Soft Soap

[theladyfarmer]

Hi! I made this oat and honey soap a couple weeks ago which was August 21 I believe, I noticed it's still soft when you "squeeze" it. My other bars are hard when you touch it. This one is pretty soft and I'm afraid it may "melt" away when used. I make these to sell. Does anyone know if this soap will get harder over the next few weeks?
I used, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, Castor Oil, Honey, Oats and Fragrance Oil.

 

[Ekuzo]

Hi! Can you share the recipe you used? If your other soaps use the same base recipe and are hard enough after a couple of weeks, I would say the culprit is the amount of honey you used, but I'm still curious about the hard/liquid oil ratio as well as the lye concentration and the SF.

And yes, in most cases it gets harder during the cure

 

[theladyfarmer]

Hi! Can you share the recipe you used? If your other soaps use the same base recipe and are hard enough after a couple of weeks, I would say the culprit is the amount of honey you used, but I'm still curious about the hard/liquid oil ratio as well as the lye concentration and the SF.

And yes, in most cases it gets harder during the cure

Yes I used

• 8 ounces almond oil
• 4 ounces [COLOR=var(--global-palette-highlight)]castor oil

• https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-76...b510460e05f65e1ac99a57efac0ca5&language=en_US
• 22 ounces [COLOR=var(--global-palette-highlight)]coconut oil[/COLOR]
• 20 ounces olive oil
• 6 ounces [COLOR=var(--global-palette-highlight)]shea butter[/COLOR]
• 21 ounces water
• 8 ⅗ ounces [COLOR=var(--global-palette-highlight)]lye[/COLOR]

[/COLOR]
Instead of using 8oz of almond oil, I added an extra 8 oz of olive oil. I added 1 1/2 tbsp of honey and added 2 handfuls of gluten free rolled oats.

 

[justsomeguy]

I recreated your recipe in soap calc to better help understand your starting point. Made assumptions to get the water and lye to match up.

Unfortunately I'm not experienced enough to comment on the effects of the additives on the hardness of the soap.

 

[artemis]

Do you normally cure your bars for only 2 weeks before using them?

 

[Ekuzo]

Hmmm, maybe the oats absorbed some of the liquid, making them soft in the batter and thus resulting in soft soap? How/when did you add them? Just a theory.

Other than that, the water seems a little too much for CP and probably okay for HP - you didn't mention (I believe) the process you used. If it was CP, you ended up with a little too much water, which needs to evaporate over time. Probably in 2 months (at least) you will have your bars hard enough, observe them - you may need even more.

I was too lazy calculating stuff but I allowed myself to take advantage of the recipe @justsomeguy shared to speculate on

 

[theladyfarmer]

Do you normally cure your bars for only 2 weeks before using them?

I am curing them for 4 weeks. It's been 2 weeks since being made so it has 2 more weeks of curing to do. Compared to my other bars of soap, this oat soap is pretty soft.

Hmmm, maybe the oats absorbed some of the liquid, making them soft in the batter and thus resulting in soft soap? How/when did you add them? Just a theory.

Other than that, the water seems a little too much for CP and probably okay for HP - you didn't mention (I believe) the process you used. If it was CP, you ended up with a little too much water, which needs to evaporate over time. Probably in 2 months (at least) you will have your bars hard enough, observe them - you may need even more.

I was too lazy calculating stuff but I allowed myself to take advantage of the recipe @justsomeguy shared to speculate on

I added the soap before trace!

 

[Ekuzo]

I added the soap before trace!

You mean you added the oats to the batter before trace? It's just my speculation, nothing more. But if your other soap bars have the same water amount as this batch but are harder, it may be something to consider. Next time you can try soaking the oats in the oils for some time before adding the lye, to see if it makes a difference. I still think that's too much water for CP though.

Too much honey can result in soft soap as well, but your amount here is little and shouldn't affect it.

