soleseife soap fail!

[emi]

Here's my recipe and picture of my resulting failure. I was so proud of my swirl-in-the-pot technique I tried too. What a bummer. So I've read I can't re-batch brine soap. Someone suggested shaving it up and putting it in a shaker bottle for washing hands, but I have my lovely proudly handmade LS for that! Any other suggestions for saving this somehow? I'll do some more research on why it was too hard and crumbled. I'm guessing too much salt. It was 25% concentration of salt to water. Approx 9% of saponified oils.

 

[Dawni]

I've used 25% and individual molds because if you wait to long to cut soleseife, they will crumble. The soap looks so pretty though.

If you shred it or powder it you can add a small amount to fresh oils and stick blend well before adding your lye. That was CP. Don't use too much though, I made that mistake once and I almost couldn't pour after stick blending lol

Or you can make confetti soap. The shreds will act like embeds in your freshly made soap

Hopefully someone with more experience will confirm or refute this lol but that's my one experience.

 

[SaltedFig]

It looks like it was just left too long before you cut it, unfortunately. I'm with Dawni - the swirls look really pretty.

The salt amount looks about right - if it was fully dissolved then it's the nature of the soap, rather than too much NaCl (table salt). Perhaps the sodium lactate is unnecessary, depends on what you are using it for.

A "trick" that I've taken to using with ridiculously crumbly salt bars is to cut them in the mold while they are saponifying - any firm, correctly shaped cutter will work (even a stiff bit of plastic would do the job). That way you can get to it while it's still too soft to turn out, but hard enough to hold the cut shape.

For this batch, looks like you might need to accept that it's too solid and brittle already, and apply a couple of blows to see what sort of soap rock shapes you end up with (no point trying to cut with a knife or scraper or wire now).

Because it is fresh, you might be able to crumble some to use as salty confetti in a rebatch (put it in an airtight bag if you are planning on doing this) - if you can it into a new batch quickly enough, the parts should still merge together as they cure.

Sorry you missed the window - your soap really does look pretty!

 

[Obsidian]

I wonder if you could use a small craft band saw to cut the rest up into bars? or break it into chunks and put it in individual molds before pouring fresh soap in.

 

[cmzaha]

You actually can rebatch soleseif soap and salt bars. I have rebatched full 100% salt bars in the past. Not sure how long you let it stay in the mold but my 25% soleseif can usually stay in the mold overnight and still cut the next day, whereas my salt bars will need to be cut around 45 minutes.

 

[penelopejane]

It's only salt bars that you can't rebatch because the salt sort of melts into a mess.
As cmzaha says you can rebatch soleseif soap.

If you rebatch it you will lose the colours and it will probably turn out brick red (remixed soap just seems to turn to brick red).

Or you can confetti it. Grate it by hand and mix by hand 1:2 by weight into a new batch of any soap recipe at med - light trace. So 250g confetti in 500g soap. That way you will keep the beautiful colours.

Make a note of the time you cut this after you poured it. Remember to do it sooner next time.

I agree with Saltedfig that you don't need sodium lactate or sugar in a soleseif soap.

I have just had a look at the recipe and in soap calc it says you need 256g of water.
10% SF and 28.9% Lye concentration.
Maybe you should check your recipe?
What soap calc are you using?

It looks to me like you have used a 36.3 lye concentration which is fine but it is going to set up and go hard very quickly so you would have to keep your eye on it to cut it in a few hours of pouring.

 

[emi]

I used Soapmaking friend calc which I learned last night making this soap that it has a flaw in it. (as Dawni knows!) When you put in any additive but choose "add with liquid" it discounts the water! even oatmeal or clay or anything! I only realized this after I'd measured everything out and was trying to dissolve my salt in the lye water and it just would not dissolve. I checked my numbers and realized my salt concentration was above 40% (salt% of water) and remembered several recipes saying they use "25%" salt (which apparently in soapmaking often or can or sometimes means 3:1) so I calculated how much more water I needed to add and the salt immediately dissolved. But I was assuming that original water content it gave me ( which was 146.5g) was the correct amount of water for the lye. So that was the problem. Not enough water. I'm steering clear of soapmaking friend until the experts work out the bugs. I spent hours calculating and trying to figure out what had happened.

