Failed Hot Process Soap

by Cynthia
(LA, California, USA)

I've been doing soap for over a year and never had any major problem, but I just made a honey soap that won't become soap.... It's just a pool of oil with crumbly things in the bottom of the crock pot.


The recipe is 75% olive oil, 15% cocoa butter and 10% avocado oil, with soy milk and I added raw honey to it.

It has been cooking for like 7 hours and still nothing!!!! I have no idea if I did something wrong.

I used the MMS lye calculator as usual and I think I did the measurements right.. Not sure if the problem was the honey, if it still needs more cooking or if it needs more lye.

Any ideas??? Should I keep on cooking? Or add more lye? Gulp.
THANKS!
Cynthia.

Answer:

During the cook of hot process soap, the base should not be oily at all.

Before the cook even starts it should be thick and creamy, having been brought to a full trace first. Later it becomes vaseline like in appearance and mashed potatoe like in texture.

Something is certainly wrong if you are looking at a pool of oil with crumbly things in it.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what. I can only suggest that it might be safest to dispose of the oils safely and start again.

Cathy

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starstarstarstarstar 		Happened to me yesterday NEW
by: Claudine

The same thing happened to me but not in a ho ry soap recipe. It was olive pomace oil palm and coconut. From the comments i see the mistake we oth did Cynthia you and me was to not come to full trace before cooking. The batter was at the emulsion phase when i started cooking unlike my previous batches which were a total success. So we lrarb from our own experience... better be payient nezt time. I cooked 4 hours and then threw the batch that was exactly as you described it. Thanks for sharing.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Oil pool in HP honey soap happened to me too
by: Anonymous

The same thing happened to me! I tried to make HP honey soap but it ended up like oil pool and I threw it all away. Later on I figured that I put too much honey, so I make CP honey soap and it turns out just fine!I think that CP method is more suitable for honey soap.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Buuuhhh
by: Cynthia

That's what I thought :( How sad! Maybe it was my fault since I didn't really let the soap go into trace, I had to leave and just left it there cooking.
I'll try to do it again and add the honey at the very end just in case!
Thanks Cathy!
Cynthia
Rating
starstarstar 		Too much honey!
by: soaper

I am new to soap making so I have been doing a lot of research on the subject. I did come across an article where the woman was making a type of soap with honey in it. The first time she made it, it all separated and had to be thrown away. She did however say that she used too much honey as the cause of the separation and it should be used in small quantities. I've also read that you should only used 2T. per 2lbs of ingredients when making your soap. Hope this was helpful. I've not tried it myself so I hope it works!

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