Soft Soap

[queennikki]

Hi Everyone,

I have been making soap for a while now and the soap has always been hard. However I tried to add rice bran oil into the recipe at 15% replacing olive oil and the soap was very soft sticking to the side of the mold. I tried today with the old recipe and no problem. Is this normal or what did I do wrong with the rice bran? Thanks

 

[queennikki]

So the soap i did today is still soft, I also started adding 5% castor oil at the same time could that be the culprit? the recipe was 15.2 water, 6.4 lye, 2.3 castor, 11.5 co, 13.8 oo, 13.8 palm, 4.6 shea. Any help would be really appreciated. This hasn't happened with the other batches.

 

[Susie]

That looks fine when I run it through Soapee.com. You did not say if you gelled or not. Gelling can give a harder batch of soap faster than an ungelled one. I would stick that batch in the freezer for a couple or three hours to firm it up, then cut it.

 

[penelopejane]

I've tried RB at 60%, 45%, 30%, 10% and without it. I think it does make a mix a little sticky and for me it makes the final soap soft. At 10% I think it is ok. I restrict my castor oil to 5% (used to be 10%) and I think that helps.

I've only made 45 batches and I am still working through combinations so this is not definitive. My soaps are high OO.

 

[dillsandwitch]

I use 25% Rice bran in my go to recipe. It makes a nice hard bar and the last batch I made I left a little too long in the mould (made it at 3pm saturday cut it at 10am on sunday) and boy was it hard to cut. I was sure I was gonna break a wire in my cutter. It also crumbled a bit on the bottom of a few bars. Also it was a full gelled loaf. In my opinion RBO doesnt contribute to a soft bar

 

[penelopejane]

I use 25% Rice bran in my go to recipe. It makes a nice hard bar and the last batch I made I left a little too long in the mould (made it at 3pm saturday cut it at 10am on sunday) and boy was it hard to cut. I was sure I was gonna break a wire in my cutter. It also crumbled a bit on the bottom of a few bars. Also it was a full gelled loaf. In my opinion RBO doesnt contribute to a soft bar

I really hope you are right because RB is an excellent price!
I haven't given up on it totally yet - it could be something else that I am doing wrong.

 

[lsg]

I regularly replace olive oil with rice bran oil and have no problem. I always use a lye calculator with any recipe and substitution.

 

[Arimara]

This is tricky. Rice bran oil is a nice oil and I haven't had problems with it leading to a soft bar. If you just recently changed your recipe to use 5% castor oil, then I'm more likely to look at that first. Maybe you should try the rice bran oil again but put the castor oil back to what you used to use and see how that works out.

 

[queennikki]

Thanks for all the advice, I have never used rbo or castor so i will try and see if omitting the castor oil will help.

 

[dillsandwitch]

I really hope you are right because RB is an excellent price!
I haven't given up on it totally yet - it could be something else that I am doing wrong.

I've been using it for about 2 years now give or take a few months. Dont give up on it as it is such a great priced oil. I usually wait till coles has the 3Lt bottle for $9 and then buy 3 or 4 bottles. I've also never had any issues with DOS from it either. If you want I can PM you my recipe if you want to try it, but if I recall correctly you dont use tallow or lard do you PJ? Anyhoo if you want to give it a go let me know and I'll send it to you.

 

[penelopejane]

I've been using it for about 2 years now give or take a few months. Dont give up on it as it is such a great priced oil. I usually wait till coles has the 3Lt bottle for $9 and then buy 3 or 4 bottles. I've also never had any issues with DOS from it either. If you want I can PM you my recipe if you want to try it, but if I recall correctly you dont use tallow or lard do you PJ? Anyhoo if you want to give it a go let me know and I'll send it to you.

You are right I don't use tallow or lard. I am currently going through all my batches and working out which worked and which didn't and am trying to find out why! Two of my best (most popular) batches so far have 10% RB.
The 60%, 40% and 30% RB were all too soft. Touch wood - I haven't had DOS yet. I dread getting it!