Saturday & Sunday = Soaping Days

As usual I always try to make soap, a batch or two on the weekends.  Last Saturday & Sunday, I made three batches.  Unfortunately all three came to a terrible end result.  All three did not even took few minutes to trace.  I couldn't figure out the cause of the acceleration.....

First batch, I infused green tea & lemon balm leaves, mix lemon peel powder at trace (it only took me few minutes to trace).  Because of the infused liquid, the color turn out a dark dark brownish green with the burnt lemon peel......  Ooooh...  =:(   Toss it into my insulated box.  The next day, I got a crack right in the center.   Note: Infused tea+Lye solution 105°F   Oil 100°, only few bursts to trace!

Sunday morning, out of a whimsical thinking (an article about the benefits of raw brown sugar),  I add brown sugar at trace (stupid, isn't it?!) and poured into a new column mold just bought from Brambleberry.  10 minutes later this is what I found out, the tearing syrup overflowed from the mold. 

That reminds me of my terrible scores in chemistry & physics back to the old school days.  The next day, though feel bad, I still unmolded it and randomly cut it.  Here is how it looks, by the way, with a sticky feel when you pick up the soap, like a sugar gets moisture....

By the time I got the bleeding sugary soap, I was so frustrated and cannot help myself but just rushed picking up all my tools.  Oil that I've infused for a couple of months, containing Annato Seed Powder, Calendula Flower & Chamomile Flower petals.  The soap mixture got to trace fast and I still cannot figure out why.  I took out a small portion of the soap mixture, added Titanium Oxide powder trying to do frosting top on the soap.  The mixture looked all right until I add the EO.  Suddenly the soap curdled, kind of like separated from the water..... yaik  (Is the EO, or th EO+Titanium Oxide).  Because the majority of the mixture (without Titanium, only EO) was all right.

Couldn't believe what I saw, I quickly pour them into my caking bag and squeezed them on some of the soap.

They looked so horrible and I have to give up.  This is the leftover of that curdled mixture:

Fortunately the soap came out really nice (without the curdled frosting top of course).  It's a golden orange vivid color I've been dreaming of for a long time.  My poor photography would not show its yummy luscious look.  The natural yellow colorant from Chamomile just enlighten up the Annato Seed orange to a next level.  I know I'll be making more.