Seizing Soap

[cdesousa5]

Hi all....

I was making a new recipe with a lye concentration of 35. But I thought to measure the FO by weight not by the oz shot glass and it came to about 4.5+ instead to the 3.5 that it called for.

Anyway I had taken some of the batter out to do a swirl but this stuff just started to set as soon as I added the FO so I quick poured into the mold then tried to smooth the top to no avail.

I still had the color part set aside so I stuck the SB inside And as soon as the FO hit that it began to set up too so I just poured it on top of the other stuff in the mold and stuck it in the oven.

I am wondering if it will still make soap or if all is lost?

I took it out and tested it with Phenolphthalein but it is showing lye , should I let it sit and cure ? Could it be that it will get better or not?

[Meridith]

Some FOs will definitely accelerate trace but if you got the lye all mixed in, you should be O.K. If not, you can always do a rebatch. Give it some time before you decide if the lye did not get mixed in well and it is lye heavy.

To help when soaping fast moving FOs, you can:

use full water

soap as cool as possible

add the fo to the oils before adding the lye.

Or you can HP a difficult FO.

[cdesousa5]

I did soaped at room temp and I put the FO in at light trace but wow it just set up. I will never do a water discount with this FO again, but to save the trouble I think in the future I'll just HP with it.

My concern was if it gelled and the test was positive for lye, but I'm going to give it a 3 week cure and check again, if it's still positive I'm chucking it.