 

[Ford]

Hi, high OO soaps takes longer to cure. as @Ekuzo, mentioned you might cut down on your water. Do you use sodium lactate or salt? Helps with unmolding/hardness. Good luck.

 

[theladyfarmer]

You mean you added the oats to the batter before trace? It's just my speculation, nothing more. But if your other soap bars have the same water amount as this batch but are harder, it may be something to consider. Next time you can try soaking the oats in the oils for some time before adding the lye, to see if it makes a difference. I still think that's too much water for CP though.

Too much honey can result in soft soap as well, but your amount here is little and shouldn't affect it.

Yes, sorry! I added OATS before trace. My other bars are harder but are also different than the oat bars. My other ones are pumpkin soap and eucalyptus soap and both hardened well.

So because the soap is soft, should I still sell it? Or what will happen?

 

[justsomeguy]

Yes, sorry! I added OATS before trace. My other bars are harder but are also different than the oat bars. My other ones are pumpkin soap and eucalyptus soap and both hardened well.

So because the soap is soft, should I still sell it? Or what will happen?

Delay that decision as long as possible I say. I'd let them cure for 6 weeks if they're not hard in 4 weeks. Then make that decision.

 

[Ekuzo]

I second that. If you sell, the product has to be at a certain level - good enough for you and for the customers. If after 6 weeks it still doesn't feel hard enough and you feel like it won't last long before it melts away in the shower, you may need to wait longer than that. Practice makes perfect, tweak your recipes and observe until you are satisfied. Once you are, tweak and observe some more, but not so much. We live and learn our whole life

 

[AliOop]

Did you run the altered recipe (with almond oil instead of olive oil) through a soap calculator? Their SAP values are close but not exact.

Also, did you hot process this soap? If not, then part of the reason these are so soft is that you used way too much water for CP soap.

Not to sound mean, but these are some pretty basic soapmaking concepts. It is risky to be selling soap without a firm grasp of the basics, and also without knowing from experience how your soaps perform over time.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

Here is a pretty good discussion about what amount experience is recommended before one starts selling soap -
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/selling-soap-question.91802/

I made many small batches (about 14 oz of oil each), gave much soap to family to try, tried and tested soap myself for several years, read this forum faithfully to learn as much as I could before thinking about selling. I also read a few books and watched YT videos, but got the most out of this forum. One of the first things I learned from this forum was the importance of a soap calculator. I could go on, but that has definitely been a key in creating soap that I love. And after almost 10 years of soap making (sometimes sporadically) I'm still learning and experimenting.

As far as your soap being soft, that sounds like a lot of oats. I only put about a tablespoon of COLLOIDAL oats per 16 oz of oil in my oat soaps. So that could be the issue. Also, with that much water, your oats might get moldy. Give it at least a 3 month cure and watch for mold. Test the soap yourself and with friends before thinking about selling.

Edit: While gaining experience with CP soap, I did make and sell MP soap. Had great fun with that and probably went a little overboard with purchasing individual cavity molds. But what the heck, only live once (as far as I know).

 

[Humblegoat]

Yes, sorry! I added OATS before trace. My other bars are harder but are also different than the oat bars. My other ones are pumpkin soap and eucalyptus soap and both hardened well.

So because the soap is soft, should I still sell it? Or what will happen?

Just a suggestion, for each batch of soap I take a thin slice from my loaf to use as a test sample. It cures rather quickly because it is thin. I can test it for bubbles, lather, etc to see if it performs the way I want it to. If it doesn’t I can rebatch without a lot of lost time. And I find it useful in judging consistency of my product.

 

[DeeAnna]

I can't offer any insight about the recipe or the amount of oats used, but I can offer another thought -- Your soap didn't fully gel -- there's a slightly darker oval in the center of the bar in your first photo. That oval is a giveaway of "partial gel". When soap doesn't gel, it will stay softer quite a bit longer compared with soap that does gel.