What soapy mistake have you made today?

[ibct1969]

Witch hazel

Wow - I just made this wonderful pumpkin spice soap today, and then I spritzed it with alcohol - or so I thought - I USED WITCH HAZEL!! Did I ruin it?

I actually have a recipe that I use as a facial bar with witch hazel in it. You should be fine

And, your soap is so cool!

 

[DunbarDesigned]

First Day of Soaping

So today was literally my first day trying to make soap. And I'm pretty sure the first two batches were messed up. The first batch I think my lye solution was too cold because I used ice cubes after I saw that on a video from YouTube because they said that the heat from the lye and the water reacting could break my glass bowl. The second batch, my lye water was way too hot and I think my oils were a little on the lower side which didn't work out so well either. But my third batch came out just right!!! Well, it ended up tracing as it should have so I'm hoping it came out right. I even ended up adding fragrances and additives just to see what would happen. I guess I'll see!

 

[earlene]

So today was literally my first day trying to make soap. And I'm pretty sure the first two batches were messed up. The first batch I think my lye solution was too cold because I used ice cubes after I saw that on a video from YouTube because they said that the heat from the lye and the water reacting could break my glass bowl. The second batch, my lye water was way too hot and I think my oils were a little on the lower side which didn't work out so well either. But my third batch came out just right!!! Well, it ended up tracing as it should have so I'm hoping it came out right. I even ended up adding fragrances and additives just to see what would happen. I guess I'll see!

Dunbar, lye will etch glass so you really should avoid using glass at all. Stainless steel or plastic are best. If you are mixing the lye solution, the plastic that is best for the high heat of lye is the HDPE plastic with a number 5 in the recycle triangle on the bottom. Number 2 recycle is fine for storing lye solution that is not hot and also for mixing your soap batter in (oils first, then add lye solution and stir.)

 

[DunbarDesigned]

Ah ha! I couldn't keep straight what would react with the lye but I knew the regular plastic I have was a no no! Thank you for the words of advice! I'll definitely be using something else.

 

[penelopejane]

I thought I'd do a tiger stripe. I thought I'd make one of the colours with clay and one with AC.
I totally forgot clay and AC accelerate despite mixing only just to emulsion.
Not happy.

 

[Dahila]

AC rather slows than accelerate, Clays I had never notice acceleration

 

[penelopejane]

AC rather slows than accelerate, Clays I had never notice acceleration

I searched bentonite and AC here on the forum.

 

[Dahila]

I do not use benonite, to hard on my skin, I mean it is drying for me, I use Kaolin, AC well I made at least 600 soaps with it, and it does not accelerate for me, but i do soap RT that's true

 

[penelopejane]

I do not use benonite, to hard on my skin, I mean it is drying for me, I use Kaolin, AC well I made at least 600 soaps with it, and it does not accelerate for me, but i do soap RT that's true

I'll try again with another FO and cooler temp. Thanks.
I was using bentonite for the colour. Not very impressive.

 

[Dahila]

penelope try cool temps and knows FO for not accelerating and maybe Australian pink clay, lately my favorite a tiny bit on the top of teaspoon will color your soap pastel pink

 

[penelopejane]

penelope try cool temps and knows FO for not accelerating and maybe Australian pink clay, lately my favorite a tiny bit on the top of teaspoon will color your soap pastel pink

I was pretty sure the FO wasn't an accelerator but who knows?
I know clays vary but I have 2 Aussie pink clays and a French pink clay and they are all a horrible brick red pink in my recipe base.

Now if I were using lard I wouldn't have a problem! :mrgreen:

 

[Kittish]

Well, I tried to burn my house down. I've got a couple of bamboo cutting boards that I use as handily portable flat surfaces for soaping. Originally got them for regular kitchen use, but these boards have developed cracks. I put one of them in the bottom of my oven (sitting directly on top of the heating element) last night, just in case any of the batches I made decided to get froggy and jump out of their molds. All three molds were filled right to the top, so there wasn't any extra room in any of them. Without thinking about it, shortly before I finished up the last batch and went to put them all in the oven, I turned the oven on, figuring to let it go for maybe 5 minutes, just so it'd be nicely cozy. *sniff sniff* Why do I smell smo.... eeep! :shock: Luckily, I caught it quick enough so all I had was an oven full of smoke and a slightly singed cutting board. Didn't even set off the smoke alarms.

