Soap Failures
by Zia ~ October 11th, 2006. Filed under: Random, Soapmaking.I’ve had two colossal soap failures thus far. The first was Real Indian Chai, which used–you guessed it–real Indian chai that I made along with cinnamon, ginger, and clove oils. The milk curdled. The honey I added at trace didn’t mix in well enough, so it’s seeping out the sides. All in all, not good. Next time, I think I’ll use 1/2 chai, which I’ll add when I mix the lye water to the oils.
The other failure was more costly. It was a shea butter face soap with marsh mallow and licorice roots. I added the lye, and it seized. Immediately and irrevocably. I think it was the combo of the rather viscous decoction and the too-low temperature (90). Sigh.