I made soap last night, and it turned out perfectly! The backstory is that my last few batches didn't turn out well, and everything pointed to something with my MB lye solution. This was one where I had premixed it to 40% concentration and included the sorbitol and CA. It worked well at first, but about half-way through the jug, my soap batter started behaving differently. Some wouldn't trace; others traced but leaked or full-on separated in the mold. One large batch in my slab mold ended up with a huge heat cavity, filled with liquid that smelled like vomit (no milk products were used, either).
See pic #1, below. I've never had that happen before! Needless to say, this entire batch went into the trash.
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That last failure was enough to motivate me to put the lye solution down a few drains throughout the house, and make a new MB, this time at 50% with no additives. It was tough getting a glove over my thumb splint, but soapers gonna soap, ya know?
And I'm so glad I did. This batch is scented with a mix of 2 parts lavandin EO and 1 part Bouquet of Roses FO, a very popular blend with a couple of friends who have been patiently waiting for me to make a decent batch of soap. The color was supposed to be pink, but it's definitely more of a blush pink on the peachy side. A last minute decision was to press my texture mat on top, which served double-duty as a covering for the soap, too. One hour on the heating pad, then left to sit under a towel, and it was ready to unmold and cut this morning, about 12 hours after pouring. It's now been cut and trimmed, and is sitting under plastic wrap for a few days to prevent soda ash. The shadow makes it look like a partial gel, but IRL, the colors are smooth and even. Yay!
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