some help with castile soap

[mlktrkdrvr]

I made my fourth batch of castile soap yesterday, the first three turned out wonderful. This one not so much. I did have to do things a little differently this time. the recipe I used was 30 ounces of olive oil, 2 ounces of coconut oil, 1 ounce of bees wax(liquid measuring cup). .70 pounds of distilled water and .30 pounds of lye. (my scale only weighs in .02 of a pound and not in ounces. I have used this recipe every time and it turned out very nice each time. the difference this time was that (I did not know it) my electric mixer died and I had to stir the batch by hand. It only took about ten minutes to reach trace (or what I thought was trace), so I poured it into the mold. and there was a nice breeze blowing in the kitchen window where I was working next to. I covered my batch with two bath towels and let it sit 24 hours. This morning it is the consistancy of pudding. My others were all ready to cut at 24hours. I am thinking it was false trace due to the breeze in the window causing too much cooling?? Please give any advice you can as to how I can salvage this batch. I do not know if I let it sit it will harden or if I should reheat it and try again. I added some lime zest at the very end- it turned red

 

[sudbubblez]

You could hot process it, or oven process.

Olive oil is more likely to separate from a full water batch especially with hand stirring. If it has separated in the mold, oven process won't fix that.

Sometimes it will resolve itself. It may be firm in a few days.

 

[mlktrkdrvr]

can you please tell me about the oven process?

 

[Hazel]

From your description it does sound like it got too cool and you had false trace (but I'm not an expert :wink: ). Miller's soap site has a troubleshooting page which I've found very helpful. If you scroll down, you'll find info on crockpot and oven method under "Possible Methods for Remelting".

http://www.millersoap.com/trouble.html

You might also like this tutorial - Hot Process/Crockpot

 

[sudbubblez]

oven process: put the mold in the oven on "warm" for a couple hours, then turn the oven off and let the loaf cool slowly in the oven. It can be used to force a full gel or make the soap neutral quicker, and also to dry it out. It can use a variety of temperatures, one of my books says 140 for 4 hours and theres another standard of 170 at 2.5 hours.

I like to use it to make soap thats ready as quick as HP but that I can also pour into the mold like CP and get smooth tops or sculpted tops or swirling like you cant get with HP.

 

[mlktrkdrvr]

thank you so much for your advice. I am so glad that I found this forum! Very informative!

 

[mlktrkdrvr]

one other thing- this morning when I took my soap out of the mold the scent had disappeared. I OP'ed it at 140 degrees for 5 hours and shut it off and left it in the oven for another 5 hours after that. It was still a little gel-ly about a quarter inch in for about a quarter inch only but I did not notice that till I was cutting it. But no scent i used coconut FO and lime EO

 

[Hazel]

I've only tried OPHP twice and the first time I left the oven on at 170 for about an hour. I thought it got too hot so I searched the forum for answers. I found where someone had said she warms the oven up (I don't remember what temp she said) and then turns off the oven, puts the batch in and leaves it overnight. I tried that and was much happier with the results. I'm just guessing but leaving the heat on that long is what might have killed the fragrance. You have to remember that not only are you getting heat from the oven but the batch is heating up from the lye, too. It might have just burned off the fragrance. EOs can also fade in soap especially citrus based ones. But I can't say positively that's what happened.

 

[Genny]

Like Hazel, I too think that it was most likely the heat that burned off your scent. Coconut fo can be hard to get to stick in cp soap and citrus eo's can be especially finicky in cp. Heat can make any fo's and eo's disappear easier, so adding heat to lime & coconut would be like a double whammy.

 

[mlktrkdrvr]

does anyone have ideas as to how I could get it to stick? The only reason I bought the coconut FO was to make this soap for my daughters

 

[Hazel]

You could try making the batch as HP and adding the FO after it's saponified.

 

[judymoody]

I do what Hazel suggested - I preheat the oven at 170 and then turn it off after I put the soap in and leave it there. It usually ensures a complete gel but doesn't get so hot that it overheats and separates.

If you want your scent to stick, here are some tips:

Sign up for an account on the Soap Scent Review Board where there are thousands of reviews by real soapers about what fragrances do in CP soap. You will need some sort of paid account - yahoo, gmail, aol, won't work. A work, school, or paid account through your internet provider is acceptable. Here's the link:

http://soapscentreview.obisoap.ca/index.php

Make sure you used a fragrance from a reputable vendor. Fragrances from craft stores like Michael's generally don't hold up well in CP soap.

Avoid gelling your soap by putting it in the refrigerator or freezer and soaping cool. It will take longer for your soap to firm up and to cure and the appearance will be more creamy than translucent but scents are less likely to morph or fade.

Finally, some scents disappear and then return after a week or two. Be patient.