SOAP FAILURE - AIR HOLE AND UNEVEN SOAP -

In my very short soap making experience and gathered information from internet, I have found some tips to avoid soap making failure. I am showing my failed soaps and consideration on them.
日本語の記事はコチラ [ せっけん　失敗談　- 小さい穴と不均一なせっけん - ]

left and center have air hole and right one has uneven texture in the middle of the soap

+++ AIR HOLE +++

Another soaps with air hole

This happens because soap batter gets too thick to pour into mold. Then why it gets so thick? It is TEMPERATURE. I mixed blended oil (Olive, Coconut, Rice Bran, Palm, Castor) and lye solution in high temperature. If you do not put any options, it may be okay. You do not take time to pour when it gets trace but if you want to add color, herbs or making swirl, you have a trouble here. Saponification has to go not so fast.

I made two different soap from same soap batter, so it took time to pour the second one (picture above). The first one (picture on the right) I mixed shaved lemongrass soap to very thick soap batter and got many small air holes.



+++ UNEVEN SOAP +++
It was my laziness, I did not melt solid oil fully before mixed with lye solution. It is solved easy, DON'T BE LAZY!!

SOAP FAILURE - SODA ASH -

In my very short soap making experience and gathered information from internet, I have found some tips to avoid soap making failure. I am showing my failed soaps and consideration on them.
日本語の記事はコチラ [せっけん　失敗談　- ソーダ灰 -]

+++ SODA ASH +++
Soda ash is harmless and mostly happens on the surface of the cold process soaps.
I think controlling temperature during mixing lye and oil, through gel phase is the matter to avoid soda ash. It needs right temperature to saponify thoroughly then the soaps will be solid, smooth on the surface without soda ash.

Ash happened along pink swirl and surface

This soap is made with Olive oil 70%, Palm oil 20%, Coconut oil 10% and herbs (lemon peel and licorice etc.) and pink colorant.

To dissolve Palm oil and Coconut oil, blended oil was warmed up at 35℃ or over. And I did not let lye solution get cooler before mixing with blended oil. To make pink soap for swirl, mix pink ultramarine with small amount of blended oil and when soap batter got trace, mixed pink oil and the soap batter. It was like  thick pink oil rather than pink soap.
 Soap batter got very warm and trace quickly. Poured into mold and covered with towel, and left in the unheated oven.

Ash on surface and waved on the top (Alien Brain!)

This soap is made with Olive oil 75% Coconut oil 25% and herbs and fragrance. To dissolve Coconut oil, blended oil was warmed up and mixed with hot lye solution. It got trace within 10 mins, after poring into mold covered with towel and left in the unheated oven.


Both soaps are very solid and look good though, I want no ash and Alien Brain on my soap. Temperature Control is the key to avoid soda ash, I think.

MOISTURE SOAPS - ORANGE LEMONGRASS & LAVENDER

Soaps in the mold

I made two version of Moisturizing Soaps, scented with Orange Sweet and Lavender. As I use Rice Bran Oil for moisturize, color of soaps are golden.
When I poured into mold, I could not see violet color at all in Lavender Soap.

Moisture Soaps, Orange Lemongrass and Lavender

But after cut and cure, beautiful lavender color has appeared! I mixed Lemongrass soap into Orange Sweet one, it shows nice little orange grain in the soaps. I still need further TRAINING to cut soaps, don't I !?

#201014-OL

#201014-LV

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100% OLIVE OIL SOAP UNSCENTED & CITRUS

This is my second unscented 100% Olive Oil Soap making, the first one did not go well then I rebatched it. Two months of experience pushed me to go forward and I decided to make one again. I was not confident but still wanted to have 100% Olive Oil Soap for myself.

Lining mold, separate in the middle for making two different soaps

Oil and Orange peel paste and essential oils

 Two different soaps in one time, unscented and citrus soap! Base is the same 100% Olive Oil, prepare orange peel paste and essential oil blend.

Just after mix lye and water

Make lye solution with care, I always make it outdoor.  In the photo, you can see white lye solution, it is  fume coming out of lye water, it gets hot (similar to boiling and steam comes out). You should stay away from this fume or you get burned throat by strong alkaline. However this heat helps dissolving lye to water completely. So I stir only a little (about 15 seconds) and leave for a while. When it gets cooler (about 60℃) I mix lye solution and oil. 

Just after mix oil and lye water

Pour lye water into oil and mix with stick blender. 100% Olive Oil takes more time to get trace.

After 15 mins, got light trace

 After 15 mins mixing with stick blender, it got light trace. I thought it would take more than 30 mins, so it was actually quick.

