I forgot to add one of my oils ...

[akseattle]

I forgot to add one of my oils.

Long story. In a hurry to make soap on 1/28. Printer offline. So, hand copied my soap calc recipe from my 12/27/2024 batch.
My recipe called for 23% Olive oil. To get a lighter soap without using TD (still suffering from TD PTSD), I decided to swap 15% of my olive oil for HO Sunflower.
I recalled that the lye needed for SO is not really different than that needed for OO. So, just did the math and did not run it through soap calc.
Made a batch that for me is HUGE- 1500grams- so that I could make two batches of confetti soap plus do some fragrance tests.
All went swimmingly enough. I keep a journal of all my batches so last night when I went run my recipe through soapcalc and add my notes, I realized that when I copied my recipe by hand and calculated how much SO and how much OO was needed, I left off the Olive Oil!!! The olive oil was to be is 7.7% of the total oils. So, I am missing 115 grams of oil!

I tried to do a ZAP test this morning. I did this by wetting the soap, rubbing my finger around on it, then touching my finger to my tongue. I'm not sure what a ZAP actually feels like. I understand it's supposed to be obvious. The soap on my finger tasted very sharp and strong, but I can't say that I felt "zapped." I did a zap test on a bar I made of Zany's NSC last April. It was extremely mild. I had other soaps I could also have compared it with but I was a little soaped out...

Now, the additional wild card is that I tested my confetti soap which has M&P shreds- although I wet the part that didn't have shreds. I should have tested one of the fragrance test bars.
I found a thread on this forum from 2019 and 2020 where @DeeAnna explained how to figure out if your soap will be lye heavy or if you will just have less superfat if you forget an oil (one person forgot 30% - holy cow, no math needed there!) . Soapcalc won't let me calculate anything if I don't have 100% of oils in the calculator. Unfortunately, I wasn't really understanding the explanation. Calling @DeeAnna or someone to the rescue?

And, I know I said just a couple weeks ago that I learned my lesson about not using my checklist. I DID use my checklist, my checklist happened to be missing an oil! So, I guess lesson #2 for me is: Never rely on my handwritten notes, i MUST print out soapcalc- since it won't calculate the recipe if it doesn't have 100% of oils.

Anyway, how to know if this soap will be lye heavy or usable? Thank you in advance.

 

[KiwiMoose]

OK - I'll give it a go...
Hold the line please caller.

 

[akseattle]

OK - I'll give it a go...
Hold the line please caller.

@KiwiMoose , I am waiting with bated breath!

 

[KiwiMoose]

So I've added the exact amount of oils by weight and reduced the superfat to 0%. And it says you need 204.6g of lye. You actually used 209g of lye - only 5 g more than required. I did pretty much this EXACT SAME thing only a matter of weeks ago and my soap turned out absolutely fine - but my lye is only 98% pure. Can you check the purity of your lye?

Here is the link to my thread about the excess lye, it might help to read it?

 

[akseattle]

@KiwiMoose , I use 100% sodium hydroxide food grade by Belle Chemical. Does that mean it's 100% pure. I'm not at home right now, so I don't know if there are other references elsewhere on the container.

So, to get this, you subtracted the missing 115 from the intended 1500, then just input the actual grams used in the recipe? Then SOAPCALC automatically determined the superfat ? So, assuming my lye is 100% pure, I am okay? Would it tell me if I had negative superfat? or would it refuse to calculate?

 

[KentuckySilks]

Zap taste is my fav way to see if lye heavy- i just touch my tongue against the soap after a couple days and if it electrifies you, essentially, then it’s lye heavy. You will know! Sometimes if there’s soda ash, it’s got a zing but something you wouldn’t mind testing with your tongue again. Either the zap, you do not want to try again! Hope this helps, we’ve all been there with omitting oil(s)!!!

 

[KiwiMoose]

Yes @akseattle that's exactly how I did it. Here's another one with -2% superfat and it's the closest I can get to your recipe:

When I made my mistake with missing oils, I had two factors in my favour - I had coconut cream in the recipe (provided extra superfat) and my lye is only 98% pure. So no zap for me.

If you have used any additional oils in your recipe - a percent here or there (rounding up for example) then it's likely you will be ok after a good cure.

 

[akseattle]

@KentuckySilks , I definitely didn't feel "electrified." More like a strong, sharp taste. Maybe I'll test it putting my tongue directly on the soap.

@KiwiMoose , I just ran my actual recipe through soapcalc as 1385 gram batch. It looks like soapcalc doesn't change the superfat for me, I must just manually adjust it. I just noticed that my original recipe is not very bubbly. So, if it's not lye heavy, it will be harder and bubblier- yeah!!

I just read your thread. First, I feel way better knowing that you forgot some oils, too. Second, I'm feeling optimistic. You forgot 10% of your oils and had a lower superfat to start (I assume less room for error), but you had unaccounted for coconut cream, which may have helped give you a greater margin of error. Not sure if my lye is 100% pure. The FO I used is really weak at 6%. It's MAX IFRA is 100%, so I used 9%. Maybe that extra oil in my FO gave me a little cushion?

I made 5 bars that were purely fragrance samples. My intent is to leave them around forever, just checking them about every 3 months to see how enduring the FO's are. So, maybe I'll just forget about my two loaves for six months, too. I guess another lesson for me is "Never be in a hurry when making soap."

Thanks for the help!!

 

[akseattle]

@KiwiMoose - did you manually put in that negative superfat until it gave you the 208 grams of lye?

 

[KiwiMoose]

@KiwiMoose - did you manually put in that negative superfat until it gave you the 208 grams of lye?

yup!