I quit.

[LittleCrazyWolf]

You can't quit the soap! Hope things looked a little brighter when you woke up this morning.

For what it's worth, I loathed masterbatching lye when I first started...the water evaporation used to freak me out. I do it pretty frequently now and use the same lye solution strength 90% of the time so that eliminates a lot of the math.

 

[kchaystack]

You can't quit the soap! Hope things looked a little brighter when you woke up this morning.

For what it's worth, I loathed masterbatching lye when I first started...the water evaporation used to freak me out. I do it pretty frequently now and use the same lye solution strength 90% of the time so that eliminates a lot of the math.

I did not take it as she was going to stop soaping. I think she meant she was going to stop masterbatching lye.

 

[Dorymae]

I usually won't post about my mistakes, because if no one knows about them - it never happened! :mrgreen: But seriously if I had a nickel for all the mistakes I've made over the years it would pay for my soaping habit! Everyone makes them, no body likes them, but the wise learn from them.

 

[TeresaT]

Ah, a brand new day. A brand new attitude. Thanks everyone for the kind words. Last night was not good. Especially since I had spent the day prancing around like a peacock going on about how easy this master batching is. Master batching IS easy, when you remember to use it correctly. (Face palm here.). Well, lesson learned and I'll never make that mistake again. IL, that's great advice. I'll do that. I've already got one mishap in the crockpot, but I've got two more to fix. The one in the pot now was in a hdpe mold and was total fudge. The other is in a silicone mold. I may wait until next weekend to try to deal with that. But the first one is unmolded and has been sitting on my shelf for a week. I can probably get a test slice from that before rebatching it. I've got a bunch of soap dishes to wash and a pot of coffee to make. I think it's going to be a long day. Thanks again!

 

[tbeck3579]

When we make mistakes it is reassuring to have support from other people, and a good nights rest never hurts. Sorry you struggled with it, but so glad you are moving on. You appear to be very good at soap making.

 

[commoncenz]

Teresa, I'm glad that you decided to give it a good night's sleep and come back at it. As others have said, we all make mistakes. That said, your post came at a very good time for me. Without realizing it, I have not made a batch of soap since "The Great FO Oil Disaster" where I mistakenly put a non-skin safe FO in a blend that went into a very nice looking soap.

Maybe subconsciously, I had "quit" for a little while. Your post made me realize that although I was doing all the other things associated with soaping (checking notes, working on logo/label, organizing supplies and tools) I was not actually "soaping". That will change ... and right quickly.

My point is. We post our mistakes and successes on this board for many reasons. Sometimes because we need help in figuring out what went wrong. Sometimes because we need other sympathetic shoulders to lean on. Other times to share the joy/beauty of a well crafted soap. However, one of the side benefits of posting on the board is that even our mistakes can inspire others or in this case, give them the swift kick in the rear that is needed to get them off their butt and quit fearing that their next soap will be an abysmal failure. (Thanks for that by the way).

All that said ... I'm off to smell my scents (and make sure I have the right ones), ogle my colors ... print my base recipe and ... prepare to soap today!

Good luck with your rebatching and as always .... post pics of the rebatched soap.

 

[IrishLass]

Yay! Hope is always strengthened at the break of a new day.

Like everyone has said- we all make mistakes. I'll never forget the time in my earlier soaping days when I made a (predominately) canola oil soap and accidentally super-fatted it at 23% due to a silly brain fart. The soap actually felt super awesome and luxuriant on my skin, but, well, being predominately made of canola and all, it came down with the DOS shortly after cure.

And just the other day as I was HPing a batch shaving croap/soap I had another brain fart and forgot to add my FO before molding. Thankfully, though, I was able to rectify that right quick before my batter set up. Whew!

Ok,....whats the point in doing that?

Speaking only for myself, I master-batch my lye because it's the least favorite thing I like to do when it comes to soap-making. Just the hassle of making sure my mixing space is clear of living beings and is going to continue to be clear of living beings for a while, etc., and taking the extra care to make sure that all the safety protocols are in place (extra-protective gear, proper ventilation, etc..) every single time I want to soap, is enough to kill the mood, if you know what I mean.

So, I make enough 50% solution to last me through several batches over the course of a month or so (or longer). Properly stored, it lasts a very long time without it's strength diminishing (at least a year according to my experiments at any rate, more than likely longer than that I'm sure).

