many thanks in advance,
Jo

(Sorry if this is in the wrong forum)

 

[judymoody]

This sounds like you are trying to make hand milled soap, not M&P. I only do cold process but just looking at this, I can't see how it would ever solidify. Are there any other ingredients?

 

[joannaf]

Hi judymoody,

There's the option to add rosebuds etc.
This is the recipe:
500ml flower water
500ml glycerin
1/2 bar white soap grated
50 drops of oil for fragrance

the instructions are:
in a double boiler mix the glycerin, flower water and grated soap until the soap has melted.
Take of the heat and add the oil and stir in flowers.
Pour into molds and leave to set thoroughly for 2 days.

 

[new12soap]

I am with Judy here, that sounds like so much liquid I am not sure how it could ever "set up".

The only thing I can think of is that even though Glycerin is a viscous liquid, and glycerin soap is a term used for a transparent soap or specifically a melt and pour base, could that recipe mean 500g of glycerin m&p base?

I have no idea...

 

[joannaf]

I guess it could have but I wish the recipe had been more specific then, it literally just said glycerin.

Can anyone recommend a recipe for a beginner that we can start with? We still have some ingredient left (bit of glycerin, flower water etc) so I'd like to have a go at making some more in time for christmas.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated

Jo