), put your soap in the fridge if it will fit or simply leave it un-insulated in a cool place with plenty of air circulation. Here’s a great article on that: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/how-to-rebatch-soap-517103. (This sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t.) Then, it needs to cure for 4-6 weeks to allow excess water to evaporate. Those are a few ideas to start with to help us troubleshoot better! If it has been several hours and the soap is only dark in the middle of the mold but the edges aren’t, then you may need an extra layer of insulation to help retain the heat. Mash up any large chunks and put the bag back into the water. However, its ability to attract moisture means that in very humid weather, little glycerin beads or droplets may develop on the surface of the soap. Reason: These are called DOS, or Dreaded Orange Spots, which indicate that oils in your soap are going rancid. Soap is soft and squishy, like playdough. Thank you very much for all the information from your article. If you can’t blend the majority of them out, then I suggest rebatching the soap. COLD PROCESS SOAP TROUBLESHOOTING There are dozens of variables that can cause problems in cold process soap making. If using a speciality water in your recipe (rainwater, snow, ocean water), be sure to follow the other tips in this section to reduce soda ash. I’m not sure if you will be able to help me …. Solution: Carefully read reviews before purchasing and using a fragrance oil. :). It may take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour but you should hopefully notice an even gel across the top. It has 12 different fats in it. Reason: Tap water contains impurities that can react negatively in the soapmaking process, increasing risk for soda ash and DOS (dreaded orange spots indicating early rancidity). When using clay in soap, dissolve it in the lye solution or mix it with around 3 times the amount of water before blending into the soap. Solution: Don’t be alarmed. If I ever find a way to make it stay, then I’ll definitely update the post! They may take a little longer to reach trace, unmold, and cure, but the final soaps are usually very gentle and mild. Another idea is to also reduce the cocoa butter down to 75 grams (15%) and replace the 25 grams (5%) with something extra nourishing for your skin like shea butter, or avocado oil. (Try 115 to 120°F , which is 46 to 49°C.) Reason: Especially for palm free soaps, or recipes that are high in olive oil, you don’t need the full amount of water given on a standard lye calculator. :). But, giving soap a full 4 to 6 weeks cure time, at minimum, is important. 200g olive oil For soaps high in soft oils, a 3+ month cure time is often even more beneficial. All content © The Nerdy Farm Wife - All Rights Reserved. Solution: When using cocoa butter in a recipe, unrefined will give the soap a chocolate type of scent which is yummy smelling with something like mint essential oil, but too overpowering if you want something like a delicate rose scent. Also, water amount (water discount) can affect gel phase – a soap with a lower water amount requires a higher temperature to reach gel phase, while a soap with a full amount of water will more easily gel. Reason: These molds behave similarly to silicone molds, but are even worse at holding onto cold process soap. Hi Vahid! If too much heat is lost around the edges of the mold, the outer edges of the soap will not gel. Hi Pennytoes! Hello – Thank you for all the information. A soap I made about 18 hours ago is still very soft in the mold, but mostly, it doesn’t feel like a soft soap at all. :). You'll love reading this article, Cold Process vs. It’s just a cosmetic issue & the cured bars will be perfectly fine to use. (Don’t throw it out, just be aware that it may need a long time to firm up, if it ever does, and will be extra superfatted/oil-heavy. Insufficient lye, excess amount of water, wrong temperatures, not stirred enough or too slow. Solution: Try reducing the amount of coconut oil down to 17 to 22% of the oils in the recipe. Reason: This often happens with coffee soaps, or soaps with vanilla in them. Visit http://www.SuperSoapMakingSecrets.com for more simple soap making recipes like this. All recipes with juice, milk, or alcohol have steps to ensure that this doesn’t happen. 100g cocoa butter Or your temperatures are too cold for a good chemical reaction. The website thenerdyfarmwife.com, operating under Honey Bee Hill Creatives LLC, is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Reason: Using your immersion (or stick) blender too much. Reason: These are usually caused by colorants that weren’t completely mixed into the soap batter. If working in a warm room, or with ingredients containing natural sugars such as honey, milk, beer, etc, you may not need to insulate your soap. We’ll discuss some of the more common issues as well as how to avoid and deal If it is hard, it’s still fine to use. Have you had it for a long while? This is most evident when you see hard clumpy lye. Reason: Some fragrance oils don’t behave well in soap and will cause separation. Have a love summer! Cold work rooms will increase risk of soda ash. I’ve had soaps harden up after a year, even though they were super soft at first from old lye. Can you tell me more about