Teach Soap

Thanks for everyone's encouragement. Round 2 is this weekend. I'm on a roll!

StokedTopHat, keep us updated!

BubbleBath

The dryer sheet is a great idea! I will, BubbleBath!

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

Hello everybody! I am new to soap making and last night I made my very first batch! I have a few questions about it and since this topic is about first soap I will post here.
I wanted my first soap to be very simple yet have some conditioning values, also I wanted a hard bar with good bubbles. So after some reading and researching I decided to use three oils - Coconut oil, Olive oil and castor oil. Here is my recipe that I ran through lye calculator.
Olive Oil - 21.164 ounces (600 grams)
Coconut Oil - 12.346 ounces (350 grams)
Castor oil - 1.764 ounces (50 grams)
Lye - 5.088 ounces (144.244)
Distilled water - 13.404 ounces (380 grams)
SF 5%
My coconut oil was initially liquid (we are experiencing very warm weather here in Australia and it is very warm at home) so I didn't have to melt it, I just measured and combined all my oils together and later heated it up a bit.
I put lye into oils when lye was about 45 C and oils were about 42 C.
I got to a trace pretty quickly (I was even a bit disappointed because the process of cooling lye took so long but the most exciting part of soap making only lasted for a few minutes ). The trace was a bit thicker than I was planning it to get before I pour soap in mold, and the soap thickened pretty fast!
I covered my molds with thick towel and left it like that overnight. I checked in the morning and the molds were quite warm. I assumed it was due to gelling phase. I eventually uncovered the molds and soap cooled down but the color of the soap looked a bit inconsistent. I was expecting white colour since I have learned that coconut oil makes white soap.
It has been almost 24 hrs since I molded my soap and it still looks inconsistent in color (at some point its it white and some point looks a bit translucent)
It feels hard, it doesn't leave fingerprints if I touch it but easily dents with a fingernail. So here is the questions - should I remove it from the molds and cut it before it gets too hard to cut? Will it stay this colour or will it eventually be more consistent?
Here is the photo of my first soap, after about 22 hrs after I poured in into the molds

It comes off the sides of the molds easily which tells me it is time to de-moldl and cut. Am I right?
Also, I must mention one thing! As you can see from my recipe it suggests to use 144.244 grams of NaOH. But my new digital scales that I bought specifically for soap making turned out not as good as I was expecting it to be and as was promised by seller (I bought in on eBay) and it only showed one decimal place, so I could only measure 144 grams sharp. So I used a bit less lye than in the recipe (ie .244 g less) but I didn't discount any oils assuming it will go towards SF. Was it the right thing to do?

Thank you in advance!
And may I mention that I find this forum very useful and informative, I have already found many answers to my questions here
PS Sorry for my English if you see some mistakes, it is my second language.

I just realized that it is is night time in USA so everybody is asleep and I will be heading to bed before you guys wake up and check the forum So I can't expect any answers till tomorrow morning (Australian morning). I will be leaving my soap in molds till then and will see what happens to it. I was tempted to just de-mold it but I am a bit scared that it might be still a bit soft inside...
Anyway, It is my first batch and if I make mistakes then it is OK, I will learn from them.

Hey, Possum, welcome to the forum!!! I find it very informative myself! I just woke up, you're probably asleep now, but I guess you'll read it in (your) morning, lol!!

I am not the expert, but it looks like maybe you got a partial gel, which would explain the color variation. Is the translucent color in the middle of the soap, and the white around the edges? This would indicate partial gel, which means the soap doesn't have heat long enough or hot enough to gel all the way through. The middle, where it is hottest, gels, and the outsides edges don't. Partial gel doesn't make a difference in whether or not you can use the soap, it mainly just affects appearance (and maybe texture a little).

If the translucent and white areas are intermixed throughout the entire soap, then I'm not sure. Maybe it just needs to sit a little longer, maybe it's a mixing problem. I don't know, but I'm sure the experts will.

It sounds to me like it would be safe to unmold.

I think you did right with your lye measurements, too. If it was me, I would round to the nearest whole number, like you did. As long as there is some super fat, it should be okay.

For the most part, though, go by the experts, not me!

And your English is probably better than some of ours, by the way.

Hi Possum! Welcome to the forum!
You have a recipe with a higher amount of olive. Depending on which type of like it is, ie: pomace, that can cause some acceleration. If you used a stick blender, use it on and off and only long enough til you reach the consistency of thin gravy. Sounds like you blended ti you reached a thick trace. Your temps sound fine. That's about 113 Fahrenheit. The color might be from your olive oil. It sounds like it's hard enough to cut, so I would cut it. Your inside might be fine, even though the outside shows a mottled color.

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

Thank you StokedTopHat and soapbuddy for your welcome and replies! ))
I was too impatient last night and unmolded and cut one. It is a bit soft in the middle but not too much, and yes it looks darker inside like it is partial gel. I was expecting a whiter soap but because I had too much OO I assume it won't be white.
This is how it looks


Anyway, I am pleased with the result, considering it is my first attempt! I hope it will be usable too when it cures!
Thank you again!

Your soap looks really good!

Thank you! Now I can't wait to have a shower with it! 4-6 weeks to go!

Even I am facing the same issue with that and I am trying to find out the reason, why is happening if I come know to know sure Iwould like to share with you.

It has only been 2.5 weeks since I made my first soap and posted here (photos above) but I was not patient enough and tried one today! I was sooooo excited to see my soap lathering and bubbling nicely as I washed my hands with it! So happy with my creation!!! I know I should leave it cure for longer and I will but I just wanted to try one
Now I need to start experimenting with other recipes and colors!
Thank you all for your help!

Possum, you might try pouring off a little of every batch into a small (I have a .3 oz and a couple 1 oz) silicon ice cube tray or mold. I do this with every batch and it means I always have a little bit I can test when I get impatient (I also suspect, although I don't know if the science bears this out, that the tiny bits cure faster, so I get a more accurate idea).

Testing early won't hurt anything, of course, but it's fun to have a little pile of fun shapes I can test with lying around.

Thank you Paspenka. That is a great idea, especially if you want to sell soaps and don't want to use the whole new bar for testing! ! I will do this with my every batch now!

Congratulations BubbleBath and Possum! Those first batches are SO exciting, aren't they? I still get excited every time I unmold and cut a log of soap. Be sure to save your pictures of the first batch, and a bar of the soap, too. I have pictures, but I didn't think to save a bar. Wish I had. Oh, and because I gel my soap, I feel comfortable slicing off a sliver from the end of each log as I unmold it, and trying it out at the sink right away.

And for those of you waiting to make that first bar of soap because of the expense of equipment....remember that much of what you need can be found at the dollar store. You want to make sure you have a good scale, of course, but many other items can be purchased cheaply, if not at the dollar store, then at thrift stores. "soaping101" on YouTube has a video suggesting which items are good buys at the dollar store, and which aren't. My first mold was a milk carton...worked beautifully!

Best of luck to you in your future soaping adventures!!!