Sure, there's a little bit of extra math involved to figure out how much extra water to add to the solution in order to convert it to whatever different strength I'd like to use for whatever batch, but since I'm working from a 50% solution, the math is a very easy 2-part formula that works across the board for any different water strength I desire to soap with. I just type my recipe into SoapCalc at the water % I would like to use for my batch, then I perform the following 2-part formula:

1. Recipe amount of dry lye that SopapCalc gives me x 2 = how much of the 50% solution to weigh out.
2. Recipe amount of water that SoapCalc gives me minus the recipe amount of dry lye SoapCalc gave me = how much extra water to add to my batch.

It might seem complicated, but being able to reduce it to a simple working formula like that takes a load off my brain and turns the task into something very easily done....as long as I keep the formula handy! lol


IrishLass

 

[newbie]

Dear TeresaT, before you try to fix your soap, make someone else do the math on how to correct it.

 

[newbie]

I hope you know I am (kind of) joking around. Although I would have someone double check your math because it can get confusing, you will be able to save your soap!

It's too bad we tend to keep our botches under our hats because there is so much more to learn in the botch than the success. I look forward to seeing your rebatches and future successful batches.

 

[TeresaT]

I hope you know I am (kind of) joking around. Although I would have someone double check your math because it can get confusing, you will be able to save your soap!

It's too bad we tend to keep our botches under our hats because there is so much more to learn in the botch than the success. I look forward to seeing your rebatches and future successful batches.

OK. I volunteer you. When I made it, I used 121 gm 50% lye solution and 123 gm water. I remembered to deduct the recipe lye weight from the recipe water weight to get the "rest" of the water. But I forgot to double the lye in order to get the "first part" of the water. I SHOULD have used 242 gm lye solution and 123 gm water. So, when I rebached this morning, I used 121 gm lye solution (the other half) and added 123 gm water. That wasn't enough liquid, so I added 100 gm at a time until I was satisfied with the consistency. I ended up adding an additional 700 gm. Total water is 880.5 and total NaOH is 60.5. I cooked it until it gelled and did a zap test. It was fine and the lather was pretty good. Because of the extra water, I ended up with 8 extra bars in my 12 bar mold. This is the recipe. (My scale doesn't do tenths gm, so I round to nearest gm. That's why I SF at 8% all the time instead of 5%. Giving myself some play room.)

 

[kumudini]

I see your math is alright T, although I have to ask you, did you have citric acid in the recipe? If yes, what percentage and did you adjust the lye calculation?
With that much amount of water you are going to have a looooooong wait before the bars are hard enough, so please be prepared. For your next rebatch you could may be soak your grated soap in little water overnight so it's much softer and gets to the right texture quickly.
This additional water and long wait times are the reason I'm not interested in rebatch anymore.

 

[commoncenz]

Remember that fear of an abysmal failure I mentioned earlier? ROFLMAO ... SOAP .. ON ... A ... STICK! Recipe is the same one I've been working with for the last two months except for the substitution of Aloe Vera Juice. I was using Nurture's Blackberry Sage FO ... mixed my sodium citrate concentrate (3% ppo), Kaolin clay and FO into my oils before adding lye mixture ... gave it three quick blasts with the SB and stirred. Turned to answer a question from my son and felt the whole container moving ... So, yeah ... I put it in the crock pot and I guess I will be doing my first ever rebatch.

I figured since it was already still wet and mushy, I wouldn't need any additional liquid ... is that correct? I've never even looked at HOW to rebatch ... so, off I go to hunt that information.

The JOY of soaping!

 

[TeresaT]

V, yes, I had CA in there when I did the original batch. I had put 18 gm in with the 123 gm water to dissolve. I had also put some tussah in with the lye while I was measuring the water and CA. Once the CA was fully dissolved, I added that solution to the lye & tussah then put my 11 gm NaOH into that and stirred until the NaOH and silk were all dissolved. I also added 2 tsp sodium lactate to the solution. The oils were 85 deg and the lye was 105 deg when I combined them. The ambient temp in my area was 77 with 70% humidity. You're right about the water. What looked like a good amount at the time turned out to be too much. I was afraid it would burn. The soap is actually way too soft to shred, it is the consistency of fudge. I'll probably just add a total of 486.5 gm water to the next batch. The missing 121 gm lye solution and 123 gm water the recipe originally called for (which I had actually put in there) and 300 gm to keep it from burning. I'm not too worried about the cure time. I was originally going to cure these a year and sell them at the annual yard sale. I'll cure them a year and just have a lot of soap to give away, instead. No biggie.

 

[TeresaT]

Oh no! That's terrible! I hope you can save it. I haven't had the "joy" of soap on a stick yet. But I did have major separation once that looked (and felt) like melted chicken fat. That was pretty gross. Soaping is way too much fun!

