# Too much oil?



## Blossomgapfarm (Jan 23, 2007)

I am a new soaper. I have been using the blender method and am having a blast. Anyway, I made some soap yesterday that has turned out different from all the others I have made. After it had been in the mold for a few hours, I looked at it (of course) and noticed that it looked like it was sweating. Today, there is liquid on the top of the soaps that looks like oil. I assume that there was not enough lye for the amount of oil. Is that bunch ruined or is there some way to save it? It is a lovely spiced vanilla orange scent and I would hate to throw it out. Suggestions?


----------



## Blossomgapfarm (Jan 23, 2007)

I popped one of them out of the mold. The top (back) has a cream colored jelly like cover and the front is a darker color without the "jelly". Some liquid leaked out and dribbled down my hand - BURNED! The soap is well over 24 hours old. Nothing was done differently from this batch than my other 8 or 9 batches except the scent and perhaps having a bit less lye.


----------



## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

wanna post the recipe and how you measured the ingredients?


----------



## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

You can cut this soap up and rebatch it. Here is the link with simple instructions. 
I use an old crockpot. If you use the powdered milk, make sure it is the instant, dissolving kind.
http://www.pvsoap.com/instructions_for_rebatch.htm

I always run any new soap recipe through SoapCalc 9 before trying it.


----------



## Blossomgapfarm (Jan 23, 2007)

7 oz water 
1 oz caster oil 
3 oz coconut oil 
12 oz lard 
2.23 oz lye 
1/2 oz orange spice scent and 1/8 oz vanilla scent

That was the basic recipe that I used, however, I could not figure out how to get the scale to measure in anything other than fractions. So I knew I needed between 2 1/8 and 2 1/4 oz lye. 2 1/8 would give me about 9% excess fat and 2 1/4 would give me about 5. I usually measured as close to 2 1/4 as I could get but on this batch just went with 2 1/8. So, I figured it just had too much oil. The only thing is, I don't know why the liquid would be so lye hot after 24 hours.

It has been almost 48 hours and it is still "sweating."

I have since figured out how to make the scale read in grams and ml so can be much more accurate in the measurements.

I like the recipe and have made several batches with it that turned out nicely. I have reduced the amounts of caster oil and coconut oil in my last two batches as I have read that coconut oil can be hard on skin and I don't have a good supply for caster oil and it tends to be expencive. If it still lathers well, I will stick with that for a while.

Anyway, guess I will try to rebatch this bunch of soaps. They just smell so good I want to do something with it! Thanks for the replies.


----------



## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

a few things come to mind. first of all, the accuracy of the electronic scales is only so good no matter if it measures in grams or tenths of an ounce.i figured out once that with a 4 pound batch of soap, the potential discrepency of the scale reading when measuring lye could account for 5%. (i think that was a 4 lb. batch and not a 2 lb. or 3 lb. batch) so, if the lye measured on the heavy side, that could possibly make 5% superfat a 0% superfat. if you were to target 3% superfat, you could possibly end up with -2% superfat...or soap with too much lye in it. increasing the batch size would have the effect of reducing any discrepency in the lye measurement. so for example, if a 4 lb. batch at 5% superfat could possibly be made into a 0% superfat, an 8 lb. batch at 5% superfat would only be fudged to 2.5% superfat in the worst case scenario. does that make sense? i switched to manual scientific scales to measure the lye so that the lye measurement would be accurate.

secondly, an 1/8 of an ounce of lye is @ 3.5 grams. that may be more than you think it is for a batch of soap that is so small.

the third thing could be the possibility that the temperature of the oils/soap mix dropped too much for saponification to occur. the oils need to stay warm until the mixture saponifies. perhaps some of the firm "soap" that is weeping is actually oils that have not been saponified.

you could try the oven method for reworking the soap or a hot process, but i defer to the others as i have very little experience with hot process or rework.


----------



## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

I do all mine in a blender also and never had that happen. The recipe looks good. Since this never happened before, these are my guesses. Did you blend 30 seconds? And as was mentioned before, was everything room temp? About the only thing I do different is I add 1 extra oz of milk or water to make it a little more fluid for pouring.


