Hi, I normally just lurk but have played around with citric acid. I was also warned that it won't work as it will neutralize the lye. I made some soap about four months ago with a recipe that is normally extremely hard and added some dissolved citric acid at trace (can't remember how much exactly, but quite a lot). The soap was extremely soft and gel looking when I unmolded and I put it aside with great disappointment. I had a look at it this week and it has become rock-hard, it sudses like crazy and feels very gentle. It definitely turned into soap. I don't have a PH meter, but wish I did. I have also been told that you can add some dissolved citric acid to your lye water, but have been so busy I have not tried that yet. I always listen with interest to people's opinion on what will happen when you do something out of the ordinary, but I then like to go and try it out myself (I guess I have a trust issue ). I wish other people will play around with this to and report their results.