![]() ![]() Temperature is perhaps the most common reason why a soap cracks. As the heat makes its way out of the soap, it causes the soap to expand slightly. The soap becomes hottest in the center and tends to cool down toward the outside. Click here to learn more about gel phase. During gel phase, the soap can reach temperatures up to 180° F. Once the soap is poured into the mold, it may go through gel phase. ‘Gelling’ and ‘gel phasing’ in cold process soap refers to a part of the saponification (soapmaking) process where the soap gets warm and gelatinous in the mold. The average soaping temperature is around 110-130° F. Learn how to test the pH of your soap here. Lye heavy soap can be brittle and may crack. Think your soap might be lye heavy? Click here for information on how to test the pH and how to use it to make laundry soap. Lye heavy batches of soap tend to be dry and can crack. In a balanced bar, there is no lye leftover in the final product – it all gets transformed into soap! If too much lye is added, this can lead to a “lye heavy” bar. To make cold process soap, lye and oils are combined to begin the saponification process. I recommend using no more than 15% butter in your recipe to prevent this. Lots of firm butters like cocoa butter can cause soap to crack. This post has more information about various butters and how to use them in your soap and other beauty products. In general, I recommend limiting the amount of butters to 15% of your total oils, and the amount of beeswax to 8% or less of the total oils. ![]() The potential for cracking is greater with more brittle butters and waxes, such as cocoa butter and beeswax. Soap is more likely to crack if it contains a large amount of solid oils, butters or wax. One reason why a batch of soap might crack is because of the recipe. Below are some of the most common cracking culprits, and how to avoid them. ![]() What happened? There are several reasons why your batch may have cracked. But, when you look at the soap the next day… ack! There’s a huge crack down the center.
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