Soap keeps getting stuck in silicone molds

[TerD]

My recipe is: all in ounces:
7.5 water
5 coconut milk
15 olive oil
O coconut oil
4 lard
3 apricot kernel oil
2 sweet almond
4.7 lye
And 1 oz essential oil.
Perhaps not enough hard fats?
Thanks so much for listening

Don't understand really how to do forms ir new thread, so repkied instead . T

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Okay, we will stay here for now.

Yes, this recipe is very high in liquid oils. Are you making cold process soap? You are using an usually high amount of water for cold process, and even for hot process, and by my calculation, more lye than needed. Is this a recipe you developed using a soap c@lculator? I noticed that you had coconut oil in the list, but at 0 oz. Did an earlier version of the recipe have coconut oil? If so, did you re-calculate the lye needed after removing the coconut oil? Here is your recipe again:

for 24 oz. of oils:
15 oz. Olive oil
4 oz. lard
3 oz apricot kernel oil
2 oz sweet almond oil

Your lye amount: 4.7 oz
Your liquid amount (water + coconut oil): 12.5 oz.

According to the calculation I did based on your oil amounts, the amount of NaOH needed to saponify the oils, with a margin of safety (superfat) is:
3.13 oz NaOH (for 5% superfat)

Now, how do you calculate how much liquid to use? The weight of water used to dissolve the lye usually ranges from about 1.5x NaOH weight to a little over 2x the NaOH weight. For a 33.33% lye concentration (2:1 or 2 water to 1 NaOH), you would need 6.26 oz. of liquid (water + coconut milk) total. Your recipe has double that amount. There are reasons why using a large amount of liquid to make soap, and especially soap that is high is liquid oils, is not a good idea, but that’s for another day. Note: coconut milk is mostly water, with some coconut solids and fat. While it is possible to correct for the fat in the coconut milk, for troubleshooting, the small amount of solids and fat can be ignored.

With mostly liquid fats in the recipe and so much water, I’m not at all surprised that this soap is very soft and possibly even mushy. In order to advise you further it would help to know why you are making this particular recipe and also if you know how to use a soap c@lculator.

 

[TerD]

Oops, 9 of coconut oil and have made many times with no problem in wooden mold. Definitely never mushy. A nice firm CP soap

 

[TerD]

I too have tried everything, enen sodium lactate, no go.will just use my wooden mold, no more silicone

 

[Velocipede]

Hi... I'm stuck on a problem... rather my soap is stuck. I checked the forum and I didn't see where anyone else is experiencing these same issues.

I use both wooden box molds and silicone molds for my CP soap. I don't have any problems with the wooden box lined with freezer paper.
Everything works fine, but when I use silicone mold shapes the soap gets stuck, breaks, or looks ugly.

Several things happen.
1. The top cures and hardens properly, but because the silicone doesn't allow for evaporation, the soap at the bottom of the mold stays soft.
When I remove the soap about 24hrs later the soft part tear away from the bar and ruins the final product.

2. Or I leave the soap in the silicone mold for two or three days. It's definitely hardened and cured. I pop it out and it sticks to the silicone mold tearing away part of the shape. If the shape comes out perfectly, the surface is mottled with a dusty whitish haze.


I've done a few things with changing the percentage of water and sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. I'm not changing the oil recipe
so there is some consistency.

I'm covering the soap to let it cure. I'm wrapping it in towels. I even put a heating pad underneath the molds to maintain a high enough heat to
assist in the soaponification process. I've coated the molds with vegetable oils. I've coated the molds with vaseline. With every batch I change one variable. Nothing seems to work. I've gone through a couple dozen failed attempts with silicone molds.

I can't get a good result. Is there a "mold release" product I need to be using?


Using the freezer creates condensation between the mold surface and the soap which causes the finish to look ugly. The scent degrades a little.
Using heat allows me to pop out the soap, but again it sweats and the scent evaporates due to the heat.

And when I do get the soap out of the mold in one piece, the surface where it touched the silicone looks chalky.

I'm out of my mind. Since no one else seems to be having issues, it's got to be something I'm doing. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to
get good results with silicone molds? I know it's not supposed to be this hard. I'm losing 80% to 90% of my batches to these problems. That translates to 20 +/- pounds of wasted soap over the past several months. The soap can be used, but it's not visually appealing enough to be sold.


Thanks,
Walt H

The problem you described just "happened" recently. I've tried everything you described but I had two ruined batches last week. Then I remembered I was using an untried fragrance oil, Nature's Garden Wild Elderberry. I checked the Fragrance Usage and discovered I was using twice the recommended maximum use. The top is hard but the bottom is like playdough even after a week of drying and freezing overnight.

I'll make another batch using the suggested or lower maximum use percent.
About freezing. This works but you have to let your soap dry for a couple of days to dry off the condensation. Cut your bars and wait another 2-3 days for final touches. A planer will take care of the ugly sides problem and never use vegegable oil to coat any mold. Lye will treat it as more oil and you get more soap chemically bonded to the mold.
Good luck.