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. Hi Theresa! Solution: Dilute honey with an equal part of warm water before adding to the soap batter. Hi, first soap, I have your book, Simple and Natural Soapmaking, and used the palm free soap #1 Tallow lard version yesterday. What do you think is happening with my soap? We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. This could be from working at high temperatures, high natural sugar ingredients (beer, pumpkin, honey, milk, etc), or a misbehaving fragrance oil. This happens to me from time to time and I don’t worry about it. They are stored in a dry place with ventilation. You can save some of the warm soapmaking oils from the recipe, mix with the fragrance or essential oil, and blend it in at light trace. Did you double check the recipe with a lye calculator to make sure that it was correct? Its black color is due to the ash in the product," notes Patel. (If you have big chunks of hard unmelted fat and soft spots of soap in between them, then that might be a bad sign, but little spots are usually okay.) (When you’re more experienced, you can stop at emulsion stage.) 4. Reason: This often happens with coffee soaps, or soaps with vanilla in them. Please log in again. 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. Hi Vahid! It may be crumbly at the edges, or too soft. They smell and work fine. Lather Lovers Additive Tests, One Year Later! The oils will eventually go rancid though, so to extend shelf life that way, you can add ROE (rosemary oleoresin extract or rosemary antioxidants) to your soap. "Usually black soap is a mixture of water and the ashes of plantain skins or palm leaves, cocoa pod powder, palm oil, coconut oil, shea butter, and honey." For fragrance oils, be sure to read through product descriptions and reviews to see what other soapers have to say about them. If the wrong amount of lye was used, it should be discarded. The ones I use and have used (they come in different names, e.g., balancing foam, washing foam, foam wash, foam cleansing face wash, and so far I’ve used only Japanese brands) do not leave my face tight or dry. Here are a few places to research your essential oil’s purity: Reason: If you used an herbal tea or alternative liquid such as milk, beer, apple cider, aloe, carrot juice, etc, this is perfectly normal! 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. If the lye was expired, then the soap could be oily or soft. Either it was very expensive to buy, or I’d either get it too strong and it would be difficult to rinse off, or too weak and not enough foam. Truth be told, foaming hand soap is a form of liquid soap. Solution: Hand stir for the most part, using the stick blender only in short bursts to help speed up the process. Cut into bars as soon as it firms up – this will happen within just a few hours from time of pouring. that’s very informative. Solution: If you’ve insulated or covered the mold, remove the layers. I just made soap and it has oil floating on top. There are many different kinds of soap in the world and most of them have one major thing in common: They can make bubbles. Wrong Type or Amount of Essential or Fragrance Oil. Reason: The lye didn’t completely dissolve and is now in crystalline form throughout the soap. As a result the liquid laundry detergent is runny like water, instead of having a thicker, more viscous texture. i made it yesterday and checked on it this morning. Is this after you’ve rebatched your soap? They are in there third week sof curing … what should i do? and I still learned lots of new things. Hi Carol, I’m so sorry to hear it did that! Why would we ever want to give that up? Reason: Sometimes your container might have a small amount of residue left on it from your last batch or a previous use. Are steric spots bad ? If this happens to your soap, cut off the worst affected places. Misbehaving Fragrance or Essential Oil. Thanks! Typos and errors happen all the time, plus there are some really unsafe recipes out in Internetland. If it still shows the trace after 30 seconds then it’s a true one. Yes, I can buy it, however, the woman used bitcoin and I don’t do that. Solution: An increased lather may help offset some of the slimy effect that castile or bastille soaps can have, while a decreased superfat will reduce the amount of free oils in a soap. These plants are loaded with vitamins and nutrients that are great for your skin, making African black soap … Misbehaving Fragrance or Essential Oil. Get it as soon as Mon, Dec 28. Look for labels such as “Folded Orange”, “10x Orange”, “5x Lemon”, and so forth. (Don’t ever measure lye by cups or tablespoons as it’s highly inaccurate.). Natural soap & shampoos don’t foam! So there is still hope before throwing it away! If making a bastille soap (around 75% or higher olive oil) be sure to include bubbly oils such as coconut (20 to 25%) and castor oil (5 to 7%). You can add more olive oil to replace the reduced coconut oil amount, or use another oil such as sunflower or sweet almond. :), Before we dive into the list of cold process soapmaking problems and how to fix them, I also want to highlight a bonus feature of my Natural Soapmaking Ebook Collection and/or Soapmaking Success Video Course – those who purchase either of those e-products receive access to a small private Facebook product support group where you can ask me questions, share photos of your soaps & get same day answers and support. It should be a nice hard bar of soap! Natural Soapmaking Ebook Collection and/or Soapmaking Success Video Course, series of 4 articles on natural colorants, try this trick by Good Earth Spa of drilling holes in the stick blender, tutorial on removing soda ash at Modern Soapmaking, printable chart of 24 common soapmaking essential oils, Simple Secrets: Anchoring Fragrances In CP Soap. Try placing the mold on a baking rack so cool air can circulate underneath. Solution: Don’t run the stick blender continuously, try alternating hand stirring for 15 to 20 seconds, then just a short burst of the blender, then hand stir some more. That could come from overheating. Some soapers also have good luck adding the misbehaving EO or FO to the warmed oils before adding the lye solution. Yes i used actual items not scents and two my bars turned yellow and dont smell anything like the rest. Pure essential oil should not cause ricing in soap. HELP??????? It sounds silly, but it does happen sometimes! Do not use recipes that measure by volume (cups, tablespoons, etc). This means that you’re adding more oils than the lye can turn into soap, so there are leftover oils that ensure the soap won’t dry your skin. LED indicators light up to let you know when the battery is running low … Soap has uneven colored streaks or spots in it. Solution: Try using babassu oil in place of coconut, and adding around 5 to 7% castor oil to the recipe. https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/coconut-laundry-soap-stain-stick-laundry-detergent-recipe/. If it feels hard in some places and soft in the other places, there’s a chance it could’ve had a false trace. Hi Sandi! :). Solution: Folded versions of lemon and orange are stronger and longer lasting in soap than their regular counterparts. (You can either buy one online or reuse an empty bottle of hand soap.) Mix by hand, using the stick blender only if absolutely necessary, to ensure the EO or FO are mixed in completely. Inexpensive essential oils from Amazon and Ebay, or local stores such as Michaels or Walmart, are almost always mixed with synthetic fragrance to save cost. If you want to share the recipe here, I can double check that for you too. Clear to ensure it ’ s not safe to use others work suitably it forming sort of a to! 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