Soleseife-brine soap is cracking

[Elise Noel]

Hello,
I am quite puzzled with my brine soap. It started to crack after 4 days of curing. I used one to see how bad it was, cracks are quite deep as you can see on the attached pics. Have anyone experienced this before? Any suggestions?

I have used the same base 3 ways
Unscented + dulse flakes, no colorant- no problem
lemongrass eo and matcha for colour- no problem
Lavender eo and alkanet Infused olive oil as colorant is my problem child

50% CO, 17% OO, 10% palm, 10% castor, 8% Alkanet Infused OO, 5% cocoa
Sea salt @25% of my water weight 56g
225g water , 5g sugar added after salt dissolution
101g lye
Water @33% of oil weight and 7% SF

Thank you! I appreciate your help.

 

[DeeAnna]

I do not have any ideas for you, but I'm bumping this thread to bring it to the attention of others who might be able to help.

 

[Saranac]

Have you tried making the alkanet batch without cocoa (powder, I assume)? It can hold a lot of water, and from my baking experience I can tell you that when adding cocoa to something like yellow cake (to make it chocolate), it's best to start with at least an equal amount of liquid (by weight) or the end result will be very dry. I would think that would be enough to crack an already hard bar of soap. And to add some geeky info, cocoa is about 20% fat (from memory, at least); you've used enough to increase your SF by about 1%. And... unless your using Dutch-process, your adding an acidic ingredient. I have no idea how much NaOH is needed to neutralize cocoa, but 1 lb needs 1.25 oz of baking soda. The point is that you may be increasing your SF even more. That's not relevent to the cracking, but it's food for thought (sorry!).
Editted to say, I just realized you probably meant cocoa butter! It must be the chocolate bar I ate today that took my mind to food! Well, someone might get some unrelated use from my rambling.... In other words, I have noooo idea!

 

[penelopejane]

How much does your batch of oils weigh?

 

[Elise Noel]

Have you tried making the alkanet batch without cocoa (powder, I assume)? It can hold a lot of water, and from my baking experience I can tell you that when adding cocoa to something like yellow cake (to make it chocolate), it's best to start with at least an equal amount of liquid (by weight) or the end result will be very dry. I would think that would be enough to crack an already hard bar of soap. And to add some geeky info, cocoa is about 20% fat (from memory, at least); you've used enough to increase your SF by about 1%. And... unless your using Dutch-process, your adding an acidic ingredient. I have no idea how much NaOH is needed to neutralize cocoa, but 1 lb needs 1.25 oz of baking soda. The point is that you may be increasing your SF even more. That's not relevent to the cracking, but it's food for thought (sorry!).

Thanks for trying Saranac, yes it was cocoa butter

 

[Elise Noel]

How much does your batch of oils weigh?

Hi Penelopejane,

This is my calc sheet I’m missing the 5g of sugar added after salt dilution

 

[penelopejane]

I'm really sorry I can't see why this recipe should have turned out the way it did.
Crumbling can be from overheating or from not enough heat to saponify it fully. It must be a problem with the method. I am just not sure what.
Hopefully someone else might be able to help you.

 

[Nanditasr]

I made mine with 20% CO and 80% soft oils (about a month ago). It has not cracked, but it's certainly very brittle. When I use it, I find that it crumbles. Also, contrary to all accounts, I found it rather slow to unmould and harden. I'm thinking I'll let it sit for at least another month.

 

[Elise Noel]

I made mine with 20% CO and 80% soft oils (about a month ago). It has not cracked, but it's certainly very brittle. When I use it, I find that it crumbles. Also, contrary to all accounts, I found it rather slow to unmould and harden. I'm thinking I'll let it sit for at least another month.

Mine was fast to harden & release. I’ll keep on investigating

 

[Nanditasr]

Mine was fast to harden & release. I’ll keep on investigating

Have you tried the exact same recipe (same proportions, quantity and method) without the salt, in approximately the same weather conditions? If yes, the salt has to be the culprit. If not, maybe some other change has caused it?

On a separate note, strangely, my 20% hard oil soap hardened much faster than my 42% hard oil one -- it's still soft.

 

[GreenDragon]

Just to clarify your method; did you make one large batch and separated into 3 containers, then mixed in your additives, or did you make 3 separate batches?

 

[Elise Noel]

Just to clarify your method; did you make one large batch and separated into 3 containers, then mixed in your additives, or did you make 3 separate batches?

I’m sorry I missed your question. It was 3 separate recipes

 

[GreenDragon]

No worries.
If you did 3 separate batches, then my first suspicion is your scale. Either low batteries or just old/inaccurate. I had a very similar experience when I first started soaping and tracked it back to my scale. Do some tests, replace the batteries or get a new scale. It’s worth the peace of mind.

 

[SaltedFig]

I don't understand now.

Was it the same base (post #1)
Or three different batches (post #12)

I have used the same base 3 ways

It was 3 separate recipes

This does really make a huge difference to resolving the problem.

Did you make one large batch of soap base, and add different ingredients to make different soaps, or did you make them as different batches from the beginning?

(sorry to be picky, but this level of detail is important )