Pour into mold separately

Half of soap mix without any options, pour into half part of mold.
I have not taken any photo during making citrus soap mix.. I made thin layer in the citrus soap with orange peel paste and swirl on the top.

10 hours later it already got hard

10 hours later, it got hard already. I also thought it would take more than 24 hours, it was really quick. But it was still warm and I was not sure that it was hard enough to cut, I left over night to cut the soap.

100% Olive Oil Soaps!

 After 18 hours, I removed soaps from mold and cut. They were quite firm than I expected. It turned really nice and smells gorgeous in citrus soap! Surprisingly, unscented soaps do not smell at all. I am really happy with these soaps and I cannot wait to use them!! (It will be next year though..) One thing I need to improve is, cutting soaps.. All pieces are different sizes!

#121014-UN

#121014-CT

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HANDMADE LOAF SOAP WOOD MOLD

Handmade soap mold

I made my own wooden soap mold which makes maximum 1.2 kg soap. I can make smaller batch because I can change the size of mold easily.

I have used 500-600g of oil to make soap so far, I am using more than 1kg of oil this time! It is exciting and scary at the same time.

I am making 100% Olive Oil Soap (I won't be rebatching it!!) and Olive Oil Soap with Citrus. 






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REBATCH OLIVE OIL SOAP

My first olive oil soap

Rebatching soap is the way you can save your FAILED SOAP unless it is not lye calculate mistake. My first handmade soap is 100% olive oil soap and they look very nice but smell really oily. After having read many many articles and made myself few batches of soaps, I  have found out one fact, that unpleasant smell goes away eventually. Some of my soaps without fragrance do not smell nice first couple of weeks but apparently it is fading. I thought my soaps are not good to use for body or face wash (I mean I do not want to use bad smell soap), I decided to rebatch it.

Warm up soap pieces

HOW TO REBATCH SOAP

1. Cut soaps in small pieces. Mill or shave is better way to make soaps in small.
2. Melt in double boiled pot.
3. Add options as you like.
4. Pour into mold and leave 24 hours.
5. Remove from mold and cure.

Look like mash potato!

 I add 2 or 3 table spoon of water to soap and cover with foil and wait for a hour. Yes, it takes long time! Gently stir and add Anti Stress Essential Oil Blend. Soap became like thick mash potato. At this point, do not stress out to mix soap well it is okay to leave some chunk of soap. Pour into mold and leave for 24 hours.

Cure for few weeks

I actually like this method, soap looks different and options you add in this process will not be affected by harsh alkaline such as ph sensitive colors. I cannot wait to use them!

 #R310814

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100% OLIVE OIL SOAP UNSCENTED

Most popular oil to make soaps

This soap is made with only Olive
oil and lye and water, and my very first Handmade Soap!
As many soap making website say, making Olive oil soap (often refer as Castile Soap) takes long time to get trace and cure. Some people do not recommend to make olive oil soap as your first batch but I cannot resist making it! Because it is all natural (this is why I want to make my own soap) and I just need to buy olive oil and lye and distill water. So simple and no need to spend to buy more raw materials. At that time I only had a little bit of tea tree oil at home (far not enough to add fragrance) so I decided to go without it.

My first soap making tool!

  

Olive oil and lye water

 
Mix olive oil and lye solution at 40℃ (not accurate though). I did not use stick blender this time just mix with whisk. It took more than over night to get trace. First couple hours, I mixed every 30 mins, and left over night and pour into mold in the morning.

Gel phase? No, oil layer on the top..

 After a half day, I saw oil was separated in the mold. Since I did not know what to do, I just left like that for next 1 week.














 

Wipe oil and remove soaps from the mold

After 1 week, I just wiped off oil on the top of the soaps and remove from the mold. They were still soft but I could not wait to see my first soaps! They look nice and smooth on the surface but smelled really oily. I did not like it at all! I tried to look up internet how olive oil should smell but I could not fined any articles. I thought it is fail, should have added some fragrance so I did "rebatch" afterwards.

#310814

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FOREST BERRY SOAP

Tried to infuse forest tea into olive oil

<INGREDIENTS>
OIL
-Olive(75%)
-Coconut(25%)

HERBS
-Strawberry
-Raspberry
-Blackberry

FRAGRANCE
-Forest Fruit Tea

Lye solution with forest fruit tea

Use Forest Fruit Tea to make lye solution, color got really dark. Tea itself was bright red in color.

Soap in gel phase

Pour into mold

Remove from mold

Soda ash and "Alien Brain" happened on the surface. It is because the temperature during saponification was too high and got trace too quickly to react lye and oil thoroughly, I guess. Don't worry! Both soda ash and Alien Brain are very common and harmless to user.



