Teach Soap

... and of course it was one I had high hopes for. And I can't figure out what went wrong, as everything went perfect.

I based it off of one of the soap queen recipes, only I changed a few oils. So, of course, I used a lye calculator (I use the one at the sage) to make sure my amounts were good still. I mixed my lye with my distilled water, melted my oils, and soaped at around 105 degrees (hotter than I usually soap, but I'm usually soaping with milk and this time I didn't). I hit it a few times with the stick blender, then divided it to color. I colored 1 half (about 1 1/2 cups of soap) with black oxide, about 1/2 tsp. I colored the other half (actually about 3 cups) with brick red oxide (probably about 1 tsp, I added a lot because it was really red, but I ended up taking a bunch of lumps out that wouldn't disolve) and a little coral mica. I added fragrance oil to both sides, which didn't see any change when I added the fragrance- no acceleration or anything. In fact, I had to stir for a while to get to medium/light trace. When I poured the batter looked perfect, and I did the tiger stripe thing (cardboard down the middle of a loaf mold, pull out the cardboard, swirl...) and that went really well, too, I had plenty of time to swirl. I knew I didn't want the batch to gel, so I put it in the freezer until the sides no longer felt warm (I took the silicone liner and soap out of the mold as soon as it was firm).

When I tried to cut it a few hours later, it crumbled, and it zapped me (I have ph paper, but of course I can't find it, but it was a pretty obvious zap). WTH? The only thing I can think of is either my colorants caused a problem or putting it in the freezer caused a problem... I can't think of anything else! Is it possible it won't crumble if I wait a little longer? (and no, it doesn't look like it went through partial gel)

Ungelled soap can zap, up to three days later. I prefer not to gel, so my soaps go in the fridge or the freezer; up to overnight. I let the soaps come to room temp before I cut them, otherwise they can be crumbly. After three days, mine don't zap. Give it at least three days, then check again.

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

Thank you! I was really hoping I could salvage this batch. I got impatient and tried to cut another bar off, and it crumbled too, but the rest of the loaf is intact. I'll try cutting it again tomorrow.