the soap and the recipe you used? If your liquid soap recipe is made from scratch, then you might want to consider adjusting the recipe to include more coconut or castor oil, or try lather boosting additives like aloe liquid (in the lye solution, not for dilution) or sugar. that’s very informative. Soap has a tunnel inside when you cut into it. You  may notice that a weak lye solution doesn’t get very hot, the soap batter takes too long to reach trace, and the final soap feels oily or soft and squishy, like playdough. You may notice that a weak lye solution doesn’t get very hot, the soap batter takes too long to reach trace, and the final soap feels oily or soft. Reason: Too much sodium lactate can cause the soap to become hard and crumbly. Castile bars can do this. Reason: Check the bottle of lye you used. Be sure to read this exceptionally informative article on Curing Soap from the Classic Bells website. They are in there third week sof curing … what should i do? Whew! Soap has weird orange or brown spots on it and/or smells bad. It sounds like something is wrong with the lye or the lye amount. Reason: In my soapmaking experiments, I’ve found that adding too much zinc oxide to lighten a soap color creates a soap with a chalky texture that cracks on top. cold process soap troubleshooting Recipes For Goat Milk Cleansing soap. Make sure it’s completely blended in before pouring into the mold. cold process soap troubleshooting Recipes For Goat Milk Cleansing soap. Jo Haslauer has an excellent series of 4 articles on natural colorants that every soapmaker should read for information on infusions and there’s also a unit on natural soap colorants in my Soapmaking Success Video Course. Yes, you could use 1/2 lavender and 1/2 lemongrass. Lye and oils must always be weighed with an accurate scale. Soap begins to crack or bubble up in the middle. When using honey and a lot of other hard fats and butters, watch your batter carefully. If you find your soap cracking then try to cool it down. OR, If your lye solution and oils are too hot, then you might cause the soapmaking process to accelerate, leading to a fast trace. Here’s a great article that tells how! Thanks, Jan! (Possibly hours.). If you feel like you used the correct amount of sodium hydroxide, chec… Try dipping in water, as instructed by this. Monitor freshly poured soap for signs of overheating and move to a cooler place if needed. At least that’s my best guess so far! If it’s soft, it may need to be hot-processed or allowed to cure longer. Solution: Use individual silicone molds instead of a loaf mold for ease of unmolding. Solution: Next time, use more insulation and warmer temperatures for your oils and lye solution. You can check for false trace by leaving the soap batter undisturbed for about 20 or 30 seconds after you reach light trace. Solution: After removing soap from the fridge or freezer, allow it to come to room temperature and stay undisturbed for another 24 to 48 hours. Soap has flat white spots on top of the soap. Over time, lye will absorb moisture and humidity from the air. Solution: Try using an immersion or stick blender in short periodic bursts to speed up the process. the oils did not become soap and only the surface harden. Tag Archives: cold process soap troubleshooting. Reason: Consider additives such as beeswax and sodium lactate to increase soap hardness. Separation is usually indicated when there is liquid at the bottom and greasy soap on top, or substantial pockets of liquid in the soap and a strong odor. (I have a tutorial coming to the site soon!) Liquid soap turn watery and starts smelling: This is the case when your liquid soap turns watery and start emanating a bad smell. 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. How is it looking now? Hi, just read your article on what’s wrong with my soap. Do you see any cracks in the top? 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. So your soap didn’t turn out quite how you had hoped? The entire batch will look dark. Hi Andy! Last summer, having moved back closer to home, I got my things back and decided to make a batch. Anything you don't have is available from soap-making suppliers online or some craft stores. Reason: Too much honey can make a soap overly soft. I have your book, 101 Easy Homemade Products. Thank you for your time and your work. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Move it to a cooler room if you have one available. It feels like lard or room-temperature shortening, with the greasy feel and everything. Super great article. Hi Sigrid! Is this soap safe to use? Solution: For more information on natural colorants, Jo Haslauer has a highly recommended series of 4 articles  filled with loads of information. There’s a lot of advice out there on ways to remove soda ash, but very few helpful instructions on preventing soda ash on cold process soap. While technically you can use your soap right away, it will be longer-lasting, have better lather, and have a gentler pH … (Example: 1 tablespoon clay dissolved in 3 tablespoons water.). Place the soap mold in the oven and monitor it very closely. Don’t leave the soap unattended and keep an eye on it at all times. If you make cold process soap, there’s a good chance you’ve gotten soda ash. I wish I could be more help, but good luck with your