I’m sorry it took so long to get back about making the ACV soap. I did make it on Sunday but this week has been hectic.
I decided to use ACV for the entire liquid so by using Deanna’s figures as shown in the above quote, I calculated how much ACV would “neutralize” the lye and then figured how much of a lye discount I would need to get a 5% SF. I ended up stopping at 0% lye discount and the SF was still higher than I wanted for the recipe. I didn't want to use a minus lye discount so I wimped out and decided to make a salt bar. I used 12% lye discount and calculated that it would end up with approximately a 20% SF with the ACV amount.
Since the ACV sounded like it might be on the astringent side, I decided to use Dead Sea Mud (thanks to the generosity of Pepsi Girl who sent me some to play with) and rhassoul clay (red Morocco).
I poured a little of the ACV into 2 cups so I could make a slurry for the DSM and the clay. Both of them fizzed like bath bombs. The clay not so much but the DSM really fizzed up. I was surprised because I hadn’t expected either to be so alkaline. I learned something new.
Batch accelerated but I don’t know if it was because of the ACV or the FO blend. I’ll have to try the FO in a regular batch. Anyway, it was hard to stuff in the cavities since it got so stiff so the bars are a little rough in appearance. I posted a picture in the Photo Gallery.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49761
I added the lye to the rest of the ACV and was again surprised because I thought it smelled good. The soap seemed to want to crumble a bit the next day when I unmolded the bars. This is unusual because I use individual cavities and normally don’t have crumbling with salt bars. I also used less salt than normal – approximately 32% compared to the usual 70%. So, I’m wondering if this was caused by the ACV. However, they seemed fine a couple of days later so if I decide to make this batch again, I’ll know to leave them sit at least 48 hours before unmolding. Because I just couldn’t wait, I tried a little bit from some of the leftover from the bars. The lather appeared the same as usual but it seemed drier feeling than normal. However, this could be from trying it the next day. I normally cure salt bars 6 weeks but I’ll probably try it at 3 weeks and then 4 weeks I don’t know if the ACV will contribute anything to the soap so it will be interesting to see if there is a difference when I start to test.
My next experiment - soleseife and ACV.