What soapy thing have you done today?

[ewhitake]

I don't see anything wrong with this soap- is there something specific you didn't like?

Many CP soaps feel a little oily to the touch for a few weeks. If they continue to feel oily after that, you will want to lower (not raise) the superfat. More superfat = more free oil = oily to the touch.

I guess what I meant by something being wrong is that my pretty top kind of deflated. I was expecting it to be just as lofty as when I put it to cure.
But nice to know that some soaps do feel oily and I may not have made a huge mistake. It was my first time using eggs in soap.
I really wanna thank you for the explanation about super fat. I’m still a new maker and didn’t realize what the numbers actually meant.

I have no experience with lard and/or egg yolks in soap recipes so I'm not help here. What was the whole recipe? What liquid did you work with?

 

[AliOop]

I guess what I meant by something being wrong is that my pretty top kind of deflated. I was expecting it to be just as lofty as when I put it to cure.

I do understand the disappointment when the result doesn't match the picture in your head. But no one looking at it will know - they will just see a pretty soap.

 

[ackosel]

I made my first oatmeal, milk and honey soap today! While I was prepping my colorants and additives, and waiting for the oils to cool, a life flight helicopter landed in the pasture below our house and met an ambulance coming from the mountain across from us.

I was able to keep my lye/milk solution super cool (under 75°F), hoping to keep my soap a nice creamy color. Well, the helicopter excitement disrupted my thought process and I forgot to disperse the honey in warm water before I added the lye to the oils. When I combined the lye (73°) with the oils (91°), I got a pretty quick false trace. Trying to remember what to do in case of false trace, I blended until it was too thick to blend and then I hand stirred it until it loosened up. I have no idea how loose it should get, so I hand stirred like crazy for about 5 minutes. It never got thinner than a medium/thick trace, but since it wasn't changing at all as I stirred, I decided that's what I was going to get. Then I added the EO slurry with the oatmeal that I had prepared last week along with some sugar in place of the honey.

I decided not to try using the turmeric and charcoal colorants I had prepared and left the batter natural. I added a couple cocoa powder pencil lines as I poured instead. Then, I set the mold outside to hopefully prevent gel and keep the color as light as I can.

So now, I need to make another soap to use the pre-dispersed colorants I have before they soak through the paper cups they're in!

 

[dmcgee5034]

Made this soap yesterday and cut it today. The FO is BB Cactus Flower, so I wanted the vibe of a cactus with 2 flowers.

 

[bookworm42]

Made this soap yesterday and cut it today. The FO is BB Cactus Flower, so I wanted the vibe of a cactus with 2 flowers.

I think you nailed it!

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

My soap thing today was an epic fail. And a total waste of a huge amount of oils! … and when I looked at it this morning there was all this oil laying on the top surface.
Is there any way to save it? Do I just throw it in the trash?

I feel your pain and tears, @ewhitake. When I’ve discovered a lye error, I have immediately turned the soap fail into a Hot Process rebatch with additional lye water to bring it up to the correct sap for the batch of oils used. I chop the soap up, put everything into a large stock pot, cover it, and put it in the oven at 200F until the soap melts. In your case, you have so much oil that you may want to pour off what you can, combine it with the lye water, and blend up to emulsion or trace if you can.

(If the soap is lye heavy, I do the same as above with the required amount of oils plus additional water. Maybe @Vicki C will do this with her sister soap fail and report the results?)

Basically, you will turn the batch into Hot Processed soap. You will probably need to add even more liquid to get the soap to fully melt, and some of the water evaporates during the cook. I use a stick blender to homogenize the soap at the end of the cook. If you add lactic acid or a little yogurt, the soap will be more fluid to pour into a mold. Watch some videos on HP soap making.

My suggestion above is a lot of extra work to salvage a batch of soap. Unless you want the learning experience, you will be better off tossing the batch and chalking the expense up to the price of a valuable lesson!

 

[justsomeguy]

I cleaned up.
The unseen side of soaping

 

[Midnight_Sun]

I cleaned up.
The unseen side of soaping
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Truly! I was just telling my partner yesterday, this soaping thing is really just washing dishes as a hobby!

 

[justsomeguy]

Truly! I was just telling my partner yesterday, this soaping thing is really just washing dishes as a hobby!

Yes!

 

[justsomeguy]

I made soap

 

[Relle]

I cleaned up.
The unseen side of soaping
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Aren't you lucky to have a dishwasher to do the job for you. I'd be happy for that unseen side of soaping, I'm the dishwasher here, I clean up, no machine to do it for me.

 

[justsomeguy]

Aren't you lucky to have a dishwasher to do the job for you. I'd be happy for that unseen side of soaping, I'm the dishwasher here, I clean up, no machine to do it for me.

In true American fashion, I wash the dishes before the dishwasher washes up. I won't talk about the incident that led to this er, routine

 

[ackosel]

In true American fashion, I wash the dishes before the dishwasher washes up. I won't talk about the incident that led to this er, routine

I have a dishwasher, but wash my soaping dishes by hand.

Today, we ground more goat tallow for rendering at a later date. I can't wait to make soap with it!

 

[Nonnie]

I worked on labels FOREVER. Another unseen side of the crafty world, and one that I'm not very good at. I honestly think I would trade for dishes some days.
Unfolded some soaps too. I had dry brushed the molds with mica and they came out pretty nice. Trimmed and stamped some others, and unfortunately, got a little heavy handed and broke 3 of my pretty mica brushed bee soaps. Bummer.

 

[AliOop]

I worked on labels FOREVER. Another unseen side of the crafty world, and one that I'm not very good at. I honestly think I would trade for dishes some days.

Label-haters, unite! They make me and I'll definitely take dishes any day instead.

 

[dmcgee5034]

I have a dishwasher, but wash my soaping dishes by hand.

Same here