Soap too soft and spongey

[dlewis17]

My soap is too soft and spongey. At first my soaps were hard, but lately they are too soft. Please someone tell me what I am doing wrong. Could it be the essential oils I am using?

 

[strawberryred]

Have you changed anything with your recipe? What oils are you using?

 

[Genny]

Without knowing the recipe you're using and your process we really can't help. Sorry.

 

[judymoody]

Could your olive oil be adulterated? And yes, we need your complete recipe to troubleshoot.

EOs should not make your soap soft - how much are you using?

 

[dlewis17]

This is the recipe that I have been using for a 2 lb batch: My soap is too soft and like a sponge.

Lye 4.8 oz
Water 12 oz.

Olive oil 1 lb. 5 oz.
Coconut Oil 10.5 oz.

Castor oil 2 tbl.

I get a good really thick trace and add 4 oz. of CG essential oils. Especially when I use Nag Champa my soap will not harden. Please help. This is a fun hobby and a little discouraged now. If anyone has a great recipe please send to me.

 

[Genny]

Since your soap is almost 65% olive oil, it's going to take longer to get hard. Also, 4 oz of essential oil or fragrance oil for 2 lbs of oils in soap is way too much. 1 oz would be closer.

Also, I believe the Nag Champa from CG is a fragrance oil. A real Nag Champa absolute would be increndibly pricey.


Did you run the recipe through a lye calculator? Also, did you superfat?

As for recipes, what other oils/butters do you have on hand or are easily available to you?

 

[dlewis17]

I didn't run recipe through a lye calculator. Do I need to? I'm new to soap making.

I have shea butter, almond oil, palm oil, grapeseed oil, lard, bees wax on hand. I will buy what I need if I have a really good recipe.

I have used essential oils and not fragrance oils with the same recipe and the soap is too soft. I have been using way too much essential and fragrance oils. The Nag Champa fragrance oil I used 4 oz.

If you have a good recipe please send. I want to make soap again this weekend.

Thanks for all your help.
Debra

 

[Cosmo]

I believe this would be a good starting recipe. This makes 2 pounds.

Olive 50% (16 ounces)
Palm 30% (9.6 ounces)
Coconut 20% (6.4 ounces)

Total Oils = 32 ounces

Lye 12.16 ounces
Water 4.467 ounces

With the recipe you were using, the high olive il and water content will make a very soft soap. When I plugged it into a soap calculator, it was more than full water for a recipe.

But... The soap calculator I use is returning weird values for me, so maybe someone else can come by and see if they agree with this recipe for a starting one.

 

[Genny]

Yep, you need to always run a recipe through a lye calculator. Soapcalc is a good one. http://www.soapcalc.net

Cosmo gave a good recipe, here's another one:
Total Oil Weight = 32 oz
Water as percent of oil weight = 35%
Superfat = 7%

Water: 11.2 oz (317.514 g)
Lye: 4.32 oz (122.477 g)

Olive Oil: 14.4 oz (408.233 g) 45%
Coconut Oil: 6.4 oz (181.437 g) 20%
Palm Oil: 6.4 oz (181.437 g) 20%
Castor Oil: 1.6 oz (45.359 g) 5%
Shea Butter: 3.2 oz (90.718 g) 10%

For fragrance oils or essential oils, you should contact your supplier to find out the suggested useage rates for soap. If they don't give you one or they don't know, I'd switch fragrance oil suppliers.

 

[Cosmo]

I am always forgetting the superfat! Thanks, Genny!

 

[dlewis17]

Thanks Cosmo and Genny! I will try both this weekend. Who is a good supplier for essential oils and fragrance oils?

 

[Cosmo]

For fragrance I ADORE Nature's Garden. I'm not too sure about essential oils, though. I'm still using what I ordered years ago!

 

[Genny]

I 2nd Nature's Garden for FO's http://www.naturesgardencandles.com
I also like
Bitter Creek North http://cart.candlesupply.com/
Elements Bath and Body http://www.elementsbathandbody.com
Brambleberry http://www.brambleberry.com
The Sage (MMS) http://www.thesage.com/

The Sage & Brambleberry also have nifty little fragrance calculators for their fo's & eo's
Bitter Creek & Nature's Garden have charts on each of their fo's that tell you how much to use.

 

[dlewis17]

Thanks for the information on fragrance oil suppliers! I'm new to Soap Making Forum. Everyone is so helpful!!!!!

 

[danahuff]

Cosmo, is the lye and water perhaps mixed up in your recipe? It looked like a lot of lye and not enough water, and I just wanted to check in case dlewis17 has a problem with the lye. I'm new to soaping, too, so I might be wrong.

