Friday, February 28, 2014

Soap Ricing

So I've probably made close to 30 batches of soap by now, but I have now just experienced the problem of ricing. Typically, I make soap in 1-1.5 lb batches, mainly to test FOs, colors, and techniques. Because I wanted to make some ombre tall soaps, I had to use my mold that holds 2-3 lbs. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not testing this FO beforehand. I added the FO at light medium trace, and the soap immediately started ricing. Although I had never seen ricing, I immediately assumed it was ricing because of the quick reaction to the FO. The consistency reminded me a bit of tapioca pudding.

Not knowing what to do (and unsure if my soap would even be usable), I tried mixing the batter by hand. I didn't use the stick blender because I didn't want to thicken up trace even more. I was planning to do an ombre design with 9 layers, so I couldn't afford to have the batter be too thick. It ended up being pretty thick by the time I got to the last few layers anyway, so there are some air bubbles in the soap.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed that this happened. I used the Lettuce fragrance oil from Brambleberry, and there was no mention of ricing online. I soaped at about 105/110 degrees, so I don't think it was too hot. I guess you can't really depend on other people's reviews for your own soaping experience, you just have to test the ingredients yourself.

I was dreading what the bars would look like after cutting. They don't look completely terrible, but there are obviously spots that I didn't break up and are therefore uncolored. From what I've read online, the soap is still usable. I'm just not sure how well these bars would sell. I'm probably just going to end up giving them away. :(

Here's what the cut bars look like:



What a bummer!