Need help Please :)

[tinitotts]

Hello!!
My name is Stephanie and I am a newbie soap maker!
I'm from Arizona, currently living in England and i'm a stay at home mom of two boys and happily married to a Royal Marine.
I have only made a couple CP batches and am so excited for them to hurry and cure! I am very nervous as to how they will turn out and was wondering what the BEST way to pH test them would be?! I was going to buy some paper test strips but i'm reading that those aren't always very accurate so i'm very interested and wondering how do you test your soap?! Please Help!

 

[Genny]

I don't test mine for PH. If CP soap is made correctly, it should be at a PH around 10.
I do test them for active lye though.

P.S. Welcome to the forum

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome, Stephanie, from one desert dweller to a former desert dweller.

Like Genny, I personally don't test the pH of my soap. I 've found it to actually be unnecessary as long as one tests for active lye via the zap test.

If you find that you want to test for an actual pH number, the best way to do so is with a pH meter that is properly calibrated. The next best thing (if a pH meter is out of your price-range), is to use plastic, lab-grade pH strips (regular paper pH strips won't do since they are notoriously inaccurate- the surfactant nature of soap can interfere with the indicator dyes used on such strips and give you false readings as high as 2 and 3 units off). Here is a great article that explains all of this and gives some recommendations for testing methods: http://www.millersoap.com/phtome.html


HTH!
IrishLass

 

[tinitotts]

Thank you so much for your Reply
Very nice to meet you ladies! What part of the desert did you live in?!
Ok so if I'm understanding this right I can zap test my soap after its cured for 4 weeks and as long as my tongue doesn't get zapped then the soap should be ok?! As far as the plastic test strips, is there any good brand that you could recommend please.
Genny can I ask how you test for active lye and at what point do you test for that?
Thank you again! I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out
Happy soaping!!

 

[Genny]

I test for active lye right before I cut the soap. I do that by running my finger under water, gently rubbing it across the soap, then touching my finger to my tongue. If it gives me a "zap" on my tongue, then I wait a few more days and test it again. If it doesn't give me a "zap" and there's no evidence of lye pockets or sweating lye, then I'm good to go.

Hopefully Irishlass will see this and has a recommendation for plastic ph strips.

 

[Hazel]

Hi Stephanie,

Welcome to the forum!

Try looking on these supplier sites for test strips since you're in London. You might also check out health food stores, pharmacies or even garden supply stores. Gardeners use plastic pH strips to check the acidity of soil. I'm sorry I can't help you further since I check for zap the same way as Genny. I do want to mention that I've had batches which were still zapping 4-5 days after I made them. But these were batches I had put in the frig to prevent gel. Generally, my gelled batches are fine by the next day.

 

[IrishLass]

As far as the plastic test strips, is there any good brand that you could recommend please.

In the article I gave a link to in my previous post above, the author of the article stated that she found the best plastic strips to be the Macherey-Nagel 7.0-14.0 (they are aslo available in 7.5 - 14.0 half increment strips). They are made in Germany, so I'm hopeful that it shouldn't be too hard to find a supplier for them on your side of the pond. For what it's worth, in the US they are available from the following suppliers that cater to handmade soap & lotion makers:

http://www.lotioncrafter.com/ph-fix-ind ... trips.html

http://soapimpressions.com/ph-strips/

What part of the desert did you live in?!

The Valley of the Sun (the Phoenix, AZ area)


IrishLass

 

[tinitotts]

Oh ladies you are the best! Thank you so very much for all of your helpfull advice I truly appreciate it!
Thanks so much for the links in regards to the test strips
I was up until 3 am this morning making HP soap (first time). I did the 'zap' test and well it just tasted like soap! So I think it's alright, I think I did it!?! Yay!! I Can't believe how addicting this can all be haha!
Happy soaping!!

 

[tinitotts]

IrishLass-
I grew up in Scottsdale!!