  

Cut soap and leave for curing for 4 to 6 weeks.

*moisturizing
*medium hard
*fine creamy lather
*very sweet berry scent

#130914

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SOAP FROM USED COOKING OIL

Used oil and orange peel paste

I usually do not deep fry cooking at home but only two or three times a year. Since I start making soaps, I always am curious about making soap with used cooking oil. And this is the time, I did deep fry and I have used oil!

After add lye to orange peel paste

It is the first time to make soap with used oil, I do not add any essential oil because they are expensive..! Instead of using essential oil for nicer smell, I add orange peel paste. I have got frozen orange peel, using blender to make paste. I actually had no idea if this would work or not. I wish it will be nice orange fragranced soap! I added lye into orange peel paste and stir. It turned to darker orange in color and a bit of burning smell occurred. Pour lye and orange peel mixture into used oil in the plastic bottle and give a good shake until getting trace. During shaking, I open the lid often to let air go out of the bottle. Pour into mold and leave until harden and cut and cure for 4 to 6 weeks.

Golden color orange peel soap!

I have read some blog articles about used oil soap making, used oil and lye water react quicker than unused oil. That's right, it took just few minutes to get trace.

Definitely it is good idea to make soap with used oil rather than make oil rubbish. I can't wait to use my used oil soap!

#051014

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DISH WASH SOAP

Offcut soaps for dish wash

I have seen many handmade dish wash soap recipes and I like to have one for me, but as a beginner
soap maker, I have no many raw materials at home. Last two months I have made some body soap bars (and tried some shampoo bars they were all fail!). And now I have some offcut of soaps(and failed one), they are good for ph testing, and .. Actually there are too many of them and I was thinking what to do with them. In my kitchen, I do not use much oil for cooking but still some dishes are left with oily stuff. I just thought it would be good to wash oily plates and kitchen utensils with offcut soaps. Drop some pieces of soap into water filled sink and soak plates and  utensils for a half hour. No surprise, no greasy left on plates and very easy to rinse them. I still need liquid detergent but I definitely can reduce the amount a lot. Eventually I will kick out the harsh detergent from my household and go with my handmade biodegradable soaps!






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PH TEST

After few days curing my soaps, I do ph test for making sure that oil and lye water reacted (it is called saponification) whole through and ph reading is in "safe to use" range (ph 7-10).

I use ph strip which some people say not reliable, yes it is not but not totally. You do not have to know exact number of ph, just need to make sure it is not too high in alkaline which is over 11.

In my experience, even it is not so much of that, soaps right after removing from mold are a bit high in alkaline, after few days or a week, it goes down.

One-day-old soap is high in alkaline

 This photo is taken on 27-Sep just after I cut soaps and they were still soft. I ph tested and it was dark purple (ph11 or 12). It is quite high in alkaline and not so good to use straight way. (Although there are some hot spring in Japan the ph of water is over 11 and for short time bath is totally safe for our skin.)

After few days, ph is around 9

This photo is taken on 5-Oct and ph test shows green in color, ph is around 8 or 9. Ready to use! (in ph)
I know they need to cure longer, but if you really want to use it, you can use it!

Place soaps, ph strips and water

HOW TO PH TEST

1. Place soaps on a white board.
2. Prepare ph strip and water
3. Drop water on the soaps
4. Soak ph strip with water on the soaps
5. Read the results

Drop water on the soaps

Use fingers to dissolve soap. Mix soap and water well, or reading might be lower than it actually is.

Read the results

Read the results. Top one is about 10, I put baking soda in the soap so it is a bit higher than other soaps. 





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LYE SOLUTION

HOW DO YOU MAKE LYE SOLUTION?

This is my lye solution in a mayonnaise bottle

Most of the soap making website say

when you make lye solution,
DO NOT ADD WATER INTO LYE !!

however, I DO THAT..

Why??? Am I crazy, do you think???

Because... I believe it is safe enough. Lye solution gets hot, yes, but how much? It would be around 80°C (It is about 175°F) usual room temperature is around 20°C,
so there is only 60°C difference. (actually this heat helps to dissolve lye perfectly.) I do not think a glass bottle will be destroyed by this temperature.

And there is benefit too.
When you add lye into water, lye could be remained on the surface of the container, isn't it annoying? It is for me.
I measure lye in the bottle and pour water into the bottle.
So there is no remaining lye, and I have only one bottle to take care of..

Clearly, lye solution is very dangerous to handle as everybody knows, so do as you believe the safe way. Put gloves and goggles on, mix lye and water in a well ventilated area.
As you can see my lye solution photo, I make this always outside.

**** I do not mean I recommend this way****




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