 

[judymoody]

Yes, Cosmo's lye and water ratios seem to be reversed.

Yes, 4 ounces of fragrance or EO to 2 lb of oils is way too much. At most, you should have used one ounce per pound of oils.

I ran your recipe through soap calc (assuming that 2 TBS of castor = 1 oz) and your recipe is superfatted at only 2%. That's cutting it too close. I would superfat at a minimum of 5%

The recipes recommended by other posters look like they would make good soap assuming you transpose the water and lye in Cosmo's sample recipe.

Good luck with your next batch!

 

[dlewis17]

What am I doing wrong? I made soap by Genny's recipe this time. I know it is something that I am doing wrong now. This is the three weekend in a row that my soap is too soft.

When do you add the essential oil to Genny's recipe? I added the essential oil to the recipe after I got a really thick trace. Then I let the soap trace some more after I put the essential oil in.

Does the essential oil count as part of the superfat? Do you allow for it and use less superfat? I used 1 oz of essential oil per 2 lbs of soap. I doubled her recipe and made 4 lbs. of soap.

When does your soap get hard and when do you take it out of the mold?

Thanks,
Debra

 

[strawberryred]

What am I doing wrong? I made soap by Genny's recipe this time. I know it is something that I am doing wrong now. This is the three weekend in a row that my soap is too soft.

When do you add the essential oil to Genny's recipe? I added the essential oil to the recipe after I got a really thick trace. Then I let the soap trace some more after I put the essential oil in.

Does the essential oil count as part of the superfat? Do you allow for it and use less superfat? I used 1 oz of essential oil per 2 lbs of soap. I doubled her recipe and made 4 lbs. of soap.

When does your soap get hard and when do you take it out of the mold?

Thanks,
Debra

I usually add essential oils as soon as I get a light trace because I like to pour it when it's still pretty light so I can do swirls and such.

Essential oils do not count as part of the superfat. They are not actually an oil at all.

I usually let it sit in the mold for 24 hours before I take it out and cut it. It is still somewhat soft when I cut, but then I let it sit and cure for 4-6 weeks and it hardens up.

How soft is it? Like room temperature butter? Does it just need to sit longer? Recipes high in olive oil will be pretty soft for a while. I just did a castille soap, which is 100% OO and I let it sit in the mold for about 3 days, unmolded it, let it sit for another day or so before I even attempted to cut it because it was so soft.

Can you post a picture at all?

 

[dlewis17]

We didn't know about the essential oil, so we omitted 2 oz. of the castor oil to a 4 lb. batch using Genny's recipe. What will happen to the soap? The soap isn't as soft as butter, but it is a little sticky too.

I can't post a picture because I am out of town until this weekend. I can post a picture when I get back home.

If anyone has a good recipe that doesn't have much olive oil please send to me. I'm sure that I am doing something wrong.

 

[strawberryred]

We didn't know about the essential oil, so we omitted 2 oz. of the castor oil to a 4 lb. batch using Genny's recipe. What will happen to the soap? The soap isn't as soft as butter, but it is a little sticky too.

I can't post a picture because I am out of town until this weekend. I can post a picture when I get back home.

If anyone has a good recipe that doesn't have much olive oil please send to me. I'm sure that I am doing something wrong.

It could just need more time to cure. I've had some that were soft (if I pressed it I could leave a thumb print) when I unmolded and cut it, but then if you let it sit it hardens up great.

Without that extra castor it might be lye heavy. I'm not sure how to calculate it to figure that out or not. The recipe did have a 7% superfat, so you may be ok. Maybe someone else with more experience can give you a better answer.

I would recommend keeping your batches at about 2lbs for now until you figure things out- that way if it doesn't turn out you aren't wasting a lot of supplies.

Here's a recipe I've used, only I did lard instead of palm oil. If you change it up you need to run it through a lye calculator to figure out the correct amount of lye needed.

Olive Oil- 15% 4.8oz 136.078g
Coconut Oil-15% 4.8oz 136.078g
Palm Oil- 65% 20.8oz 589.67g
Castor Oil -5% 1.6oz 45.359g

Superfat- 8%
Water- 35%

Water- 11.2 oz 317.514g
Lye- 4.312oz 122.231g

I suggest going to http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp and playing around with it. Type in the different oils that you have and experiment with the percentages to see how the numbers change. It's not always accurate (meaning the qualities of the bar), but it can kind of give you a good idea of how changing the amounts of different oils can change the way a bar works. Usually the more hard oils you use (meaning palm, lard, etc) the harder the bar. The more soft oils (like olive) you use, the softer it's going to be at first. But remember a lot of bars harden up a lot over time. Give a 100% OO bar 6 months to cure, and it can give you a wonderfully hard bar of soap.