Posted by soapfiend (198.81.26.81) on February 06, 2004 at 10:37:00:
I finally tried a goat's milk soap, and have mixed results. I added it at trace along with some pearberry FO and poured into my box mold. I had figured by the volume of my mold I would have extra so I prepared 2 round individual molds also. I peeked at both and saw them in gel stage.When I went to take the soap out of the molds, the individual soaps had hardened and gone opaque but the soap in the box mold was still in gel, and it stayed that way for several more hours, longer than the other soaps I've made.
The individual soaps look really good, but when I turned out the soaps in the box mold there was a 1/4 in. layer of lighter soap at the bottom and below that at the very bottom of the mold, a layer of firm clear caramel colored gel. Those soaps looked just like flan with the caramel on top!
I cut off the funky layers but I'm a little worried that the soap isn't going to be useable. I am guessing it should be since the other soaps from this batch look so good, and the only difference was how long it took the box mold to cool down and come out of gel. so that should indicate my lye measurements were ok, right?
Any thoughts on what went wrong?
Thanks!