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Lin19687
Well-Known Member
I have that on regular bars too. Depends on the recipe for me.
My Salt bars always have thick ash that it is too hard to wash off or steam off easy. SO I just leave it
My Salt bars always have thick ash that it is too hard to wash off or steam off easy. SO I just leave it
My charcoal soleseife bars always ash badly. I gave up trying to get rid of it since it will wash off when the soap is used. I will mention that I have never noticed any irritation from the soda ash as was mentioned in another thread.
Lin19687
Well-Known Member
Let me see if I can find the post. He and DeeAnna had a few discussions about salting out.
I've gotten an even thicker layer of ash when I tried zany's no slime castile, but only in the portion that didn't go into the oven. Now that I think of it, my only other attempt at soleseife also went into the oven and barely got any ash (I was trying to gel both times but failed). Maybe faster saponification because of the heat slightly protects soap from ash?
It was me, I have noticed some irritation with ashy soap--mine, until the ash was washed off..I posted a question about it.
Lin19687
Well-Known Member
Can you post a link to the thread? I don't see it
It was post #20 Steffamarie answered what soda ash is, the topic soda ash got me--what to do
My first attempt ... soda ash got me. What to do?
My first attempt ... soda ash got me. What to do?
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Cin
Active Member
How random. My Zany's has just a mild coating on top, and did not go in the oven. This soleseife though has it on 6 sides. I haven't seen that before.
I dont have ash on any of my soleseife bars, tho in this humid weather it would have disappeared anyway as my salt soaps are weeping badly. As is Zanys no slime castile......sigh. But no ash on them...
Cin
Active Member
I see in my notes now that I used a 30% lye concentration. Perhaps this is the reason...
All Natural
Active Member
I also had soda ash on my soleseife soap so I now spray with denatured alcohol and prevent gel by putting in the fridge.
Lin19687
Well-Known Member
Ahh ok I see it. You also could have had a soap that was not fully cured, Lye heavy or something too. I would try a soap that you make that for sure is not Lye heavy and 2-3 months old and try again.
Anything is possible...my scale could be off, or I could be off....
Dawni
Well-Known Member
This made me giggle lol.. so many comebacks in my head right now, most of em not appropriate for this forum lols
I'm off too, most days haha
But yeah... I've gotten bad ash on my soleseifes too. I noticed that the bar that had the worst, all 6 sides like yours, is the one I tried to unmold first. I pulled on the sides of the mold, so I guess the soap was exposed to air before it should have been or something... The rest of them only got ash on the tops. But that particular batch wasn't too ashy, and I used 10% vinegar along with the brine.
I have one soleseife that didn't get ash at all... I'm still trying to figure out how I managed that one lol
user 20684
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My soleseifes (100 percent olive oil, made with seawater) are always ashy. I think it add character
It’s very frustrating that there are so many variables that seem to favor ash forming. I was getting a lot of ash in the beginning, but only very infrequently since I raised my lye concentration to at least 33% and make sure that my emulsion is very stable. I always cover my soap, usually put the soap in a warmed oven and almost never spray with alcohol.
The unscented Zany’s No-Slime Castile soaps I made in individual cavity molds 2+ weeks ago are ash free and are not weeping. They are in an air conditioned room that is about 78F. From my notes, here’s what I did in case it helps. I used 37% lye concentration and started SB’ing when the batter temp was 105F. It took about 25 minutes to get to light trace at which point the batter was 99F. I then covered the soaps with a cardboard box, CPOP’d them at 140F for a few hours (didn’t record exactly how long) and left them to cool overnight in the oven.
The unscented Zany’s No-Slime Castile soaps I made in individual cavity molds 2+ weeks ago are ash free and are not weeping. They are in an air conditioned room that is about 78F. From my notes, here’s what I did in case it helps. I used 37% lye concentration and started SB’ing when the batter temp was 105F. It took about 25 minutes to get to light trace at which point the batter was 99F. I then covered the soaps with a cardboard box, CPOP’d them at 140F for a few hours (didn’t record exactly how long) and left them to cool overnight in the oven.
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