Soap on a stick blender

[shermluge]

Okay.. I did a Milk recipe I've done several times before and love it. But today, the second I the lye milk into the oil I started to mix, It produced steam and very high heat.. 140F +. I tried to quickly blend and I got "Soap on a stick blender". I had not added any scent yet. I had added 1 tbls of Goats milk to oil (just to try). But I don't think it was the goats milk. While I was focused on my lye milk (spending about 20 min slowly mixing) I was cooling my oils. I think what happened is I took temp of oil without stirring it (IR thermometer) and it read about 102 and broke my rule of, must stir before temp. My Lye milk was at 92 (never went above 95). I'm wondering if my Oils were closer to 126 (what it was when I started mixing lye 20 min. earlier). Normally the oil bowl would be in the sink in ice water. But I had not this time. I've never mixed (assuming it was a possible temp differential) with such a variance.

I wasn't able to get photos, because I was trying to rescue the batch. I switched quickly to HP in a crock pot to save it. It worked.

1) could it have been the 1tbsp powdered (900g batch) goats milk?
2) or because of possible temp variant?

Again, this is a proven recipe I've used with no other problems. Also I do a check list and no oils missing. Zap tested good (after HP).

 

[AliOop]

Sounds like a temperature issue to me. Good save with the HP!

 

[shermluge]

Sounds like a temperature issue to me. Good save with the HP!

Ya, the more I think about it.. I make sure I stir then take a temp reading because in the past I've noticed when I temp my oils without first stirring I get an abnormally low temp. I let my self get distracted with the frozen Milk and Lye (having to constantly baby sit). In that case I could possibly end up with almost a 30 degree temp difference.

 

[AliOop]

Don't know about you, but it makes me cray-cray when I perfectly handle the hard thing (adding lye slowly to frozen milk) and then blow the easy thing (oil temp). Happens more often than I'd like

 

[shunt2011]

A temp difference shouldn't affect the soap unless it was just plain too hot. I soap with room temp lye and oils a about 85-90 guessing as they are just warm to the touch.

Glad you were able to save it.

 

[shermluge]

1) could it have been the 1tbsp powdered (900g batch) goats milk?
2) or because of possible temp variant?

OHHHHHHH This is very embarrasing.. I even thought I should not post but then I read this.

temp difference shouldn't affect the soap

That got me thinking more. At its max it would have been about 120-123.

So again tonight!! I said I'm going to make this batch exactly how I did it when it seized.. I laid everything out the same and went through my check lists. It was when I was poring my caster oil in that it didn't look quit correct. I turned the bottle around and it was my vanilla that seizes badly that I thought I had gotten rid of.. It looks almost identical in size and shape color as my caster oil. Fortunately it was at such a low percentage that the super fat covered its loss. That is why it seized and that is why it worked with HP.. I had moved my scented oils to a lower drawer so when I thought I had grabbed my castor.. I did not. Well since I already pored it. I covered with cling wrap put the check list with it and I'll HP it later. I really wanted to vindicate my recipe that I've had such good luck with in the past. So I pored all new oils. It did it and it worked flawlessly (but I don't know how the swirls will turn out, that is whole other experiment with something that I 3d printed..).

 

[shunt2011]

@shermluge glad you figured it out.