Possible lye heavy CP soap?

[leom22]

Hi!

This is my first time posting here and I was hoping that I could get some help.

It has been 6 weeks since I've made my first CP soap and when zap testing I get a little bit of a tingle.

When I made the soap it took a bit to get to trace ( I assumed it was due to a higher percentage of OO). I think I waited a day before demolding the soap (did not force gel). When I demolded and cut the soap it was briddle..when I googled a lot said it was because of being too lye heavy. But could also be due to using a knife that isn't the same thickness all around like a bench scraper would be. Or even having waited too long to demold/cut.

However, now being 6 weeks later and getting a slight tingle I fear that it might be lye heavy after all. I've read that ph strips aren't accurate in determining this (mine is reading around 9ish). I did use the soap calc so I don't know where it went wrong..


Recipe:

350g total oils
Lye concentration 40%
Superfat 5%

• 175g OO 50%
• 87g avacado oil 25%
• 87g coconut oil 25%

• 73g water
• 48g NaOH

TIA!

 

[lsg]

I ran your recipe through SoapCalc and everything except the water seems to be on target. Are you sure that your lye was completely dissolved in the water before adding it to the oils? The first picture looks to me like the soap make contain undissolved lye particles. The reason the soap may be brittle is because of the water discount.

 

[leom22]

I ran your recipe through SoapCalc and everything except the water seems to be on target. Are you sure that your lye was completely dissolved in the water before adding it to the oils? The first picture looks to me like the soap make contain undissolved lye particles. The reason the soap may be brittle is because of the water discount.

Hi thanks for the reply!
Yes the lye was fully desolved in the water. I ran the soapcalc again and it gave me 73g of water, is this not correct?

 

[lsg]

I used the default water setting in SoapCalc ( water as % oils--38). That may have been the difference. It showed 132.62 grams water.

 

[AliOop]

I would add that a "little bit of a tingle" is not the sign of a lye-heavy soap. Unreacted lye will feel like an electric shock - you won't have to guess if you felt it, or not. But I agree with @lsg that the first picture is a little concerning. If you aren't feeling any grittiness or an actual electric shock, I'd give this more time to cure before you toss it.

My other recommendation is not to use the metal rack for curing, or even short-term display. Even racks that are marked as stainless can have other metals underneath the stainless layer, and those can cause DOS.

 

[artemis]

To me, the first picture just looks like air bubbles, not particles. Can you explain what we're seeing there?

 

[leom22]

I would add that a "little bit of a tingle" is not the sign of a lye-heavy soap. Unreacted lye will feel like an electric shock - you won't have to guess if you felt it, or not. But I agree with @lsg that the first picture is a little concerning. If you aren't feeling any grittiness or an actual electric shock, I'd give this more time to cure before you toss it.

My other recommendation is not to use the metal rack for curing, or even short-term display. Even racks that are marked as stainless can have other metals underneath the stainless layer, and those can cause DOS.

Okay I'll give it some more time and then check it again.

Oh good point! I didn't even think of the rack probably not being the correct metal.

Thanks!

 

[leom22]

To me, the first picture just looks like air bubbles, not particles. Can you explain what we're seeing there?

Yes it looks like air bubbles to me as well.

 

[leom22]

I used the default water setting in SoapCalc ( water as % oils--38). That may have been the difference. It showed 132.62 grams water.

I may be wrong on this, but doesn't the lye just need, at a minimum, the same amount of water to dissolve it?

 

[Zuleika]

I've never seen bubbly soap like the first pic. 2nd pic of the whole block looks fine. 3rd pic with cracked bar just looks like what would happen to me if I 1)cut castile too late 2)soap cooler and soap ashed all over resulting in crumbly soap 3)cut using a knife.

Does the soap feel soft and squishy?

 

[basti]

The first picture just looks like the inside of soap to my eyes. When it's snapped/broken in half, there's a sort of bubbly crystalline structure instead of the smooth plane of a cut.

Snapped a piece of scrap to demonstrate. This is 7 months old so it's... a bit further along in the curing process but it doesn't look terribly different, especially the top and bottom edges.

+1ing AliOop's advice : )

 

[leom22]

I've never seen bubbly soap like the first pic. 2nd pic of the whole block looks fine. 3rd pic with cracked bar just looks like what would happen to me if I 1)cut castile too late 2)soap cooler and soap ashed all over resulting in crumbly soap 3)cut using a knife.

Does the soap feel soft and squishy?

No it's not soft and squishy. I'll try to cut the soap earlier next time and see if that helps and not with a knife.
How long would you say is a general time to wait before cutting?

 

[leom22]

The first picture just looks like the inside of soap to my eyes. When it's snapped/broken in half, there's a sort of bubbly crystalline structure instead of the smooth plane of a cut.

Snapped a piece of scrap to demonstrate. This is 7 months old so it's... a bit further along in the curing process but it doesn't look terribly different, especially the top and bottom edges.
View attachment 78077

+1ing AliOop's advice : )

Thank you for sharing your picture! Makes me feel better about my soap lol.

 

[Ford]

Hi, did you use a stick blender? Might account for the air bubbles. I use a whisk on my 500g test batches. Found it hard to use a stick blender. On such a small amount of oil. Good luck, may the whisk be with you.

 

[leom22]

Hi, did you use a stick blender? Might account for the air bubbles. I use a whisk on my 500g test batches. Found it hard to use a stick blender. On such a small amount of oil. Good luck, may the whisk be with you.

Hi! Yes I did use a stick blender and it was a bit hard mixing it (I had a too large container and a small batch). I've since gotten a smaller container so that should help with that. I don't think my wrists could handle using a whisk. Haha thanks!

 

[Ekuzo]

I may be late for the party, but I'm with basti on this one. When my soap doesn't gel or doesn't gel fully and I get it out of the mold and cut it too soon, it's crumbly and can break like that. When it does, it has the same texture where it snapped. You mentioned you didn't gel and you unmolded after a day - maybe you just didn't wait long enough? Gelled soap is okay to unmold and cut in 24 hours (usually), but with ungelled you often need to wait more, just my 2 cents.

Oh, and I can see your solid fats are only 25%, so that supports the theory that you definitely need to wait longer before unmolding and cutting - that would help with the crumbliness and the soap will be more stable when you handle it.

Also, I think your water weight is fine the way it is. I don't use the "water as % of oils" option in the calculator - that way I'll get inconsistent results and the default setting (while being okay for HP) is just too much for CP. If you added more water to this specific recipe, it would've probably made it worse and you would've needed to wait even longer before you can handle the loaf without an issue

I guess your soap turned out fine in the end and the problem was just cosmetic, right?