# HELP! first time to make soap. i dont know if its right.



## soap_ph (Jul 9, 2015)

good day guys! its my first time here and my first time to make a soap. the problem is i dont know if i have done it correctly. i followed the instruction carefully but after a day of leaving it in the mold its still not hard so i waited 4 more days before cutting it, but still its soft. but i cut it anyway. then my next problem is when i touched the soap my fingers dried up. i dont know... is it because its not cured yet? its has only been days. and ants are eating it.
i've used olive oil, coconut oil, lye, water, calamansi juice, aloe vera and green tea essential oil. please help. and thank you in advance!


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## galaxyMLP (Jul 9, 2015)

We need your amounts of ingredients in order to help you troubleshoot. Did you use a lye calculator? Sounds like it may be lye heavy if your finger "dried up" from touching it. 

After that many days, soap should not zap. Try zap testing. Take a little peice of soap, wet it, build a bit of lather and touch the lather (on your finger) to your tongue. If it "zaps" you similar to a 9 v battery then you have excess lye. If it doesn't zap you, put your tongue on the actual soap and see if it "zaps" you then.


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## shunt2011 (Jul 10, 2015)

Please post your recipe and procedure and we can help you troubleshoot.


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## Seawolfe (Jul 10, 2015)

If you used a lot of calamansi juice, that might explain the softness of the soap - citrus de-activates the lye basically - see this video: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFOdi989-aU[/ame]

What recipe did you use and where did you get it? I would recommend starting out with a much simpler recipe, soap has a very definite learning curve and there are no shortcuts.


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## dixiedragon (Jul 10, 2015)

I'm scratching my head over the ants. 

I googled calamansi - looks like it's a citrus fruit, very similar to a lemon? If you used a lot, then yes, it gobbled up your lye.


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## dixiedragon (Jul 10, 2015)

You have a lot of stuff going on for your first recipe! While I don't particularly advocate no scent, no color for your first batch like many here do, I do strongly advocate using water only as your liquid in your first soaps. What ingredients do you have access to in the grocery store? Any lard, tallow or palm?


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## soap_ph (Jul 10, 2015)

thank you all for your replies  
heres my recipe
coconut oil - 7.2oz
olive oil - 8.8 oz
lye - 2.28 oz
water - 6.8 oz
calamansi juice - 1.25 oz
aloe vera extract - 1.40 oz
green tea essential oil - 0.5 oz


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## soap_ph (Jul 10, 2015)

i've got excited in making the soap thats why i have used a lot of ingredients. i have been watching a lot of tutorials and i thought i can just put anything in it... but it turned out to be just waste of time and money 
but atleast now i have learned my lesson to keep it simple first and basically learn from it one step at a time.


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## shunt2011 (Jul 10, 2015)

I think the problem is you added more liquid than required.  You added and extra 2.65 oz not including the EO.   Otherwise it should have been a relatively solid soap.   I would recommend lowering your CO to no more than 25% as at 45 it will likely be drying for a lot of people.   Also, if you have lard/tallow/palm I would add that and a bit of castor (5%).  I too recommend using straight up water until you get the hang of it.


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## cmzaha (Jul 10, 2015)

I am guessing Aloe Juice was used not extract. The extract is infused in oil
Active lye will make your hands especially your fingers feel slick when you initially was your hands. It is after your hands have dried that they will be like sand paper from the lye. The slick feel is a good indicator of active lye. Handle soap with active daily and it will destroy the treads on your finger tips.


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## dixiedragon (Jul 10, 2015)

With a batch that small, that extra 2.65 of liquid is about 33% more liquid. That is a LOT.

Try the same recipe without the aloe vera or the calamansi juice.


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## Dorymae (Jul 10, 2015)

Just let it sit and cure. It will harded over time. Give it 6 weeks before using. There is a learning curve to anything you try, don't give up. 

Who knows, after the cure you may love this soap.


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## Susie (Jul 10, 2015)

Here's a sort of standard starter recipe to try.  If you want to use color or EO, use one or the other, not both until you have at least one good batch of soap under your belt.  I would also go spend some quality time learning to use a lye calculator before proceeding.  Just Google "lye calculator", and you will get a plethora of options.  

Lard/tallow/palm oil(one or other, not all) 55%
Coconut Oil 20%
Olive Oil 20%
Castor Oil 5%

Superfat 5%

Don't try aloe or milks yet, as they are a little more complicated.

Don't give up, though.  We all went through something like this.  We all also got past it.


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## dixiedragon (Jul 10, 2015)

Any liquid you might use as a water replacement - beer, wine, juice, aloe, dairy milk, vegetable milk, etc - is temperamental. Some just a little, and some a LOT.


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## soap_ph (Jul 10, 2015)

For the aloe vera what i did was, i scrap it from its leaves, stirred it and added it to the mixture of lye, water and oils. Can i still use the soap that i made? Or is it too harsh for the skin? Yeah i agree, i maybe have put a lot of liquid in it. Because in the tutorials they didnt say if your gonna subtract the juice or the other liquid that you wanna add in your water, for  example the calamansi juice and thr aloe vera.


