Ash and oils and/or process

[HowieRoll]

As far as cleaning up ash, I have a thought that I haven't been able to explore because I'd need to create an ashy batch on purpose, which I never get around to. Maybe someone else could run with this and see if it's useful.

It's based on the fact that ash is very soluble in glycerin, more so than anything people usually use. I wonder what could be accomplished with glycerin (or a glycerin/water solution) and a paintbrush, especially for those of you who like the rustic tops and might sometimes get ash on them.

I find this to be an interesting subject, and thank you, earlene, for doing some testing.

TOMH, as an aside, I've often thought there should be something that will dissolve soda ash from soap bars. I say dissolve but am not sure if that is the correct terminology here, being the un-scientist that I am. But one thought I had was since (I think) ash is on the alkaline side, maybe something acidic would take it right off. Like a yin/yang thing. Well, I've tried citric acid solution (in water) and also vinegar (plain), but the results left me with a bit of a mess and the ash still sat on top, stubborn as ever. It's like some sort of mightily resistant superbug. But I'm still convinced there has to be something out there that will conquer it.

 

[Ghost_Wytch]

I had enough bars to include the following:
The problem I have with using just alcohol is that it sometimes leaves little tiny pits or holes in my soap and that takes away from the desired smooth surface. So it would be nice to find a method that achieves the same purpose without the tiny craters.

Yes, I find that to be a problem sometimes as well. I just wish it was a consistent enough thing that I could pin it down to a particular ingredient or FO/EO, etc. Same with the sticky surface on the tops. Both issues just seem to be so random, they make me crazy! :headbanging:

 

[penelopejane]

I tend to soap quite cool, so I preheat the oven to 140-150. I turn it off as soon as the soap goes in and leave it there with the light on for 12-18 hours, depending on if/when it is needed for something else. I keep the house at about 72 and heating makes it fairly dry. Outside it ranges this year from 0 F to 80 F in the timeframe I'm concerned with.

I don't usually cpop. I'd never intentionally gelled a batch, so I did as an experiment with one batch in January. It was the only one that didn't ash in months. I hadn't done the second cpop batch yet when I created this thread. The other night I cpop again to see if it was the difference. That one did ash. So for me, cpop does not make a difference. Neither does the type of mold. I have used a couple fo that didn't ash in a previous soap, but did recently.

Sorry, I am a bit confused.
Heating the soap in the oven is CPOPing.
Have you stopped putting your soap in the oven now?

 

[penelopejane]

I find this to be an interesting subject, and thank you, earlene, for doing some testing.

TOMH, as an aside, I've often thought there should be something that will dissolve soda ash from soap bars. I say dissolve but am not sure if that is the correct terminology here, being the un-scientist that I am. But one thought I had was since (I think) ash is on the alkaline side, maybe something acidic would take it right off. Like a yin/yang thing. Well, I've tried citric acid solution (in water) and also vinegar (plain), but the results left me with a bit of a mess and the ash still sat on top, stubborn as ever. It's like some sort of mightily resistant superbug. But I'm still convinced there has to be something out there that will conquer it.

In this Soaping 101 video she does some experiments:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3WiX6sD-fY[/ame]

Soap queen has some advice too.
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...nd-tricks/explaining-and-preventing-soda-ash/

 

[mx5inpenn]

Sorry, I am a bit confused.
Heating the soap in the oven is CPOPing.
Have you stopped putting your soap in the oven now?

I don't normally cpop. I have done it on occasion. The quoted section about cpop is how I do it on the rare occasion that I do.