°OMG I’m so relived today. Remember a couple of day ago in my last Reader’s Questions post where I confessed that I’d recently had two failed double batches of Clarity? The ones that looked like this when cut?
6kg / 12lbs of soap that I don’t know what to do with (except I might have a plan, which I’ll come to in a moment..)
Anyway, it was with much trepidation that I decided I had to attempt making it again. It’s a REALLY good seller, and I can’t afford to run out, but I was nervous – wasting more precious oils (both regular and essential!) wasn’t an option. I had decided that it was probably down to a partial gel situation, and it would appear that, contrary to what I said here about changes in the weather not affecting my soapmaking, recent changes in the weather had indeed affected my soapmaking (Gah! This is where making bold statements in a blog post gets me!!!!)
I decided to try the CPOP (Cold Process Oven Process) method. I made the soap with the oils and lye solution just a little warmer than room temp (I usually soap at room temp) and preheated both ovens (on the dough proving setting) to just 40°C. I had to use both ovens as I make two loaves at a time but can only fit one in at time:
I did actually try to take a pic with the door closed but it didn’t quite come out as planned :-D:
So, I left the moulds in there for an hour, then turned off the heat and left them there for another hour.
When I took them out the tops definitely looked different to my non-CPOPped batches:
And then, a mere 24 hours later (I usually leave them in the mould for 48 hours) I cut the first one loaf, practically holding my breath as I brought the wire down for the first slice…Success!! (but do bear in mind that these are freshly cut and not yet tarted up…)
Cue a little happy dance…
And what to do with the other 6kg of spoiled soap? Well, in the comments section of this post where I also shared my ‘fail’, Sly of Soaps by Sly was kind enough to share a video of Tania of Soapish showing a method that seems to ‘fix’ a partial gel. This could be a gamechanger, and I’m definitely planning on giving it a go (just don’t ask me when!!)
Thanks for reading – back tomorrow!
Vickx
Vicki:
Wow!! These new soaps look great!! (I didn’t even notice the cute little white & green swirls on the other soap.)
Thanks for the shout out!! I hope you can fix your other soaps!
Sly
Ah thank you – and thanks so much for the video share, can’t wait to try it (though might have to wait til next week – so much going on at the moment!)
So glad the cpop worked – it’s always good to get a great soap after the batch before misbehaved.
And thanks for sharing that video recommended by Sly (thanks Sly!) – who knew?? It’s almost worth trying to get a partial gel just to try it out. I did say ‘almost’!!!
If it works it’ll be amazing! xx
Nice work VIcki! I love Sly’s patience!! If it was me, I would just blast the oven to get it hot, turn it off, and shove the soaps in for a bit – probably get a coffee, see a shiny object, forget about it for a few hours and then come back to gawd knows what – LOL!
Oops – Tania, not Sly!!
;-D
Hahahahah yes, that’s my concern. Must concentrate, must concentrate!
Wishing you MUCH success with salvaging your failed batches.
Wow, good to know! I have not tried CPOP yet, but I have plenty of times when it might just save the day! Good post! Thanks!
It’s worth a try for sure…
[…] two previous batches failed (I wrote about that trauma here) and I still need to try my hand at rectifying the failed batches with the oven method. Soon, […]
BRILLIANT!