I forgot to spray the soap with alcohol

[Brionnak]

I made my first batch of cold process soap tonight and I'm super excited! I forgot to spray the top with alcohol after I put it in the mold. It's been "baking" about an hour. Can I still spray it?

 

[KristaY]

Is the alcohol spritz to avoid soda ash? Sure, you can spray now but don't expect a lot out of it. I've never had much luck keeping ash away no matter what I've tried. I just wash the soap later on if I want to get rid of it.

Congrats on your first batch! I hope it works out just as you planned!

 

[cmzaha]

I have never had any luck with it keeping away ash

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Embrace the ash - especially for the first few times, I would concentrate more on how you make soap and thinking about the recipes, things like that. Ash is a curious thing that seems to have little rhyme or reason to it.

 

[gemsupthepoley]

if you covered it in cling film would that help (unless you have a pretty pattern on the top)?

 

[Susie]

Soda ash is indeed a capricious thing. I can make the same recipe using the same ingredients with the same full gel and one will have ash, and one won't. No rhyme or reason. Much easier to learn quick ways to deal with it(if it bothers you), than to stress out about what you did or did not do wrong. I figure if I am giving a new person my soap, I will remove it from those bars, but otherwise I am not going to worry about it. It comes off on first use anyway.

 

[pamielynn]

Sometimes, with a swirl top, it actually looks good

 

[navigator9]

I"ve sprayed with alcohol for years, with mixed results as far as ash goes. One unwelcome side effect was that it made the top of my soaps sticky sometimes. I may have sprayed too much, but after seeing Ariane Arsenault wash the top of her soap log off under the faucet, still in the silicone liner, that's what I'm doing from now on.

 

[Seawolfe]

Ash is the definitive mark of a handmade soap, embrace it
Or wash it off before its unmolded (if you use silicone) or after cure - whatever.