My HP soap smells of lye, but doesn't sting, zap or irritate

[tpurdy927]

I've been making HP soap for a little while, I've made about 6 batches. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but every now and then, when I use it, i get a whiff of lye. Just like that smell of just mixing your lye and the water only much milder. I have VERY sensitive skin and my soap doesn't irritate my skin, i've done the zap test on my tounge and all i get is soap.

I've taken the original recipie and adjusted it for my large molds. Here is my recipie:
Castor: 161g (3.7%)
Coconut: 961g (22.2%)
Olive: 1923g (44.5%)
Sunflower (Hi Oleic): 640g (14.8%)
Palm: 640g (14.8%)
Lye: 609g (3.3% lye discount)
Water: 1601.31g or 54.1 fl oz (-9.1% Water discount: I live at over 10,200 ft, its very dry so I add extra water or the mixture is impossible to work with by the end of the cooking process)

My most recent batch I used 44ml of scent and about 2oz of diluted LabColor from Bramble Berry.

Any ideas or suggestions? I don't want to give out soap that is dangerous nor soap that stinks of chemicals.

 

[IrishLass]

As long as your soap doesn't zap, it's perfectly safe and not dangerous to use, so no worries there.

As for the smell- are you the only one that can smell it? Do you have family/friends willing to try it out and give you feedback on the smell? I ask because sometimes our noses are funny things-they can be sensitive to certain scents at certain times, and not so sensitive at other times depending on how saturated our scent receptors are at the moment. Or maybe they are just extra sensitive to a certain component of any given substance.

Take the scent of jasmine for instance (this will be really gross, but stick with me)- there is a certain component of jasmine (indole, if I remember right), and the people who are extra sensitive to it can only smell the scent of urine when they smell jasmine (whether the actual flower or the fragrance oil). That's because there is also a lot of indole present in urine and feces. The people who aren't extra sensitive to indole can only smell a beautiful sweetly scented flower when they smell jasmine, while others can only smell something akin to cat pee and wonder how anyone else can stand the smell of jasmine.

Also- my SIL can only seem to smell the fresh scent of lemons when passing by a dead skunk. While we are all rolling our car windows up when passing one, she is rolling her window down and breathing deeply!

I would ask others if they can smell what you are smelling.



IrishLass