----------



## tytbody (Dec 29, 2008)

I say leave it. don't rebatch, it will dry out.


----------



## Blossomgapfarm (Jan 23, 2007)

I think that the oil and lye did not saponify. I think I poured my oil into the blender while waiting for the lye to go clear and it cooled off to much. The soap was greasy but the liquid was quite "hot" and burned anything it touched. I did rebatch it and it still smells great. I think that by re-heating everything and letting it sit for a while saved it. Amazing how much air must be in the blender soap, though. It lost all that rebatching and I ended up with about 2/3 the amount of bars.

I blended it for about 1 1/2 minutes so I know it was mixed enough. I have read on hear to blend for about 45 sec but tend to mix longer than that.


----------



## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

I have been able to save several batches of soap by rebatching. You can always add more fragrance at the end of the cook. Glad to hear your soap was saved.


----------



## beaglady (Oct 7, 2002)

Sometimes, 'spice' fragrances can overheat, which can cause separation. It sounds like that may have been the trouble. I'm glad you were able to save it.


----------



## fransean (Dec 21, 2002)

Did you perhaps get a false trace? Sometimes it may look like trace but if you keep at it you will see it start to separate. 
That is my guess, not completely traced so only that part that was completely saponified and the rest - Yuck  Yes, rebatch - better safe than sorry. You don't want anyone burned by pockets of excess lye.


----------



## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Meloc had some wonderful observations, but my first thought was the same as Diane's. Sound like you used a 'hot' fragrance and experienced separation.

You did good by rebatching. If you were to just left it, you would have had some dangerous soap.

Good save!


----------



## Lucy364 (Jan 14, 2009)

It seems like a trace can be hard to discern as to whether it is enough or it needs to become more heavy. Good save!


----------



## Blossomgapfarm (Jan 23, 2007)

I blended another batch of spicy scent soap. This one was brown sugar and spice (the one posted about was orange spice.) It did exactly the same thing. I blended for a couple of minutes, the soap was very thick - almost to the point that I would have had to spoon it out. I added the scent, blended for a few seconds, looked fine. Walked the 3 steps to the molds and poured the first soap and it had separated. It looked a lot like curds and whey. Darker liquid with small white chunks (very small.) I poured it straight into the crock pot. I cooked it for a couple of hours and the soap is beautiful. I have blended several batches and really think it is the spice making it separate. Hmmm.


----------



## tytbody (Dec 29, 2008)

what is the spice that makes this happen? I've used Bay rum scent which might be considered spicy. it came out fine at the time. I odn't make many spicy scents as I don't make for men, lol so therefore, no spices.


----------



## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

I am new to soap making, but would it make sense then to add the spice scent at thin trace then? that way by the time you got to the thickness to pour the scent will be well blended. :shrug:


----------



## beaglady (Oct 7, 2002)

If you know a fragrance will accelerate trace, you can add it to the melted oils before adding the lye. That way, you know it will be incorporated well, and this also seems to keep it from misbehaving quite as badly.


----------



## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

I add all my fragrances to the oil and blend before adding the lye. Maybe that's why I've never had a batch seperate. Good point ladies. I have had a couple seize though.


----------



## Blossomgapfarm (Jan 23, 2007)

Day before yesterday I did a batch with Bayberry scent and put the scent in with the oils. No problem at all and the soap is beautiful. So yesterday I decided to try the Orange Spice again and do the same thing. It got VERY thick very quickly - like 20 seconds. So I got ready to put it in the mold but after about 20 seconds it started separating and with another 10 seconds I had 3 inches of oil in the bottom of the blender and a white mash on top. I had something cooking in the crock pot and could not "cook" it. So I just re-blended it for a minute or so. This time it did not separate and I have a very pretty great smelling soap.


----------



## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

I had that happen with a batch of soap, and reblended it also. It didn't come out as smooth as other soap because it traced very fast the second blending. I had to glop it into the mold. It was saved however.


----------

