Even then, clear plastic molds arent always reliable. Hi, I was making some soap and while I added my essential oil and mixed it with a silicone spatula it all separated . Reported to be beneficial for anxiety, depression, dry skin, headaches and skin care. (super fat soap question) Hi! Reason: Using your immersion (or stick) blender too much. (Cut it into bars if needed.) Soap that was made yesterday is dark in the middle, but the edges are a lighter color. If you get a chance to post a photo on my Facebook page, Id love to see more details & I might have a better idea for you: :) Solution: Sometimes when the batteries are getting low, scales will act erratic and register inaccurate numbers. Running a small dehumidifier in the area or using a product such as DampRid can be very helpful in humid environments. I dont have any experience adding foam booster to liquid soaps so Im afraid Im just not sure. Followed by rice flake kind solution. Hi Tara, Im so sorry to hear that! Give the soap several weeks to several months of extra cure time and it should eventually harden up. If you add too much water and your soap is pretty much a liquid how do I get the water out, can I bake it out or am in the zone of waiting a month for the repurposed soap. This could take several hours, depending on the age/hardness of your soap. http://cavemanchemistry.com/DreadedOrangeSpot-Dunn.pdf, Would like to make Lavender/Lemongrass soap, but cant find a recipe. Soap is not the color or scent you expected. When cold process soaps are past their best, they can become discoloured and the scent may change. Or perhaps the oils were the same, but the fragrance was different? Thanks! So you place your container on the scale, then you push tare to reset it to zero, and then you can add your ingredient that you want to weigh. https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/how-to-rebatch-soap-517103, https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/troubleshooting-cold-process-soap-problems/#section10, https://www.facebook.com/pg/TheNerdyFarmWife/posts, http://cavemanchemistry.com/DreadedOrangeSpot-Dunn.pdf, https://www.facebook.com/TheNerdyFarmWife, https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/coconut-laundry-soap-stain-stick-laundry-detergent-recipe/, https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/handmade101/learn-to-make-articles/All-That-Glycerol.aspx. Make sure its completely blended in before pouring into the mold. Soap made a few hours ago is turning darker in the middle and looking funny. Solution: If using SoapCalc or Soapee lye calculators, change the water as percent of oils number from the default 38%, down to 33 to 35%. Soap has a dark ring or rind around the outside and the middle is lighter. Find out the most common soap making mistakes, and let's troubleshoot! Set it on some parchment or wax paper to cure for a week or so and that's it. (Don't let heat escape the oven by opening the door to peek!) Hi Kyptnc7! Use the stick blender to incorporate into soap until the color is smooth. If you are using single cavity molds, you can try freezing them to harden and hopefully the soap will pop out easier. What's Wrong With My Soap? :), Hi Jan Warm Regards Handmade Soap Recipes Soap Making Recipes Handmade Soaps Shampoo Diy Soap Making Supplies Homemade Bath Products Common Cold Goat Milk Soap Beauty Recipe More information . Reason: The soapmaking process naturally produces glycerin, a humectant which is great for your skin. While its doing its super long cure though, I would also try making the batch over again, so you can have soap a lot sooner than up to a year away! Reduced water amounts, longer cure time, and certain additives can help them be harder and longer lasting. Thats a great question! With the melt and pour method, you aren't making soap completely from scratch with oils, liquid, and lye. Hand stirring can be nice though; and help minimize air bubbles, so I think that was fine to do. Do you see any cracks in the top? Reason: This could be because your soap didnt completely emulsify; you stopped mixing too soon. As the soap cools, the center will lighten again. Reason: Too much honey can make a soap overly soft. Soap has dark spots that are oozy and sticky. Hi Meme! Solution: Just wait and let the soap go through this natural stage. Looking for answers. Hi Chloe, So glad you found it helpful! This increases the amount of free oils in the soap, making it more conditioning. Thank you for your time and your work. 54 Likes, 14 Comments - VIREN APOTHECARY (@virenapothecary) on Instagram: "Confession time: I've been using tide free & clear the last few years. 50g star anise Double check that you used the correct amount of lye for the recipe and rebatch the soap if so. What I would do is just let that soft soap cure in the open air and check it every month. 28.8g eucalyptus. Reason: The lye didnt completely dissolve and is now in crystalline form throughout the soap. It was smooth when I poured in but Im still not sure why I could see oil on top. Sometimes we just don't know what has happened. Perhaps the glycerin rivers are more concentrated bursts of moisturization and give a more noticeable effect as they go over your skin?? Thanks! Some, such as alkanet and indigo, absolutely need a gel phase to be at their best. Regular coconut oil and extra virgin coconut oil act the same way in soap, so I think its probably because of another cause. When your cold process soap is in the mould it will heat up, and if it gets warm enough it will reach gel phase. One technique to help with a misbehaving essential or fragrance oil is to reserve some of the warmed oils from the recipe, blend the EO or FO with it, then add right at emulsification stage or the thinnest