Also, my drop swirl was WAY too thin still when I finally decided to pour it. *mumble* My fragrance did not accelerate my batter AT ALL, and I was actually kind of counting on that happening. It's a combination of ylang ylang, rose geranium, champaca, amyris and a tiny bit of patchouli (last three are the first nag champa attempt). I wound up pouring ribbons and blobs on top of the soap, then moving up a bit just until the stream made them go 'bloop' beneath the surface. I hope they didn't just all wind up on the bottom.

 

[Viore]

Yesterday I was making Pumpkin Spice soap. Since the FO discolors, I didn't add it to my oils before mixing in my lye (as I usually do). I portioned out some batter, colored it orange, and poured the orange batter back into the uncolored batter and gave it a little swirl .... then looked over and saw my fragrance oil sitting in its container, mocking me. Sighed, poured the FO in the pretty swirled soap, mixed it all up so it was just plain orange, and poured it into the molds. I know the soap will end up all brown, and I'm just kicking myself for forgetting to add the FO to the uncolored batter before the swirl!

 

[chela1261]

I made a spin swirl soap recipe I found on Soapqueens blog and bought everything to make it but I messed up the amount of colorants in the recipe so they didn't come out as good as I wanted them to. Oh well maybe next time

 

[dibbles]

I pureed some cucumbers from the garden and strained them twice to end up with some lovely green cucumber juice. I split my batter and got my colors just right - all good. I knew the FO I was going to use would probably accelerate, so I mixed it 1 part naughty FO to 2 parts well behaved FO. It riced, and then was off and running. I plopped it into the mold. Tried to swirl it a little with a chopstick and there were big lumps. Banged the molds (yes, it was a rare for me double batch) and I'm expecting all kinds of air pockets and ugly await for tomorrow. Lesson relearned - don't make a big batch with an accelerating FO, even if it is just a small amount of the blend. The offender is WSP Cool Cucumber, which smells great. The little that's left will have to be used for something else.

And then I accidentally knocked my acrylic planer/beveler that I love off the shelf and broke a corner. I'm hoping it is still going to work.

All in all, not a great day in the soap room.

 

[penelopejane]

Yesterday I was making Pumpkin Spice soap. Since the FO discolors, I didn't add it to my oils before mixing in my lye (as I usually do). I portioned out some batter, colored it orange, and poured the orange batter back into the uncolored batter and gave it a little swirl .... then looked over and saw my fragrance oil sitting in its container, mocking me. Sighed, poured the FO in the pretty swirled soap, mixed it all up so it was just plain orange, and poured it into the molds. I know the soap will end up all brown, and I'm just kicking myself for forgetting to add the FO to the uncolored batter before the swirl!

Oh I feel for you. I just made a soap and I reserved a cup to put a swirl in. Just as I finished pouring the lye mix in I realised I hadn't added any lye to the reserved cup. Ijiot! I had to mix my reserved amount into the main batter and ended up with a completely even soap - no swirl. So disappointing.

Dibbles I won't hit like on your post but I do feel for you. : (

 

[SoapAddict415]

My soapy mistake was deciding to log on to the forum at 2:30 am lol. So many good posts & links to view (awesome pics in the soap dough link!). I have to get up in 3 hours to get ready for work & now I want to go make soap or at least go unmold and plane the soap I made after work yesterday!

 

[Chispa]

I bought BHT and EDTA at the same time. I wanted to use BHT to help guard against DOS, because I was using some expired shea butter.

Last night, I carefully blended 0.1% of EDTA with warmed oils and stirred and stirred it for a long time. It didnt seem to dissolve completely. I could see lots of specks floating in the oil. Ah well, I made the rest of the soap as usual. It was only when I was thinking about it today that I realised that I meant to use BHT, and that EDTA doesnt dissolve in oil. I doubt it will hurt anything, I just dont have much protection from DOS in this soap batch.

 

[DeeAnna]

Once you added the lye solution, the edta probably dissolved just fine. I bet you'll have no problems.

 

[Heika]

Soapy mistake: Attempting to shade a purple soap as I went along. In other words, adding more and more mica to the soap and layering it in the mold. The soap batter was not happy with me, and by the time I finished getting it all in the mold, it was downright pissed. It was leaking oils, and processed with lye pockets. Oops. I won't try that again.

Rebatched it and swirled it with another purple lilac soap that I hot processed. It turned out alright, but not how I planned it at all. I have a theory that if the soap is ugly, stick a flower in it. Everyone loves flowers... :???: