Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Ugly Truth





Well, this is the Ugly Soap.

I finally convinced myself that Ugly had been sitting on the counter for way too long and it was about time to do something about it.

The top of Ugly is a flaky combination of dry soap and dry oil.  Yuk!  I removed the flakes and rinsed off the oil before cutting it.





As you can see clearly on this picture that I attempted to create layers.  I made two separate batches of the same recipe and same oil weight, but for some reason the lower layer came to trace in a matter of minutes while the top layer somehow went through oil/water separation before it came to trace.





After the top layer eventually thickened, I gave up on the original plan of funnel swirl and went for a regular swirl with TD.  I left Ugly in my oven (at the lowest temperature setting) for about two hours and somehow my semi-solid top layer turned into liquid entirely and all the TD sank and settled at the bottom.





There was also a thick layer of oil floating on the top when I took Ugly out of the oven.  My fear was that the soap might end up being lye-heavy.  After unmolding and cutting it today, I'm sure that Ugly is definitely NOT lye-heavy.  It is extremely soft and not crumbly at all.  If you look carefully, you might be able to spot my glove prints on the soap.

Since there's no safety concerns anymore, I'll just leave them on the curing rack for a very long time before giving them out or using them as laundry soap.


So there you have it, my Ugly (but usable!) Soap.   :)







6 comments:

  1. I have one of these too! the one where layering went wrong, oils erupting everywhere and soft bits still there after months. I persevered like you and its actually really lovely soap, I would not sell it but we all love it at home, its my man's favorite!! Good things do happen, even out of the worst F'ugly looking soap ever.

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  2. How strange!!! Glad you got to save it - even if it isn't beautiful! :)

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  3. Must be something in the air. I recently had a batch separate on me for the first time ever. It was interesting, but I hope to never see it again!

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  4. It's not that bad, what about dusting some mica on the top?

    Michelle

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  5. I know the feeling of having a batch that just didn't go according to plan! But you're right, there's always samples, laundry, and even rebatching if you're so inclined! =)

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  6. I think that soap is really pretty!!! Organic looking, like it would be in a nice spa. I love the colors in it. Not ugly to everyone I guess. : ) I'm about to start playing with making my own soap! Glad I found your blog!

    Sammy ~ Renew Redo

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