Teach Soap

The first time this happened I knew why; it was because I insulated a batch of goat's milk soap by mistake. Now today I see one happening too. I know this is due to overheating but why now? At this point none of my batches are exact repeats as I'm still learning.
This was my recipe:
50% lard
20% coconut oil 76
20% olive oil
10 % castor oil.
Then just lye and distilled water.

I added a pinch of tussah silk to the hot lye water. FO was Lavender Flowers by NG. Used some blue and pink oxide to get a lavender color. There was no acceleration. I put it in my wood loaf mold with only lavender buds and plastic wrap on top. An hour later I noticed under the lavender buds a crack was forming. The soap was pretty hard already. I tried to push the crack down with the back of a SS spoon and threw it in the freezer.

I'm wondering if I should start putting all my batches in the freezer? I didn't think that was necessary unless I didn't want it to gel. I'm ok with gel so I left it out.

I made the exact same oil blend last night, silk and all...using totally different colors (fall palette) with Ancient Sedona from BB covered only with plastic wrap. No problem with it over heating.
So I'm perplexed and needing your input.

Thanks a million!

_________________
Jeannine

~the journey is everything~

My guess would be the floral FO that it looks like you used in this batch that got the whole works overheated. By no means am I an expert but I've read many posts that say floral FO's can often be the culprit.

I have only made 1 batch with a floral scent and I put it in the freezer to try to avoid the overheating and it seems to have come out just fine.

I agree. Some florals tend to heat up in soap. Keep good notes, so next time you make it, you can keep an eye on it and put it in the fridge or the freezer if need be.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Ok so the Lavender Flower overheats...good to know! NG is pretty good about mentioning color change and acceleration but never mention overheating. I'll be watching out for that from now on with every new fragrance! So many things to learn...

So I'm trying to think of a way to save the appearance of the soap. Since the crack is down the middle, I guess I could cut the loaf down the middle and trim out the crack and slice it a bit differently. Any other suggestions?
Thank you Bear and Irena!

_________________
Jeannine

~the journey is everything~

In some instances the crack closes by itself. I would give it some time.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

_________________
Jeannine

~the journey is everything~

5 hours should work. Check it.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Pulled it out, wiped it down but need to cut it. I still see a small crack....crossing my fingers that it's not too deep!

_________________
Jeannine

~the journey is everything~