Soft Soap

[kiimmii]

Hi All,

Appreciate any help.
This is the first time I attempt to make soap.
I followed the following recipe:

1 kg olive oil 
128 gm of lye/caustic
375 gm water

After 3 days of curing the soft is still soft with dent if pushed.
And the centre appeared dark where as the outer is pale white.

I have removed the towel which I used to wrapped the soap for the first 3 days.
I used a silicon mould.


I would like to cut it but not sure if I should wait till it firmed up a little more.

 

[Lindy]

I just ran your recipe through Soapmaker 3 as well as SoapCalc.net using a lye concentration of 30% which is where you should be as a beginner, although for Castille (100% OO) I like to use 40% to speed up trace and curing.

At any rate your water is way, way high. It should have been 300 gr not 375. This soap will be fine, but you have a long wait before it will be hard enough to cut, so just set it to one side for a few weeks.

On to you next batch....

 

[kiimmii]

Hi Lindy,

Thank you very much for the response. I will give it another go this weekend.
I was so disappointed with the result. But now I feel much better knowing that a little patience will make the soap usuable.

Thank you again.

 

[kiimmii]

Hi Lindy,

Is there anyway I could speed up the hardening and curing time ?
I read somewhere that suggested a steep water discount.
What would you suggest ? If I want to stick to my recipe above.

Thank you so much !

 

[Aquarius]

Hi Lindy,

Is there anyway I could speed up the hardening and curing time ?
I read somewhere that suggested a steep water discount.
What would you suggest ? If I want to stick to my recipe above.

Thank you so much !

256g of water

 

[Lindy]

Hi Kiimmii,

If you want to play with 100% olive oil then you want a 35% lye concentration to get it curing faster which would be 239 grams water for this size of recipe, make sure you check my numbers over at soap calc.

I'm also going to recommend that you add some coconut oil because it will increase the bubbles and makes it harder a little faster. You could also add some beeswax, no more than 2% of your oils to help it harden faster.

Cheers

 

[kiimmii]

Thanks Aquarius.

Hi Lindy,

Thank you. I appreciate the extra tips.
Very excited can't wait to whip up the next batch with your recommendation.

Cheers