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What happened to my soap -got zapped!!!


SoapInTheCity

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I made my usual 90% Olive Oil soap last week, and I left it in the mold an extra day cause I was super busy and when I went to the soap to cut it, it was 'sweating' on the top. Then as I was cutting it, it did not look usual. It seems to me that the lye and oils didn't come together right. It's somewhat soft, but cutable, but obviously not going to cure properly.

Any suggestions? How can I salvage this batch?

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That happened to me once when I poured before "true" trace. I was so anxious to pour at thin trace and trying to deal with coloring 2 parts (usually when I'm coloring one the other part thickens up too much) that I jumped the gun. I let the thing rest for 2 weeks and then gave up! And they were such lovely swirls!

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That happened to me once when I poured before "true" trace. I was so anxious to pour at thin trace and trying to deal with coloring 2 parts (usually when I'm coloring one the other part thickens up too much) that I jumped the gun. I let the thing rest for 2 weeks and then gave up! And they were such lovely swirls!

Do you have any helpful hints to decipher true from false trace?

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Not really - supposedly if you let it rest for a minute a "false" trace will thin out. But my soaps seem to go from thin to thick trace in the blink of an eye, so waiting to see what happens would mean I end up pouring thicker than I hope (for swirls).

Oh, one think I was trying was putting my colors into the oils along with my FOs at the beginning to try and get smoother coloration and all. NOT a good idea with titanium dioxide because it can make it hard to judge. Maybe not a good idea with colors either. Haven't had enough experience iwth this yet.

Hopefully a more experienced soaper will have some ideas.

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False trace happens extremely quickly. I've never had a problem with castile. I soap RT. The cool temps give you more play time and make the overly thick batch less likely. When the color goes form clear to opaque, you can pull some out for coloring. The rest will continue to saponify as you are playing with your colorant.

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OKay I looked at this soap the other day the one I was questioning about the way it seems oily still, and now looks what's happening.........I am using a different kind of lye and I was wondering if this may be the problem. It is happening to another batch of soap I made too with this new lye, the white spots.

lyespotssmallnb2.jpg

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OK so I made another batch of Olive Oil soap, since this soap is in such high demand for me............and this one did the same thing. I even stirred with the hand blender longer than I should have past trace.............the same thing happened! The paper was completely wet, and the soap was semi-soft still and oily/wet looking!

Please ladies, is there any way to salvage these 2 batches somehow. If the lye is not encorporating properly how do I rebatch it?

Edited to say: OMG I just did the 'zap test' I always hear people talk about......I put my tongue on the wet part of the bottom of the loaf and yowsers! That hurt! Totally zapped! What does this mean now?

picturesmallhh6.jpg

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Have you checked your scale? It sounds like your measurements are off somehow. Did you tongue test the 1st castile batch? Did you get a zap? Maybe some inconsistent stirring? I'm just throwing some things out there to find out if your batches can be saved.:cry2:

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I would think that if every variable is the same as how you have done it in the past with the exception of the lye, and the scale is not the problem, then I would say there is a problem with your lye. Sounds like maybe it's not 100% lye that you are using and it's not fully incorporating and then seperating. That would be my only "guess" I dont' know what else it could be..

HTH

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Normally I get my lye from a hardware store and it's always worked fabulously. This new lye is some I split with 2 other members of this board, and so far they have not have had any trouble. I wonder if the lye isn't reacting properly with the olive oil soap I'm making because it's just soft oils? Today I am making my regular soap with hard and soft oils to see what happens. My scale is working fine. I double checked today. Will let you know how this new batch works. I knew there was a problem right away when the soap was still in the mold with the olive oil soap because it was 'sweating on top' by morning. That's never happened to me before. :cry2:

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The lye was bought from canwax, and I am one of the others with it.. I have used only this lye from the same bag for the last two months or more with out a problem... thats what adds to the weirdness factor of this.. It is 100% lye, and from a soaping suppler.

I am not understanding this at all

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The only other thing I can possibly think of (and it sounds lame) is maybe the temp/climate change is affecting how the soap is turning out?? I just don't know. I hope you can figure it out. I know how much it sucks to have stuff not turn out, especially when it's something you are doing the same way everytime!! It gets frustrating!

Let us know on the next batch if it turns out any better.

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If you are soaping at cooler temps, that can cause false trace.

Recheck everything.

Water - are you using distilled water? Using tap water can cause issues with your batch.

Lye - should be okay here because others are using the lye from the same bag without problems

Oils - are you using a new jug? You say you are using OO, are you using the same bottle you've made batches from before? There have been several companies that have been busted for selling OO and in reality it was a cheaper oil.

Containers you are mixing your lye/oils and soap in? How are you cleaning them? Could they have build up in them that is not coming off from regular cleaning?

Scale - have you calibrated it to make sure that is not your problem? When you measure anything, are you setting hot pots on the scale? (I only ask because I have one scale that would majorly mismeasure if I set a hot pot on it, I'd have to layer a few heating pads on it and then place the pot on it).

FO - if you are adding it, have you used this FO before?

Have you cut a bar in half and done the zap test there? Check it more than just the outside of the bar.

You can always rebatch it, as long as it's not lye heavy and even then, you can still rebatch it, but you need to know how much more oil to add because of the excess lye.

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So I made my regular recipe of soap last night with Canwax Spiced Mandarin, and all went fine. No sweating, no zap. So what's the problem when I'm trying to make my olive oil soap? I never changed the recipe or anything....so is it really the lye then? I'm now thinking not.........but what damn it!:angry2:

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This has happened to me recently. Not with oil sepage but lye heavy soap.

I couldn't understand it. I did notice that my hardware store's lye had changed from crystal granules(when I first started) to pellet size. So I think that has a major play. I also notice that the soapcalc that I used is not right in giving me the lye requirements.

If you run your recipe through both calculators, Soapcalc & MMS, you will see that Soapcalc is not superfatting at 5% is more like 3 - 4%. One of my recipes was at 0% YIKES!! Not giving you much room for error.

Huge pellets size lye and the wrong lye amount.....no wonder most of soaps where still tingly after a couple months cure!

So now I run my recipes through MMS and Soapcalc. I use MMS requirements for water and lye and soapcalc for qualities.

Now here's the strange thing. The other day I had different lye given to me for testing from my soap supplier, and guess what, oil sepage like crazy....no zapping, actually was sweet tasting, but oil ouzing out. Its been sitting for a day now and seems to be better. Its starting to sink in.

At the last minute I had to sub for an oil and think this could be the problem with the sepage.

Hope this helps out a bit,

SP

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