Suppose you add a large number of stable oils containing saturated fats like butter and wax. Adding butter and waxes such as cocoa butter and beeswax can make the soap hard and brittle because they are solid at room temperature. Cold process soaps in which lye and oils are combined before the beginning of saponification should have a balanced bar without any leftover lye.
When the final product is transformed into soap, it should be a lye balanced product. But if not, it may lead to a crack or oil leakage. Too much lye results in a heavy lye bar, which is dry and brittle. If the soap is crispy, you should check the pH of the soap. High temperature is arguably the most common reason for soap cracking. When the soap gets too hot in the mold, it rises and cracks.
The average soaping temperature is between degrees Fahrenheit. When the soap is poured into the mold, it goes through a gel phase in which it gets translucent like a jelly. The gel phase in a cold process soap refers to how the saponification process occurs. During this process, the soap gets warm and turns gelatinous in the mold.
What also happens is that during this phase, the temperature rises to degrees Fahrenheit. In this process, the soap gets hottest from the center and gradually cools down from the outside. When and if the heat gets slowly released, it expands slightly and cracks on the outside. Sweet ingredients such as honey, fruit purees, and milk increase cracking during the gel phase. If you are using these ingredients, place the mold in the fridge after pouring for hours.
Posted: Wed Jan 05, pm. I've never seen my soap crack till just this winter. The office I work ins bathroom is unheated. We don't stay in there long. I keep my soap in there for all to use and it cracked. I think it was the cold, and being wet and having hot water used on it all at once. I may be wrong but this has never happened to me at home. Page 1 of 1. How much coconut oil did you use in your batch?
What temperatures were your lye and oils and how did you store it? I poured the soap in a rectangle silicone mold that sits in a wood box and I put it in my pantry. I have used this recipe before and it turned out just fine.
A couple of ideas to try are to lower your temperatures — it could be cracking from the heat. Hope one these ideas helps! Hi Kelsey, I made my first batch of cp soap. I measured everything to the exact ounces, melted the oils and let lye water sit and cool. Added fragrance and colour and poured into mold. All was a beautiful shade of pink, waited a 36 hours to unmold……. Over the next couple of days it changed colour to a tan around the edges??? All the smell of the fragrance was gone…. What did I do wrong.
This is what I used, the recipe was from a soap class I had taken in the spring, a practice recipe. What fragrance did you add? Also, how old are your oils? Does it still smell like Playdough? My oils are newly bought within 3 months, and yes it smells like play dough…..
Thanks Therese. Does that fragrance have any vanilla in it? Did those oils come from a grocery store? Also, what kind of water did you use? Thanks for answering my questions Therese.
I have gone with water discount 2. The soap traced pretty quick. I soaped at around degrees. Even in the freezer my soap turned darker and it had a crack down the middle.
After reading your article I could guess what could have gone wrong. Is it mainly due to the addition of only hard oils and butters in the recipe?
Your advise will help me a lot. Water discounts can also make it trace quickly. That is normal for soap made with mostly hard oil. For your next batch, it can help to do a smaller water discount, or skip it entirely. The soap will be hard in just a few hours because of the hard oils. Then, you may want to skip the beeswax or the milk.
If you skip the beeswax, you can soap at lower temperatures to keep the milk cool. If you skip the milk, you can soap at warmer temperatures to keep the beeswax melted.
Hey Kelsey. Thanks for the reply. Yesterday I tried the same recipe sans beeswax and the temperature was between and degrees with no water discount. Sadly it cracked again formed partial gel ring in the center with droplets of oil oozing out I think its my E. Should I give the milk part a miss altogether from these kind of recipes? A high amount of coconut oil hardens really quickly even using the full amount of water. You can also replace some of that coconut oil with a soft oil like olive, sweet almond, or avocado.
That should make the bars softer and prevent that cracking. I took 4 oz of water out of the recipe and added coconut milk in its place. Within 45 minutes of it being in the mold it is almost completely gelled and the top cracked a little bit. It started getting hot as soon as I added the coconut milk and it was thickening so fast I had to plop it in the mold by the end.
Should I keep the coconut milk out of it? Coconut oil thickens really quickly, so it will move pretty fast! The natural sugar in coconut milk will heat the soap as well. It helps to soap at lower temperatures around F. Then, once the soap is in the mold, pop it in the freezer for a couple hours to keep it cool. Then, remove to room temperature and cut when the soap is firm to the touch. That happens pretty quickly! Dear i need ur help i have my own manufacturing soap plant.
Recently i introduced my new soap in market but the thing that making me hopeless is that after washing hands my soap convert into cracks lots of cracks. I think it may be the lye. Soap noodles are a finished product, so the added lye may not be turning into soap. Instead, it may be activated and cracking the soap and may hurt your skin. You will want to check with the manufacturer to be sure. Thnx Dear. And other thing i want to ask my dear is that can u tell me the oils quantity and lye quantity and temp of cold process soap which u make.
New posts. Search forums. Log in. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Thread starter Guspuppy Start date Nov 15, Guspuppy Well-Known Member. I mean the soap sitting in a soap dish that I use every day - both the hand soap and also the dish bar soap.
They each get used daily so why do they crack as if they are excessively drying out after being wet? I have several bars in the shower that do not get used every day I rotate among them but it IS humid in there, and they don't crack. Nor does the soap in the dish on the bathroom sink, also used daily. So what's the difference? Why does the same soap in a different room crack? The bathroom soaps are all different, the current sink soap is a salt bar and the ones in the shower are lard, salt, and a shea butter one that was my first soap ever.
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