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## Dorymae (Jul 10, 2015)

You can use it, just let it cure a bit first. I don't think there is any chance that it is lye heavy, on the contrary, it is probably highly superfatted.


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## zolveria (Jul 10, 2015)

THIS LOOK OKAY. IF THE SOAP IS TO SOFT  let is sit out and dry.. If not try another batch add palm oil or tallow.  
I have seen recipes that have 9 oz  of citrus  juice in it.. that worked fine Actually Ann Watson

http://www.annelwatson.com/soapmaking/creative/July/citrussoap.html
and they turn out beautiful.

heres my recipe
coconut oil - 7.2oz
olive oil - 8.8 oz
lye - 2.28 oz
water - 6.8 oz
calamansi juice - 1.25 oz
aloe vera extract - 1.40 oz
green tea essential oil - 0.5 oz[/QUOTE]


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## Seawolfe (Jul 11, 2015)

Calamansi are like limes - so Im not sure what they did to your superfat - let it cure a good long time and see how it is.
I would use distilled water for the first few batches, and try Susie's recipe.


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## soap_ph (Jul 11, 2015)

thank you all for your responses. i'll take all your advice. you all have been truly helpful and i have learned a lot. i'll try to do another batch without calamansi and aloe. thank you!!!


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## dixiedragon (Jul 11, 2015)

I definitely don't think it will be too harsh. Probably the opposite, actually. If the juice (an acid) combined with a lot of your lye (a base) before your oils (acids) even arrived, then your soap may stay soft and not lather much at all, or it may even be greasy b/c there is too much free oil.


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## DeeAnna (Jul 12, 2015)

Up to a point, a soap will still be soap even if a person adds some type of acid to the recipe such as citrus juice, vinegar, etc. So, yes, it can be done, especially since bar (NaOH) soap is good at hiding the effects of additives like this, unlike liquid (KOH) soap. By adding acid blindly, a soaper is basically playing a guessing game about how much acid she can add and still have useful soap.

When you add citrus juice to soap, you are adding extra water, sugar, and citric acid to the soap. It's hard to say exactly how much citric acid will be added, since various citrus juices vary in their acid content. Lemons are generally the highest in citric acid. I don't have a clue about calamansi. 

The bottom line is that if you add 1 gram of pure citric acid to a soap recipe, the acid will neutralize 0.624 g of NaOH and make sodium citrate. If you don't compensate for this by adding the extra lye that the citric acid will consume, then the citric acid will take the lye away from the soap. This will increase the superfat some unknown amount. If you add enough citric acid, the soap won't be very good soap -- there will be so much excess fat, the "soap" will be soft and greasy.


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## soap_ph (Jul 13, 2015)

i see... maybe thats why its soft and greasy because of the calamansi juice that i added. i'm living in a farm here in the philippines and we're growing calamansi. i just thought of it to add in the soap. and here in my country there are calamansi soaps in the market. people here are obsses in whitening products and they say calamansi is good for whitening.


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## dixiedragon (Jul 14, 2015)

Powdered calamansi peel may be an option. Powdered orange and lemon peel have worked well for me.


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## DeeAnna (Jul 14, 2015)

The peel won't have any citric acid, so that is certainly an option.

Another thing to consider is to just learn how much extra NaOH you need to add to neutralize the citric acid in the calamansi juice. Then you could use the juice too and still get good soap. The citrate that is created by the reaction of citric acid and NaOH is a good thing, actually. Citrate helps the soap to have a longer life in storage and it also helps prevent soap scum if the soap is used in hard water.


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## dixiedragon (Jul 14, 2015)

What would happen if you hot process it and added the juice AFTER the cook?


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## soap_ph (Jul 14, 2015)

what can i substitute for castor oil? i cant find any in our grocey stores here. and what does it do?


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## DeeAnna (Jul 14, 2015)

Castor oil is often sold in the pharmacy as a laxative. At least that is where I find it. Try your local pharmacist or drug store?

If it's too expensive or you can't find it, just omit it and increase one or more of the other fats to compensate for the missing castor. 

If you want to make a recipe like the one Susie shared (above) and reprinted here...

Lard/tallow/palm oil(one or other, not all) 55%
Coconut Oil 20%
Olive Oil 20%
Castor Oil 5%

...then if you omit the castor, I would add the "missing" 5% to the lard/tallow/palm or to the olive oil.


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## soap_ph (Jul 15, 2015)

ok thank you so much! i appreciate all the help. now im ready to make another batch! thank you all and God bless!


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## DeeAnna (Jul 15, 2015)

"... What would happen if you hot process it and added the juice AFTER the cook? ..."

Dixie, it would still cause problems. Citric acid is stronger than any fatty acid, so it is able to bump the sodium off the fatty acid. So instead of an excess of fat, you'd end up with an excess of fatty acids.


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