Many sites offer the shelf life of their products. Most are about one year. Try keeping your expensive oils and butters in the fridge. If the butter or oil smells rancid I would not use it. If will make your soap go rancid too. Best to throw it out and get fresh. I have had the same thing happen to me and boy does it hurt to throw it away but it is better than wasting all of your time and other ingredients you use to make your soaps. I bought a small fridge just for my oils and butters. Worth every penny. Good luck!

It sounds like normal soda ash. That part of the mold is exposed to the air during saponification. You could put a layer of plastic wrap right on the soap after you pour it. It needs to touch the soap. The problem with this is it would probably overheat your soap. Might be worth a try.

If the soap starts to gel then take it off.

This is my first attempt at making soap. I've made about 7 batches so far all using goats milk. None of the soaps have fragrances added to them.

I have just been scraping the white coating off with a knife. It is a thin layer of white but it is only on the side that touchs the bottom of the mold. It occured when I used clear plastic molds (bars in the shape of a goat head) and when I used large white vinyl molds and I manually cut the bars.

I guess I don't know what soda ash is and I don't understand why it is just on the bottom of every bar. I just was hoping my soap was alright since it is still curing and that the film wouldn't reappear. So long as this is normal I'm OK.

I called a soap making store near me and they said that they didn't have this problem but they don't use real goats milk in any of their soaps. Maybe it has something to do with that?

Thanks for your help.

If you can think of any thing else to educate me, feel free to let me know.

Soda ash is normal on soap. During curing you'll get a small layer of white powdery looking stuff on the surfaces of your bars. You just scrape it off when you package your soaps.

Or are you saying it is much more than normal soda ash?

If you put a fragrance in your soap that contains Dipropylene glycol then you'll get a very heavy layer all over your soap.

Have you made soap before and using goat's milk is new to you? Or is this your first batch and you've never seen soda ash before?

I've just started making cold process soap with my own goats milk that I milk from my goats. The milk is pasterized and frozen before use. My soap has been curing for 4 weeks now and the side that was touching the mold is turning white. You can take a knife and gently shave it off. (It doesn't come of on your hands - - not powdery.)

Is this normal? Or, what is causing it?

Oil pockets are not a good thing. Usually what those are are pockets of lye. It is hard to tell without actually looking at the soap, but when I've seen them, they are pockets of lye. This can happen from not stirring the soap enough. There is not a good contact going with the lye and oils and saponification shuts off and the soap goes cold in the mold. When using shortening, you have to use oils temps that are higher than the melting point of shortening. Otherwise, the shortening starts going back to its natural state and you think you are at trace, but you're not. A good temp to use with that much shortening in the recipe is 130-140 degrees.

When using lavender essential oil, you have to use a really good one for soap making. We sell a lavender essential oil that has more of the lavender constituents in it. A regular lavender eo does not hold up in soap making at all. Even still, .5 oz is not going to be enough to scent almost eight pounds of soap. You will need at least 1.6 ounces of a good lavender essential oil for soap making.

As for what to do with your batch, you might be able to save it by melting it. Follow our 'how to melt soap' instructions here http://www.soapcrafters.com/node/211. It may or may not work, depending on how hard that soap is. You'll need to melt it right away so that the water in it doesn't evaporate off. When it is done melting, make sure you ph test it.

I hope this helps.
Pam

Hi. I'm new to cold process soap making. The recipe I used is

33 oz. water
12 oz. lye
coconut oil 22 oz.
olive oil 29 oz.
vegtable shortening 38 oz.
1/2 oz. Lavender EO

I have two questions. #1 when slicing into individal bars I noticed what looked to be oil pockets within the batch. Is my batch still good?

#2 After trace, I added my Lavender scent. However; After set up, I don't smell any of the fragrance at all. What I am I doing wrong?

I'm not sure of the exact shelf life, but when it goes bad it smells like vinegar sort of. I'm guessing if you kept it cool, like in the refrigerator maybe a couple years for its life or more. But in room temperature probably less than a year. Yeah, the rancid smell will follow whatever you're making with it.