 

[gigisiguenza]

Whoa....that's wild. If it makes you feel any better, I suck major pond water at math too, so thats why I dont do masterbatching :razz:

Btw, you can't quit..you have been assimilated so there :twisted:

LOL I was thinking the same thing hahahaha... once you're assimilated, there's no quitting allowed

Teresa I feel ya and I will laugh with you because I had a major disaster soaping session on my second batch, and it was friggin comical AFTER it was over. I've got a batch of butt ugly maybe unusable soap that I look at and shake my head LOL.

Oh and I'm with whoever said write your steps down before beginning. My friggin ADD could have me off on a tangent or forgetting something and my steps keep me from messing up.

Don't quit! We need you! You are, part of the collective, you are 7347 of 9509!

 

[commoncenz]

Well Teresa, I guess you could say it was "saved". I put it in the crock pot ... let it simmer for awhile and started stirring ... and stirring ... oh, and stirring some more. I then tried to add a purple and blue color to it ... which made it end up looking like a bluish blob. I got out my steel spoon and spatula and glopped and plopped the blue blob into my mold ...where it sits ... mocking me as failure number 2 out of the last two batches.

Oh well, off to do more research on what could have caused the seize.

 

[reinbeau]

ETA Just so I understand this properly, you're meaning that you'd take (for simplicity's sake) 8 ounces of lye and put it into 16 oz. of water - or a pound of lye into two pounds of water - correct? That's the 50% solution?

<snippage>

Sure, there's a little bit of extra math involved to figure out how much extra water to add to the solution in order to convert it to whatever different strength I'd like to use for whatever batch, but since I'm working from a 50% solution, the math is a very easy 2-part formula that works across the board for any different water strength I desire to soap with. I just type my recipe into SoapCalc at the water % I would like to use for my batch, then I perform the following 2-part formula:

1. Recipe amount of dry lye that SopapCalc gives me x 2 = how much of the 50% solution to weigh out.
2. Recipe amount of water that SoapCalc gives me minus the recipe amount of dry lye SoapCalc gave me = how much extra water to add to my batch.

This is the first time anyone has explained masterbatching in a way I could understand it. I'm still not certain I'd do it, but thank you!! What would you store it in?

 

[Obsidian]

Oh well, off to do more research on what could have caused the seize.

Its almost always the FO, alcohol will also cause seizing. If it ever happens again, wrap your bowl with a towel and let it sit until it goes into gel then plop it in your mold.

I always panic when I get seize but last time I remembered to cover it. It went into gel in about 20 minutes and the soap turned out better then when its cooked in a crock.

 

[commoncenz]

I kinda thought maybe it was the difference in temp between the oils and the lye/AVJ mix. Going over things step by step, I realized that I didn't let the oils cool down before adding the lye mix (which had cooled for about an hour or so). But, it could be the FO also (probably more likely), I'll try the same FO tomorrow and let the oils cool and see what happens.

I'll keep a towel handy in case I get the same result! Thanks for the knowledge.

 

[IrishLass]

This is the first time anyone has explained masterbatching in a way I could understand it. I'm still not certain if do it, but thank you!! What would you store it in?

Yay! I'm so glad it clicked for you! I don't know if your mind works anything like mine, but if there's a way to whittle difficult-to-understand mathematical things down to a simple formula that I can perform easily and get immediate results from, then that's all I need, even if I don't exactly understand at first why the formula works (the understanding always comes later for me).

Oh, you do have to try it at least once, Reinbeau. If you are anything like me, once you use that first bit of your master-batch solution, you'll wonder why you ever mixed your lye the other way.

I store my solution in re-claimed laundry detergent bottles made of HDPE #2 plastic. The bottle I'm currently using is this one: http://www.webstaurantstore.com/arm...ogleShopping&gclid=CJGK6fKfnccCFYpcfgodAJwKDQ If you look to the right of the picture of the bottle shown in the link, it shows you every aspect of the bottle, including what the pouring nozzle looks like underneath the lid. It has that nice drip-free/spill-catcher nozzle that's just perfect for pouring lye.

Good containers for storing lye solution long-time are these:

HDPE#2
PP#5
Nalgene
PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene)
Stainless steel (quality)

Stay away from these for storing lye solution:

PETE#1
PS#6
Polycarbonate
Nylon (polyamide)
Acrylics (okay for short term use, but not for repeated use or storage)
Glass

The easiest containers for me to obtain are HDPE#2 because many laundry detergent bottles are made from it. Instead of tossing the bottle in the recycle bin when the detergent is used up, I just re-purpose it for my lye solution.


IrishLass