I actually unmolded and cut about 9-10 hours after pouring. I put it in my warm turned off oven (90-100 degrees) like I always to so it gels too if that may have made a difference. I added sugar thinking it would help the lather since I read salt cuts down on that. I'm just in a habit of adding sodium lactate I guess because most of my bars are pretty conditioning and it helps give it some hardness and slick. I had it in my head that it just "improves" bars but I should've thought about it more that it is a salt in itself and hardens soap like NaCl salt! I'll cut those both out next time and add higher water, and maybe just use my lame 6-bar mold at least until I get a grip on the recipe then maybe try a loaf again. What a bummer though. It was probably the best swirl and one of the best smells I've ever done (lavender and eucalyptus), as I have trouble with both. Good to know I can rebatch solseife soap and the confetti idea too. Thanks everyone for all your suggestions and help!

 

[emi]

I tried the rock shape idea from SaltedFig. The rest is confetti, implants(?), rebatch.
This first pic has bigger rocks. Each close the weight of a standard bar.

This 2nd pic has smaller rocks (penny for size). Maybe not that useful, but maybe as decoration sitting on a toilet tank?

 

[Obsidian]

Great save, the rock chunks look really nice. As for the smaller pieces, ever heard of a soap sock? They should work well in one.

You can either buy a sock or if you sew/crochet just make a small draw string bag to put the pieces in.
I have a sock like this for little bits and leftovers.
https://shopsimplyhomespun.com/product/soap-sock/

 

[Dawni]

I use smaller rocks (which are actually scrapings off my soap pot molded in my hand) similar to what you have on the bathroom sinks hehe

Great save though.. Kept the pretty swirls!

 

[SaltedFig]

Hi emi,

I agree with Obsidian
(and just have to add ... those rocks ROCK! )

I posted over on the soapmaking calculator thread to support what you have noticed needs updating.
It is wonderful that you are helping design the software (fresh eyes are excellent in working through this work in progress).
I think the end result is going to be both not to far away in time, and almost as good as your rocks

Hang in there - you have already made a major contribution to improving the calculator (before it goes fully public)
(But yes, double-check your results with a trusted calculator, while this one still is in testing )

 

[cmzaha]

It's only salt bars that you can't rebatch because the salt sort of melts into a mess.
As cmzaha says you can rebatch soleseif soap.
View attachment 34376

When I have rebatched salt bars the salt really does not melt into a mess and I have rebatched them quite a few time. I have been making salt bars since I started soapmaking, so there is not much I have not tried, either out of necessity or curiosity. I am not saying some does not dissolve but not all. There is not enough liquid in the rebatch to dissolve all salt.

The first time I tried to rebatch I had read the, you cannot rebatch salt bars opinion, and I simply had to try it and prove if the info was correct or not

 

[penelopejane]

^^cmzaha great to know thank you.

Rebatching is a pain though. I only ever confetti my fails.

emi
Great work working out what went wrong with the calculator.
Compare the sodium lactate soap with a soleseif batch without it and test the difference. It might work well for your recipe.

Sometimes if you heat the water before adding the salt it helps dissolve it as well,

With salt bars and high salt soleseif bars in a log mold you have to watch them and poke them and hover until they are ready to cut. Sometimes it is a few hours. Sometimes you have to cut them while they are still warm.

 

[cmzaha]

@penelopejane I will agree re-batching is a pain and yep I have gone to confetti when I can. Problem being with 100% salt the bars do not shred, they tend to become more powder than shred.

 

[KiwiMoose]

@emi - absolutely LOVE the rocks. They look really nice. Good save! The swirls are really pretty and you can still see the full effect.

 

[Deborah Long]

@emi I wish my failures looked as good as those! Great job, great save!