Thursday, March 20, 2008

Bad Soap! Bad!



What happened? Why must you misbehave??





I have stuck you in the freezer because you were so evil. We'll see what you say then!


Batch recipe:

32 oz. H2O
11.2 lye
6 .5 oz Crisco
16 oz. Coconut oil 76 degrees
38 oz Almond Oil
4 oz. Avocado butter
29.5 oz. Meadowfoam Seed oil....any insight?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you use a lye calculator? I saw your post on the teachsoap forum, I haven't encountered anything like this yet...

Anonymous said...

I think that bar may remain softish for quite some time. Your recipe uses very little hard oils. If it sits for awhile - it will get harder - but with that many soft oils and the type of oils used - it may be soft forever.

Recipes that you can unmold right away usually use the 60% hard/40% soft ratio rule as a guide. OR a soaper may choose to discount their liquids. For example - a Castile or all Olive oil soap could be in the mold a week or more using full liquids - but just a matter of days with a liquid discount.

Let it sit - it may turn out. :)

Anonymous said...

This is what your recipie should look close to:

Units of Measure ounces
Superfat* 5%
Water Discount** 40%
Sodium Lactate (NAL)*** 0%
Fragrance (EO/FO)*** 0%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shortening 6.00 ounces - 6.4 %
Coconut Oil 16.00 ounces - 17.1 %
Almond Oil 38.00 ounces - 40.6 %
Avocado Butter 4.00 ounces - 4.3 %
Meadowfoam 29.50 ounces - 31.6 %
Lye: (NAOH) 12.28 ounces
Water: 37.40 ounces
Sodium Lactate (NaL): 0.00 ounces
Fragrance (FO/EO): 0.00 ounces

-----------------------------------

Total Oils 93.5 ounces

use a lye calculator!!!!!!
you are not adding enough lye, and your water is off!! use the Bramble Berry LYE CALCULATOR. YOU are wasting a lot of expensive oils!! keep trying, you will get better .

Heidi said...

Ok Joanna, here's what I found.

I went to http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/soapcalcWP.asp and plugged in your numbers. For a 5% superfat discount it says you need 56.5 oz water and 19.6 oz lye. So overall you don't have enough water or lye which means a lot of excess oils that don't have anything to do.

Now that I know how to use the calculators I always check my recipes. It makes for fewer disappointments (but doesn't eliminate them alltogether = ).

Don't give up! You've made some beautiful bars especially for a beginner!!!!

Joanna Schmidt said...

OK. So I flopped incredibly. Where sis I get that recipe anyway!!!???

Can I rebatch this soap?

Heidi said...

i'm a huge rebatch flopper so not the no. 1 authority. however, i would say no because it needs more lye and water.

btw, did i read your recipe wrong, or is that 61.2 oz. crisco? if not my figures are wrong...

Joanna Schmidt said...

heidi- It is 6.5 oz. I wrote it wrong. Blip. It is fixed!

Anonymous said...

Oh bummer! You sure have a great sense of humor about it though. :)

dcyrill said...

I know you feel like you wasted your efforts. But all of us have soaps that just don't turn out right for whatever reason. You have learned from this mistake :0
Now you can move on. :)

Ginger's Garden said...

That doesn't look too bad. :o)
Irena
www.gingersgarden.com

Candice said...

I feel you, I just had this issue with a batch. I did everything right and I don't know what happened but I had to throw the whole thing out :( BAD SOAP!!

Donna said...

my heart goes out to you.
I had two decent first batches (although the second batch really was debatable about how good it really was) and I followed that with, I think, three batches that weren't so good. One that never set up at all.
Funny thing, I kept reverting 1lb into 12 ounces (you know, 12 inches equals a foot). Hahahahaha. I'm better now.
Don't give up, you'll get it.

Joanna Schmidt said...

You are too kind...thank you. All that oil and time. What a waste.

I took it out of the freezer, cut it nicely, so now it is thawing outside. 74 degrees, 50% humidity. Must dry out. Maybe it's garbage but I am still holding out a little hope!

I wish you all a better soaping eve.

Michelle said...

Haha, you're cute! Don't feel bad! I always feel it's better to learn mistakes firsthand that way you'll never forget it. I've binned batches before. And yes, hehe use a lye calculator for every recipe even if its in a book :).

Michelle said...

Hi again! The Soap Naturally book says that you can rebatch this one however through the hot process method.

You have to start off with a new batch of soap (deliberately UNDER-fatted) then add this failed batch to the new one. Calculate with a lye calculator how much lye you would need for BOTH batches together. Then subtract from that amount (the final superfatting ratio you have chosen) with the lye that you have already used in the first (failed) batch. That will leave you with how much lye you need to add to the new batch.

If you have questions just ask! With help from Dan for this post who was arguing with me over my soap book and eventually got it right. -_-

Joanna Schmidt said...

I can honestly say, chemist, I am not, player of ingredients? yes. Maybe that's why I do much better with body prods. Eh?

I will keep you apprised of my bad boys.

Candice said...

Joanna, I'm so sorry I stole your blot title!!! I just changed mine to "Ugly Soap" very appropriate if you would have seen the look of these things when they came out of the mold! I am definitely going to try adding the milk at trace, keep your fingers crossed for me :)