# Not enough lye- please help!



## chellmarie (Feb 24, 2016)

Hello all! I have five batches of basic soap under my belt and decided to try a new recipe. The recipe itself I'm sure is fine but here is the problem. After reading the posts here, I decided to switch from glass containers to mix my lye in to the plastic container the lye came in. I thought I mixed it well but some of the lye apparently crystallized at the bottom. I didn't notice until I had poured the soap in the mold. I did see the mixture emulsify and I got a thin trace before I burned out the motor in my stick blender  48 hours later I cut it. 5 days later it is still soft. 
Here are my questions- do you think it will ever harden? Will the oils turn rancid since the soap is super superfatted (is that a word?) is there something I could do to "fix it" at this point? I cut a small piece of and it does make bubbles. I can squash the piece I cut into any shape I want however...


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## SparksnFlash (Feb 24, 2016)

You could wait and see if it hardens.  I had something like that happen - where the soap was squishy, kind of putty-like.  I put it in a plastic bag and used it much later for interesting embeds in another soap.  It all turned out fine.  Silly thing is, I wanted to do it again, because it worked out so well in the end -- I can't seem to duplicate whatever it was I did.  (Sigh)


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## topofmurrayhill (Feb 25, 2016)

It won't get DOS any faster. Fatty acids oxidize whether they are oil or soap.

The things you can do to "fix" it cost you time and effort and probably aesthetic appeal. It's not worth doing for a soap that still quite usable. It's different from your other batches, but just roll with it. It will get harder as moisture decreases during the cure. If at this point you are getting bubbles and things don't feel too weird, it works as soap. Put it away for later enjoyment.

For the sake of completeness I might add that you could re-batch it if you had a reasonable estimate for how much lye to add. But the difference between CP soap and rebatch is like the difference between people and zombies.


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## chellmarie (Feb 25, 2016)

Gini said:


> You could wait and see if it hardens.  I had something like that happen - where the soap was squishy, kind of putty-like.  I put it in a plastic bag and used it much later for interesting embeds in another soap.  It all turned out fine.  Silly thing is, I wanted to do it again, because it worked out so well in the end -- I can't seem to duplicate whatever it was I did.  (Sigh)




Thank you! My initial thought after realizing my mistake was "this will probably be the best bar of soap I'll ever make and I'll never be able to duplicate it" LOL


topofmurrayhill said:


> It won't get DOS any faster. Fatty acids oxidize whether they are oil or soap.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Thanks you! I need to learn more about the DOS. How they happen, how to prevent them etc. I was wondering if a rebatch would fix it, but it is defiantly usable and I will just keep it as is. Besides, I don't what to mess with zombie soap!


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