Coffee Soap

I made a batch of coffee soap today. It smelled so wonderful and looked awesome! The temperature is getting colder, so I thought I would try an oven method for forcing gel (gel is the natural chemistry in the production of soap generally indicated by heat production and a darkening of color). My mistake was in using my 1 lb plastic molds instead of heat resistant silicone or a wooden mold. Can you see where this is going?

I had the oven on it's lowest temperature setting of 150* and I put the molds on a towel in a shallow baking pan. Apparently even the low temperature was just too much combined with the heat produced from the reaction itself. Both molds warped and one of them cracked around the middle bottom. Fortunately the soap was far enough along in the reaction that it was more of a gel, so it sort of oozed out the crack and left a blob on the outside. I'm still hoping the soap is salvageable, that was the last of my vanilla fragrance oil! If I wish to repeat this experiment, I will need to acquire more of that oil before I can continue.

*sigh* it seems as though every time I get something I like, something goes wrong. I made over a dozen batches of soap by now, how many more things can go wrong before I finally get what I'm aiming for when I start?!