Very soft oily soap

by Miss M
(U.K, London)

I am a newbie to soap making.


I used 2 pounds of sunflower oil, 1 pound of Olive oil with 6.156 ounces of lye. I converted the lye into grams which was 174.51. Also I used 12 ounces of distilled water.

I reached a light trace and added 8 ounces of Shea butter with 2 tablespoon of essential oil lavender.

Then I used the stick blender and I did have full trace. I place the batch into the mold and 24 hours later I have very soft oily soap with a layer of oil on top too.

What can I do to resolve this? Can I rebatch it, what does rebatch even mean, can you please help me with the instructions on rebatching, please help.



With many thanks newbie!!!

Answer:

Your recipe was not formulated with the Shea butter included and this has made your soap too high in oils for the amount of lye solution used.

If you had included the Shea butter in the lye calculation, you would have come up with 202.01 grams of lye rather than 174.51 needed to turn the oil into soap.

You have also used a very high amount of sunflower oil which may result in a softer soap.

You could try rebatching the soap but you will need to make sure to include ALL of the unsaponified oil and add in the missing lye (which you will have mixed with twice the amount of water to create a solution).

My site has a few options for rebatching that could be used to repair the soap. Check out the link below.

Rebatching Soap.

I suggest using the crock pot method for the volume of soap you have. If you do not have a crock pot, you can use a double boiler instead.

Since your soap is very soft, you will not be able to grate it. Simply chop it up as much as possible, put it with the extra oils in the pot and the missing lye solution. Cook the soap until everything has combined and looks waxy and transparent like.

Good luck,
Cathy

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