When I am in double figures it can easily take two hours or more for a correction dose to have any effect - when you are high you are temporarily insulin resistant.
When you experimented with a high carb meal, what were you before the meal each time? Had you been up to any different activity? What sort of meal was it- you say high carb, but if it was als high fat the fat content could have delayed carb absorption (& your spike) to more than 2hours after the meal.
Was your insulin in date? Had it been kept in the fridge before being used? Had it been out of the fridge & in use for less than 4 weeks?
Insulin isn't snake oil, but it isn't something that works consistently & has exactly the same results every time we use it - it's impacted by hormones, stress, exercise, food (I'm sure the list goes on).