The Talk Soap Forum

Would you post your recipe and describe your process including cure time?  Will be easier to make suggestions on another recipe.

You took a water discount  of about 20% which is fine.  Other than that it works through on soap calc.

Taking a look at your numbers you are at a hardness of 26 which is very low, but normal in olive oil bars.

This bar should probably cure for 2 - 3 months ( some say 6 for olive oil soaps).   How to proceed depends on what you want to do with the recipe.  You could add in Sodium Lactate at .07% per total ounce weight which will harden this bar up - but its still going to need a longer cure.  If you don't want to wait you can alter the recipe and add in either stearic acid or beeswax.  If you are a newer soaper I recommend the stearic its easier to work with.

Soap1967
How did you figure the hardness of the bar? I noticed you said the bar was a 26.  What does that mean and how did you do that?

I'm a hot process girl, and yes, even hot process soaps can use a cure time.  Mostly to firm up the bars.

It can be used immediately, and I usually scrape out the crock pot when I'm done and make a "pattie" and run to the bathroom to try it out.  However it is a soft bar, but it's just to play with.

I like to air cure on a cooling rack for two weeks after cutting the bars and then I store them in cardboard boxes in my pantry (cold room in the basement).

I personally don't make a bar with that high % of olive oil, but I do have one that is softer than my others and it usually stays in the mold for 3 days and then cures just like the others.

After reading about sodium lactate I have just purchased some to try out.  I usually use beeswax in a few recipes, but I'm trying the S.L. in place to test run.

Tami