Soft soap with water discount

[thursday48]

I tried a water discount and my soap took more than 36 hours to be ready to un-mold and once it was cute it still took another 4 days to really harden.

I think one of the issues is that I mixed the lye and let it cool, but it was maybe 3-4 hours between mixing the lye and then adding it to the soap. So the lye was at 79 degrees and my oils were at 87 degrees when I mixed them. The mixture got to trace and was thickening at I was pouring it into the mold.

 

[cmzaha]

Water discount is not the only factor that controls how soon you can un-mold. Whether you let it gel or not is the biggest factor. Do you know if it fully gelled if you intended to gel the soap. If it was poured into a silicone mold and did not gel it would definitely slow down de-molding time. Also with a 32% lye concentration it is harder to gel the soap. The higher the water the hotter it gets. Trace also plays an important role, a pour at emulsion or light trace will take longer to set

Your numbers look fine except the 30% Co, but some in here like 30% my skin does not like over 15% CO

 

[thursday48]

cmzaha, I was trying to avoid gel because I kept getting glycerin rivers in everything I put TD in and was getting cracks from overheating even at ~85 degrees. Should I try hotter with the water discount or am I going to be walking into the same issues I’ve been having with TD and overheating?
This is the same recipe I used before with full water and was unmolding at 24ish hours and getting hard bars right away (these have finger prints, dents, and texture on them from cutting). I didn’t use a silicone mold but rather a freezer paper lined wooden one I made from 2x4. And I was at about a light trace when I added the color and fragrance to the batter, and a medium trace when I added it to the mold.
I’m just starting so I’m not mad this happened but annoyed that I don’t have the knowledge base to know what happened to fix it.

 

[Susie]

I use white mica (thank you all who suggested it!) to avoid TD with its glycerin rivers. I gel everything, so it made lots more sense.

 

[cmzaha]

It is a bit of a trade off. I do not use much TD because I hate crackle and I now like to gel my soaps. For several years I did not gel my soaps, by putting them in the freezer to stop gel, but would have to wait up to 2 days to de-mold depending on my trace. One thing you can try is adding in salt or Sodium Lactate to help harden enough to de-mold sooner. I am sorry I do not have the threads handy but a quick search will bring up a lot of info using SL

I am also changing over to white mica