trace. Hi Andy! In general, cold process soap made in silicone and plastic molds takes longer to harden and umold. Am i putting too much coconut oil in ? Return it to regular position before turning on. For a 5% superfat, you would use the recipe above but have 4.64 oz of sodium hydroxide and I think you will have a nice soap! d) Oils, Butters or Fats Used Hi Nga! Reason: Some fragrance oils dont behave well in soap and will cause separation. Reason: Spritzing too much alcohol on top of your soap (in an attempt to reduce soda ash) may cause cracking. :). Hi, thank you, this post is amazing and Im sure took a ton of time! For more information on essential oils, check out my printable chart of 24 common soapmaking essential oils and their usage rates. Did the lye have any lumps or clumps in it? ), Ive arranged it so you can click on the phrase below that most closely describes whats going on with your cold process soap and it should take you right to the first line of text in the corresponding section. We'll discuss some of the more common issues as well as how to avoid and deal with them. Solution: Hand stir for the most part, using the stick blender only in short bursts to help speed up the process. It will be easier to troubleshoot with more details. Also when we calculated do we add the weight of the jug to the measure and then weigh it or without. :), I have never seen my soap so oily the next day the oil is oozing out I have used the same ingredients a dozen times what can be wrong I hope I can still use it thanks for the advice, Hi Clara, Im so sorry to hear your soap did that! Reason:Sometimes a false trace happens where the soap looks like it has emulsified, but its really because a solid ingredient in the soap has gotten cool enough to start thickening the soap batter. This ultimate troubleshooting guide breaks down the reasons and solutions for 30+ common cold process soap problems. The recipe itself looks very nice and balanced, but you have a little too much lye. For fragrance oils, be sure to read through product descriptions and reviews to see what other soapers have to say about them. If you have the recipe, feel free to share it here and I can take a look at it. If amounts and temperatures are correct, continue stirring up to 3 hours or . OR, If your lye solution and oils are too hot, then you might cause the soapmaking process to accelerate, leading to a fast trace. A tissue is therefore often thought of as a assembly of similar cells and their extracellular matrix from the same origin that together carry out a specific function. When you create a recipe using a lye calculator, you normally calculate around a 5 or 6% superfat. Ive had soaps harden up after a year, even though they were super soft at first from old lye. Lovely article very well written. Solution: Before adding to soap, mix thoroughly with vegetable glycerin, oil, or water, depending on vendors instructions and your recipe directions. Sometimes those get mixed up when you order them, and potassium hydroxide would make your soap stay soft. Reason: The more water in a recipe, the longer it takes to evaporate out over cure time. You may notice that a weak lye solution doesnt get very hot, the soap batter takes too long to reach trace, and the final soap feels oily or soft and squishy, like playdough. Double check water, oil and lye measurements. https://www.eocalc.com/. It should be a nice hard bar of soap! Solution: You can choose to leave the droplets on the surface of the soap and see if they reabsorb in over the next few days, or dab at the moisture with a paper towel to soak them up. :). How is it looking now? Did you double check the recipe with a lye calculator to make sure that it was correct? Its been curing for 6 weeks, Ive used this soap for my hands but the soap are getting softer and I think it will get worse. Solution: To prolong shelf life of soap, use fresh oils from a reliable vendor, distilled water (contaminants in tap water can cause problems), cure soap with plenty of air flow around each bar, and store cured soaps in a cool, dark, dry area with good air circulation. In most cases like this, the scent (whether fragrance oil or essential oil) is the culprit. For soap to sweat, water must be available in the surrounding air. I generally use 1 part of soap paste to 1-3 parts distilled water. Sometimes using a higher amount of hard oils in your recipe can prevent sweating, so that lines up with the 40%+ coconut oil soap not sweating. If you have my print book, Simple & Natural Soapmaking, there are several pages of color charts showing real soaps made with a variety of natural colorants and the amounts used. Thanks. Add sodium lactate or salt to the lye solution and use a reduced water amount to decrease time spent in the soap mold. Was the cucumber and ginger finely juiced or pureed, or were there larger pieces in the soap? Reason: Sometimes your container might have a small amount of residue left on it from your last batch or a previous use. or citrus tend to be the most likely to turn your soap darker and this can happen in melt and pour soaps or cold process soaps. Solution: Use moderate amounts of clay and zinc oxide in your soap; more is not always better! If you dont know an exact amount its going to be hard to rebatch, because you dont want to guess when it comes to lye. Dont use a hand mixer like you use for making cakes or whipping cream. Reason: These are usually caused by colorants that werent completely mixed into the soap batter. Solution: For more information on natural colorants, Jo Haslauer has a highly recommendedseries of 4 articles filled with loads of information. Im not sure you need that much heat for such a long time, and the bubbles on top surface seem to indicate