Nice to meet you all!

[GabyHila]

Made my first batch of soap yesterday after 2 years of thinking about it and reading.

I wanted to create a soap with ingredients that may be sourced locally, including pork lard.

I am not convinced it turned out right and sincerely dont know where to turn but here.. The lye I have si 76% purity and did not heat as I read everywhere. I had the right calculations that I got from soapcalc and mixed the lye with a herbal tea (that is commonly used here). It only heated to 50 degrees celsius and rapidly fell to 40 percent. My grandma (old soap maker from lard) suggested that I have to heat the lye solution, which I did up to 60 degrees. It cooled down to 50 and then mixed it with the oils.

Mixed with a stick for about 5 minutes and became a nice pudding, which I poured in the mould.

I could not sleep with excitement, but the soap is very oily. It still not hard, but it will be from what I see. I am just afraid to use it, maybe the lye solution did not create the saponification and instead of having a benefit it will be toxic.

I will now go and read the forum! Excited to be here from Romania!

Gabriela

 

[coffeetime]

Hi Gabriela, I would not use 76% purity lye for soap. What is in the other 24%? Is it actually drain cleaner? That could be very unsafe. Could you check the label?

 

[GabyHila]

Went and checked the label: 70 percent sodium hidroxide and 30 percent sodium chloride.

It even says: Lye for soap...

 

[coffeetime]

Ok well the salt won't hurt your soap so that's ok. When you ran your recipe through a lye calculator did you adjust for the missing 30% lye? If not, there won't be enough lye to react with the oils and you will have a 30+% superfat. Which means a lot of free oil.

 

[GabyHila]

No I did not. The free oil is then the explanation of the very oily surface.
Is there any way I can fix it?

 

[coffeetime]

You could re-batch with more lye. Or figure out how much fat is surplus and remove it, then re-batch just to mix it better. Is there a lump of soap forming or is it just a fluid mass?

 

[GabyHila]

It formed out nicely and hardened. It poured them into cupcake shapes and they are nice soap cupcakes. But if I put my fingers over them, I can see small traces of oil on my fingers.

If I rebatch how do I calculate how much lye is missing? I was so excited about it. I made my own oils last year from the plants in my garden. I make ointments for my girl and friends but never had the courage to do soap. I did not feel safe with the lye so I was amazed yesterday when the reaction was not as expected. Did not heat up to 200 celsius.

Coffeetime, thank you for your advice! I appreciate very much the response!

 

[coffeetime]

When you put your recipe into a lye calculator, it is set for 100% NaOH. So if it says you need 100g, and you use 100g of the type you have, you are actually only using 70g. Most lye brands are 97-99% from what I've seen people reporting on here. Which won't make a significant difference to your recipe.

Can you post a picture? Is it just a little bit of oil or a lot? Or did you already pour off the excess?

 

[GabyHila]

The oil does not run and never did. I would say its as hard as a ripe avocado?

 

[coffeetime]

Oh! That's a pleasant surprise! It looks like it will be fine. Can I ask what your recipe was?

 

[GabyHila]

Of course:
I had:
232 grams of water (herbal tea ) with 83 grams of the 70% lye disolved.
Beeswax: 28 grams, Castor oil - 64 grams, Coconut oil - 134 grams, Cocoa butter - 30 grams, Pork lard - 193 grams, combination of different plants macerated in olive oil (164 grams).

It turned to pudding with a trace in 3 minutes after I poured the oils in he lye solution. I am not convinced that the lye has actualy done the saponification and now I am afraid of the soap cupcakes)

 

[coffeetime]

Ok, I've just plugged that into my soap calculator, and full water would only be198g. It looks like you had it designed for a 2% superfat.
Your total lye needed was 83g for that superfat but your lye only had 58.1g of NaOH. Which is just over a 30% superfat. So you needn't worry about your soap being dangerous, but it likely won't have much lather with that level of superfat. Plus the salt in your lye product will kill lather.

Zap test it in another day or two. It likely will stay on the soft side... But then again the salt might counteract that. It will be prone to quicker rancidity with that high a superfat, although you have chosen long-lived oils. Use it, see what you think and make a new recipe based on your results. Oh, and I wouldn't use beeswax until you've got more experience, as it can be difficult to work with and doesn't really add a whole lot to your bar.

Try this recipe from soapcalc.net, using the ingredients you have. You will just have to adjust your lye so you get the full amount required. You could also re-work it to leave out the cocoa butter and add more olive. With the salt in the lye you have, you really won't need the extra hardness.