Anyone have an idea what the shelf life of Shea Butter is? I have some from last year I wanted to add to a lotion and it smells rather funky. Can I still use it or will the scent linger? Any thoughts? Thanks

All of our recipes are asking for the dry sodium hydroxide, never liquid sodium hydroxide solution.

Hi i found the "how to make soap from scratch" recipe and im not sure if i use 11.2 ounces of liquid lye or 11.2 ounces of the solid form of lye?

Hi Maroma,
I would suspect that it is not the coconut oil, it is the shortening. The melting point for shortening is higher than the temperatures you're using. It is turning back to its normal solid state.

If you are weighing everything correctly, and not adding fragrance until just before pouring into the molds, increasing your fats temperature to 130 degrees should solve the problem.

Although, seizing it usually caused by other things, such as a fragrance that seizes soap or not enough water in the recipe. ??

Hi There. I'm having a big problem with my cp soap. I've been making soap ( off and on) for 9 years, without any problem. I didn't even use a scale. Now I'm using a scale. But I have botched the last 5 batches. I am using the same recipe, with the exception that I've added some coconut oil. Could that be the problem. I melt the oils, mix the lye-water, wait for them to reach aprox. 110 degrees, and proceed to mix very slowly. The min. the lye-water hits the oils, they instantly harden into what looks like mashed potatoes. Too thick to stir to trace. Recipe - 36 oz. shortening
36 oz. corn oil
16 oz. coconut oil 76
12.6 oz. lye
32 oz. water
PLEASE HELP

Ruth B.

Thanks for doing the research.These are for foaming soap, Sounds interesting and worth looking into. I was able to find a source for the airless lotion pumps. I had previously split an order with a fellow soaper and she is willing to sell me the remains of her half fo the order. Cool!

These are not 5oz size, they have smaller and larger, but I found this on the Internet.
I have no experience with the company and have never heard of them, so you're on your own there. ;)
http://www.forsoapmakers.com/store/Foam-Pump-Bottles-c-1.html

Ruth B.

Does anyone out there in our midst, have a source for airless pump bottles? I've run out and cannot find a retail source for any more. I like to use the 5 ounce (150 ml) size.

Hi Jojee,
Personally, I think making it from scratch is the way to go! It isn't all that difficult to do it from scratch.
Here is a recipe for making our Glorious Lotion:
http://www.soapcrafters.com/node/228

An important note, not all emulsifying waxes are the same. You need to purchase the one we sell in order for the recipe to work.

If you use our Aloe Liquid in place of all the water in a lotion recipe, it already contains all the antimicrobial (preservative) you need to keep bacteria and/or mold from multiplying in your product. All lotions have to have an antimicrobial.

I am new to learning about making lotions and things homemade. I have found alot of sites to purchase lotion bases and only 2 sites with base recipes. But neither recipe was at all understandable. Does anyone know of recipes for making your own lotion bases & also know sites to purchase the ingredients needed. Also, I wondered if buying pre-made lotion bases was really the way to go?? Thanks

Thank you for getting back with me. Actually now they're are starting to harden nicely. I just wasn't used to seeing the soap so wet in the beginning. Thank you again for your help. Hopefully I'll try another batch this weekend.

Hi!
Your recipe is about 50% liquid oils. Normally 100% olive oil soaps will behave that way, so much so that you can't get it out of the mold for days.

If you want to hurry things along, try cutting back on the water in the recipe by 10%. Cutting back on the water is tricky because if you cut back too much then the soap has sort of a slime lather. So there is kind of a balancing act there.

It should be a little harder in the mold after saponification is done, get to trace a little easier.

You could bump up the oil temp to 135-145 and leave the lye solution at room temperature. That might hurry things along too as it would be warmer in the mold in the beginning of the process.

If this all worked for you just fine before, it might not be the new scale making the difference, it might just be that it is now wintertime. If you live in a cold climate that does effect things. It doesn't seem like it would because you're working inside, but somehow it does.