that the soap could have overheated. Through a long history of practical experience a variety of causes and their cures have been detailed. So happy to hear you like the book! thats very informative. If the soaps not tacky, then the likely culprit was the long heating time. Then, you can add in more color and scent when its an even consistency, similar to making hot process. Jan Berry is a writer, herbalist, soapmaker, and bestselling author of The Big Book of Homemade Products, Simple & Natural Soapmaking, and Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps. Helpful article Simple Secrets: Anchoring Fragrances In CP Soap, 1. It gels throughout the middle but cools down before the soap can gel to the edges (called partial gel in soap-ese.) The result is a chemical process called saponification, where the composition of the oils change with the help of the lye to create a bar of soap. In this case, use individual molds, cooler soaping temperatures, and place in the fridge or freezer for 24 hours after pouring. This is most evident when you see hard clumpy lye. 93g green french clay Thank you, this is so helpful. Thanks again Jan for a smart, insightful, and wonderfully written article. This could be from working at high temperatures, high natural sugar ingredients (beer, pumpkin, honey, milk, etc), or a misbehaving fragrance oil. I do appreciate any help you can give. Or place saponifying soap in refrigerator. Squirt an oil cutting recipe cleansing soap atop the sodium bicarbonate, entirely covering it, then scrub in the cooking soda and dish soap making olive oil soap with a nylon or plastic scrub brush (don't make use of a wire brush, you'll risk scratching the concrete's surface). Solution: The why is still a mystery to me, but its purely cosmetic and the soap is fine to use. I have a question. A there a rule of thumb, for super fat soaps? Hi, so much info. Hello Thank you for all the information. {troubleshooting cold process soap problems} We all have soapmaking fails. Reason: This is caused by not completely mixing honey into your soap. Soap has small visible white spots all throughout. Recipes that are higher in solid fats, such as cocoa butter, kokum butter, palm oil, tallow, and lard, tend to unmold more easily than recipes high in soft liquid oils such as olive or sunflower. Hi Hallie! I made a batch of soap and t came out too soft. Using the bag like a pastry bag, squish/squirt the soap into the molds. (Soap-on-a-stick). Be sure to read this exceptionally informative article on Curing Soap from the Classic Bells website. The extra water weight makes it so it doesnt weigh out correctly and your soap will end up with less lye than it needs. If using palm oil, its recommended to completely melt and stir the oil every time you use it or you might have an uneven balance of fatty acids, leading to more spots in some batches. Dont add dry clay or colorant directly to thickened soap batter since you usually wont have time to work it completely in. (Fun fact, I enjoy using the dog shampoo bar for myself sometimes and have many other readers write in and tell me the same thing!) Hi Jen! Some colorants do best dissolved in oil, so add them to the warmed oils at the beginning of the soapmaking process or pre-infuse the oils with the colors. 972g olive oil Wait 5 days before testing your batch. 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Over your skin you usually wont have time to work it completely in troubleshooting process! Read through product descriptions and reviews to see what other soapers have to say about.! Jug to the measure and then weigh it or without colorants that werent completely mixed into the soap to hot. Much honey can make a soap overly soft 50g star anise Double check that you used the amount! Of time x27 ; s troubleshoot for anxiety, depression, dry skin headaches! Rule of thumb, for super fat soaps be beneficial for anxiety, depression dry. Use for making cakes or whipping cream have been detailed discuss some of the water., Butters or Fats used hi Nga anise Double check that you used the amount..., using the stick blender only in short bursts to help speed up the process look at.. Then the likely culprit was the cucumber and ginger finely juiced or pureed, or were larger... Door to peek! { troubleshooting cold process soap problems } we all have soapmaking fails product descriptions and to... Emulsify ; you stopped mixing too soon single cavity molds, cooler soaping temperatures, wonderfully...: just wait and let the soap mold recipe with a lye calculator to sure! And scent when its an even consistency, similar to making hot process out..., depending on the age/hardness of your soap or using a lye,... Was making some soap and while I added my essential oil ) is the culprit evident you... Much honey can make a soap overly soft extra cure time and it should cold process soap troubleshooting nice. Clay thank you, this post is amazing and Im sure took a ton of time correctly... This case, use individual molds, you can try freezing them harden... Alkanet and indigo, absolutely need a gel phase to be at best. Directly to thickened soap batter blender only in short bursts to help up... S troubleshoot Don & # x27 ; s Wrong with my soap lighter color of another cause middle! I think that was cold process soap troubleshooting to do gel phase to be beneficial for anxiety, depression dry. Other soapers have to say about them time and it should eventually up. Behave well in soap and t came out too soft top of your soap more. To several months of extra cure time wonderfully written article and balanced, but you have small. ( in an attempt to reduce soda ash ) may cause cracking overly soft breaks the!
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