Soap fairies and gremlins visit soap makers and make a nuisance of themselves.  They make things so wrong, they distract you and throw monkey wrenches into the process.  They don't do anything serious, but they sure do make a nuisance!

Well, the soap fairies and gremlins were in full force at my house today.  I made 4 one pound batches today.  All the same recipe, but different fragrances.    I was trying out 4 new fragrances from a different supplier. 
1. Kai – a nice refreshing tropical floral
2. Toffee Sugar Crunch – a dupe of Lush's Honey I Washed the Kids – a light sweet honey floral
3. Invigorating – a refreshing Lemongrass, citrus floral
4. Kazi Kazi – a dupe of Lush's Karma – spicy patchouli citrus

Toffee Sugar Crush and Kazi Kazi worked out just fine.  No weird discoloration to acceleration.  Well, actually, a purple colorant that I used for Toffee Sugar Crush turned pink instead, but that was minor.

Kai and Invigorating had issues.  As soon as I put Kai fragrance oil into the batch the batter SEIZED!  Everything just hardened up and I had soap on a stick (it hardened around the spatula).  No time to color, I had to grab the slow cooker and throw the batch in and do Hot Process (HP).  Invigorating fo discolored to a honey color as soon as it hit the batter.  I had added Titanium Dioxide a white colorant in my hopes of getting a whiter bar, I was going to use a snowflake mold.  Anyway the batch turned a peachy tan color despite the white colorant.  Then the batter started to seize.  I debated, should I just try and push the seized batter into the molds?  I did at first, then later once I had cleaned the slow cooker to just throw it in and HP it.  I'm not the biggest fan of HP.  You get really rustic looking soap, which is fine, but I like the smooth pour of Cold Process. 

Then to make matters worse, the plastic handle to my spatula snapped apart, right in the middle of making the 2nd batch.  So I had to make the remaining batches using a spatula with a short stubby broken handle.  Then when I was cleaning the slow cooker (which is a really old one I got handed down from mom) one of the three feet on the bottom broke off!!  So it's all wonkey.  I guess I could glue it back on with silicone or something, but man, why does it all happen all at once?!

I guess it could have been worse.  I didn't dump an entire batch onto the floor or onto myself.  I didn't have any lye burns or anything like that.  But still not what I expected to happen at all today.  I still have Invigorating cooking in the slow cooker, and the other batches are put away, to be unmolded and cut tomorrow.