I’ve heard soapers talk often of failed batches of soap, but I never quite understood since it’s never happened to me. A few times I’ve had batches not come out quite as I had created them in my head, most notably my Fresh Cut Grass Bars, which matcha powder turned pink instead of green. In these cases nothing was wrong with the bars, so I didn’t count them as a failure. Today I finally experienced what it’s like for a batch of soap to just go terribly wrong. I’m not sure what happened, because a combination of events led up to it.

I have an infected tooth. This particular tooth has already had a root canal and a surgery, and is not supposed to contain any nerves or bacteria. It’s been problematic for nearly a year and last Saturday decided to cause me intense pain again. My dentist told me that since we’ve already done all we can for it it’s going to have to go. I’m basically okay with that, because I’m exhausted from dealing with it and from having my mouth cut open, but it’s stressful to wait for the procedure and think about how much money I’m going to owe my dentist since I lack insurance. It’s also put me more behind on my work than I already am. On top of that, I’m a women, and my body has today decided to make me feel like my insides are falling out, which is more than unpleasant.

This morning all I wanted to do was rest, maybe spend the day catching up on TV or reading, and hope that tomorrow I would feel brand-new. Wednesdays’ I usually have the Oak Lawn Farmer’s Market, and I was glad it was raining so I could feel okay about skipping it and not have to do the work of carrying all my heavy boxes and setting up my tent, etc. I think it’s important to take care of yourself, to take care of my body, and the work will wait until I’m feeling better. Today I ignored that though. My store in New York needs to be restocked, I need to finish making my fall soaps and I have a few September events that I need to prep for.

I got all my soap making supplies out and realized I was short on a few oils, so I modified the formula. I use Soap Calc to calculate my lye, so coming up with new formulas is typically a simple process. I was also using a new fragrance, Country Apple, and a new dye, so the bars would come out a beautiful red. I mixed my oils as usual, I mixed my lye and water as usual, then combined them and everything seemed fine, but it did thicken up (trace in soap making language) quicker than usual. I poured the fragrance in, then a few drops of dye, and suddenly something bad happened. The mixture grew very hot (which it should, but after I pour it in the mold), and became clumpy and hard to mix. I think that it seized, which means the soap went to the stage where it gels then begins to harden, way too soon. My dye was still not mixed in so I had to keep stirring and the soap was crawling up the edges of the pot, pooling over the sides of it. My glove ripped, which is very bad. It takes completed soap a day or so for the Ph level to drop to a safe level, so it is very important to cover up any skin that may come in contact with raw soap. With one hand I started scooping the mixture into the molds, making a huge mess as I went. When I got to the bottom of the pot I found undyed chunks and oils that didn’t fully mix, so I scooped them into the mold too, because I didn’t know what else to do.

I’m not sure exactly what when wrong. It could be my formula, the fragrance, the dye or that I generally felt like crap and didn’t feel like making soap. My best theory is a combination of all of those things. My options for the batch are that I can rebatch it, or donate it to Clean the World, which is what I will probably do.

mess...

chunky soap residue

unmixed oils resting on the top of bad soap