ammonia smell

[Basia]

Last night I made 1lb of simple base soap for a laundry soap.
4 oz Coconut oil
8 oz Olive oil
4 oz Palm oil
149 gr of water
64 gr of lye from BB 97 %
1/2 tsp of pink oxide
I used silicone mold from crafters choice.
Covered with 2 towels.

Today after I unmolded I noticed that it smells like ammonia and middle of the soap is greenish.

1. overheated?
2. lye at 97%?

What do you guys think?

 

[melstan775]

What do you mean by lye @ 97%? Also what was your lye discount, I got 172 grams of water in soap calc for your oils.

 

[houseofwool]

I'm guessing she means 3% SF, which seems high for laundry soap. I always do a 1% SF for laundry with no added colorants to potentially stain clothes.

 

[Seifenblasen]

"Lye 97%" referred to the grade of lye used. Brambleberry's lye is only 97% pure (as supposed to 99%). I ran it through Soap Calc, it is actually superfatted at 5% (with 64g lye). The amount of water is just fine - 149g is plenty to dissolve 64g of lye.

The greenish tint could have come from the olive oil. Most likely the ammonia smell will dissipate in a few days and the color would become more uniform throughout in a week or two . My question is, why use such a high percentage of olive oil (and superfat) for laundry soap?

 

[Basia]

Thank you Seifenblasen,
You are very correct. This is very first time I made soap for a laundry soap so I was not sure about which oils to use for that. I wanted a recipe that has high cleansing properties and low suds, for our HE washer. Any other ideas for a recipe for laundry soap?
This morning the smell of ammonia was gone and the color is getting more uniform. However, why did I get that smell in the first place?

Thank you again,
Basia

 

[houseofwool]

Use a 2:1 ratio of lard:coconut oil for laundry soap with a 1% superfat. It cures hard as a rock and if I do it in a slab mold, then it is a pretty quick cure to be able to shred it.

 

[Seifenblasen]

I have been using my blotched batches for laundry. :razz: But if you are making soap specifically for it, I would first drop the superfatting to 1 to 2% (max). Oils most often used are straight coconut oil, lard/tallow, etc. I won't worry too much about the sud from coconut oil even with a HE because you are using only a tiny amount of soap mixed with washing soda and borax. The following links contain some informative discussion:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f11/veagan-friendly-laundry-soap-how-make-22516/
http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/home-crafts/three-diy-laundry-soap-recipes/
http://forum.thesage.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=258

As to the ammonia smell, I honestly don't know. I usually get it when I use milk (that I understand, because of the protein in milk, and the butyric acid smells even worse than ammonia), but even when I don't use milk, sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. Need to look it up later.

 

[Basia]

Thank you all for the info and the advice. Seifenblasen, thanks for lots good info and great links.
As Houseofwool suggested, I made a plain soap no colorant and 0% super fat, however, I never used lard, so I just used vegie oils. I will see a results tommorow .

Basia

 

[houseofwool]

I like the lard because is readily available locally so no shipping charges. I've actually started using the same soap to wash my dishes and I think it is pretty awesome. I need to make another batch of it for myself pretty soon.