experiments! Soap has a weird texture with raised lines, or veins, running throughout. Hi.i make soap with 3% superfat and 33% lye concentrate. Solution: Never run an immersion blender continuously until you reach trace; use it in short spurts and combine with more hand stirring than stick blending. Have you had it for a long while? Preparing your workspace before making cold process soap is essential. Soap top is weepy or slightly oozy looking. If it still shows the trace after 30 seconds then it’s a true one. Reason: This is primarily a problem with fragrance oils. DIY make life interesting. In this case, use individual molds, cooler soaping temperatures, and place in the fridge or freezer for 24 hours after pouring. Hi, so much info. If your soap doesn’t reach trace within 10 to 12 minutes, see if one of the situations below applies. Be sure to read his paper on Dreaded Orange Spots for more information and options. Make sure to keep fresh batteries in your scale. Solution: Buy a fresh bottle of lye from a reputable vendor. This isn’t possible in molds with inserts and can ruin some designs; in these cases try to keep your soap well insulated. This usually occurs only when soap with extra sugars from juices, milks, or alcohol become overheated. It will be easier to troubleshoot with more details. Reason: The lye didn’t completely dissolve and is now in crystalline form throughout the soap. (Make sure it’s labeled sodium hydroxide and not potassium hydroxide.) Posted on January 7, 2017 by Tes. I tested the PH is all around 7. I’ve had many readers write to me struggling with soda ash and in mulitiple cases, they’d been making soap in very cold areas, such as 50°F (10°C). My recipe is: 5% super fat Cold Process Soap, Troubleshooting Preventing Soda Ash on Cold Process Soap. They smell and work fine. Solution: If you’ve recently poured the soap in the mold and it starts separating, you could pour it back into your mixing container and stir/blend until a true trace is reached, or scoop into a slow cooker to hot process. Hi Uma! ), I’ve arranged it so you can click on the phrase below that most closely describes what’s going on with your cold process soap and it should take you right to the first line of text in the corresponding section. Soap is ready to slice as soon as it has completely cooled. This is most evident when you see hard clumpy lye. Reason: Hard fats such as palm, tallow, lard, butters, etc contain solid fatty acids (like stearic acid & palmitic acid) that need a higher temperature to melt, while other components of the fat melt more easily. It will continue to harden over a few weeks but will not be a long-lasting bar. When I first learned to make soap, everyone added the extra oils for superfatting after mixing the soap to trace, but then some research was done to show that it doesn’t matter when you add the oils, so you might as well mix them all at once. Read through the common problems below to find the solution to your soap saga. Solution: Use a lighter hand when spritzing soap tops with alcohol, or cover with an alternative method such as plastic wrap. But, what if your soap takes longer than usual to harden? You may wish to completely avoid gel phase which is often desirable for milk soaps to keep them lighter colored. If this happens often, you may want to consider placing newly poured soap in a 170°F oven until fully gelled. (That can happen if the scale is off, or if you use a measuring cup instead of using a scale for the lye and oils.) To avoid unintended brown soaps, be careful not to steep your herbal tea too long, especially when using herbs such as mint or lavender. It's all about ideas, creativity, passionate and most important have FUN. Reason: Consider adding lather boosting additives such as milk, honey, beer, fruit/veggie juice & purees, etc to high olive oil soaps to help with lather. Pick the bag up and (using a hot pad) squish the soap around in the bag. Tweet. Hi Nga! 200g coconut oil How can we soften a bar of Zote soap so we can cut it in pieces?????? Did you double a batch of oils but forget to double the lye solution used? Solution: Use a well draining soap dish and keep the bars as dry as possible between use. Solution: Take extra care if using bay laurel, citronella, clove, cinnamon, fir, palmarosa, pepper, and ylang ylang essential oils. Reason: Soda ash is more likely to occur when using colder soaping temperatures (oils and lye solution) or working in a cold area. For fragrance oils, be sure to read through product descriptions and reviews to see what other soapers have to say about them. 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. Insufficient use of preservative e.g formaline 2. Solution: There are a few suggested workarounds to try. “If your client base is heavily tilted toward natural ingredients, using 0.1% of your oil weight in ROE is very likely to significantly extend your shelf life.” I would rebatch it and then see how it does over the next few days. Troubleshooting: Partial Gel in Cold Process Soap In the Modern Soapmaking Troubleshooting Talk series, we explore various soap making problems and find out what went wrong plus share some tips and tricks to put the smack down on issues that pop up. Stir it into the lye solution once it has cooled. 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