soft greasy hand soap, ok bars?

[museumchick]

Hey folks,

I'm fairly new to Cold press soap making.. new to soap making altogether. I took a class in goat milk soap making and ended up doing my first unassisted cold press bar this weekend. I didn't do goat milk, just a basic olive oil/ castor oil bar. I just took the soap from the mold and the bars came out perfectly albeit a bit soft.. but the recipe said it would be a bit soft. The soap I put in candy molds to come out as hand soaps however did NOT turn out well. They are VERY soft (like I can squish them) and areas of them look like they're more gell-y/ greasy than the rest of the soap. The gell-y areas are where the bottom of the soap was in the mold, the better parts are on the top (aka back, when the soap is unmolded.) I left the worst of them in the mold for another few days.

Any ideas? This was the SAME batch, put in the mold at the SAME time. The only difference is the mold itself. The bars were in a wooden mold, the hand soaps were in a brand new silicone mold. I did grease the silicone mold but used parchment paper to line the wooden mold. I'm wondering if that is the difference? I have no idea.. I greased the mold because thats what we did in our class and that soap came out ok.

Here is the recipe I used. I picked it because it is very basic:

48.75 Ounces of infused Olive oil. 4.25 Ounces of castor oil. 20 ounces of spring water. 6.578 ounces of lye.

Prior to making the soap I infused the olive oil with chamomile, calendula and lavender. (1/4 lb of herbs total in more than 50 ounces of olive oil).

 

[new12soap]

I just ran your recipe through soapcalc (did you use a lye calculator? you should!), and it looks like you used a full water amount. That is fine, especially for a beginner, but since your recipe is a "bastille" with over 90% olive oil and the rest castor you are going to have a very soft soap. I am surprised you were able to unmold it in less than a week! Leave it alone for a good long while, it should set up nicely it will just do it very very slowly. Next time you may want to make a smaller batch, tho, I usually stick to no more than 2 lbs at a time.

The differences are that the larger loaf mold had more mass and probably gelled, while the smaller silicone molds may not have gelled completely. They will still both be fine they will just feel and look really squishy.

An olive oil soap is best cured for at least 6 months, so get comfy! And welcome to the addiction...

 

[museumchick]

Thanks for replying so fast! The recipe says to cure a "few" months... but it looks like a few more than I was thinking!

Off to try another recipe this weekend in addition then!

 

[Lindy]

Hello and welcome. I love the infusion you used.

What you will find is that when you are using small moulds like you did it will take much longer before you can take them out of the mould. You could freeze them to get them to release and then let them sit. When you do it in a log mould (I would recommend you use freezer paper instead of parchment) it retains more heat so it sets up faster. I make high olive oil soaps and they really only take 4 - 6 weeks curing time before they are hard enough to use. In fact olive oil soaps are actually very hard. My first soap was a castille (100% olive oil) and it turned into a rock very quickly.

Since you are just starting out may I recommend that you use soapcalc.net as your lye calculator? You should run every single recipe you come across through it because even in books I have seen recipes that were very, very lye heavy. I would recommend that you work with a 30% lye concentration and a 5% Superfat.

Don't be afraid to try formulating your own recipes. If you like run the recipe past people here to get their opinions, but remember, they are only opinions and some you will trust more than others.

Have fun and oh yeah - we love pictures

 

[museumchick]

Thanks for replying!

That makes a lot of sense about the size of the mold. I had presumed the opposite: that the log would harden more slowly than the small molds. I'm relieved to hear that it is the opposite. I will let them sit longer.

I'm also relieved to hear it can cure in less time that 6 months! I was prepared for two monthsish so hopefully thats all it is.


Thanks, I'm learning a lot already!