Reading IS fundamental!

[kchaystack]

So, I am sitting here in my soaping area, waiting for my lye to cool. I have an awful confession to make. I know my chemistry professors ate rolling in their graves.

The last 2 batches of soap I have made went south. The first, after a week, was soft and grainy. There was white jelly like stuff on the top. I finally scraped it out of the molds i was using and threw it away.

So I tried again last night, with a smaller batch. I thought it was all fine, but this morning it is looks like malt o meal hot cereal.

So I cursed. The only thing that was in common was the lye. I had gotten 2lbs of the flakes from BB wanting to try them as I read it was less likely to have static problems.

I must have gotten a bad batch. So i went out and got some lye from my local Ace Hardware. I had used this in my first 4 batches and it worked great.

So I came down to get ready to soap. For some reason I looked at the lye from BB again. And felt like a fool...

 

[RhondaJ]

So, I am sitting here in my soaping area, waiting for my lye to cool. I have an awful confession to make. I know my chemistry professors ate rolling in their graves.

The last 2 batches of soap I have made went south. The first, after a week, was soft and grainy. There was white jelly like stuff on the top. I finally scraped it out of the molds i was using and threw it away.

So I tried again last night, with a smaller batch. I thought it was all fine, but this morning it is looks like malt o meal hot cereal.

So I cursed. The only thing that was in common was the lye. I had gotten 2lbs of the flakes from BB wanting to try them as I read it was less likely to have static problems.

I must have gotten a bad batch. So i went out and got some lye from my local Ace Hardware. I had used this in my first 4 batches and it worked great.

So I came down to get ready to soap. For some reason I looked at the lye from BB again. And felt like a fool...

I feel your pain! I didn't soap with the wrong lye, but I did accidentally purchase 12lb of KOH rather than NaOH a few weeks ago due to "not reading" closely enough....that darn "hydroxide" word just sucked me right in and I read no more than that lol

 

[Seawolfe]

Oh geeze I could totally do something like that!
But aren't you glad you figured it out?

 

[cmzaha]

OOPSIE...that is a real bummer. But I can bet that everyone of us has made a boo boo at one time or another. Sorry you ended up wasting your ingredients, that is what I hate so much with boo boo's

 

[kchaystack]

On the bright side I can try liquid soap at some point.

 

[DeeAnna]

Um, you already have! Just dilute and you're good!

 

[kchaystack]

Really? I would not have thought the amounts for KOH and NaOH would be the same to saponify oils. Plus there is a mess of micas and fo in it.

 

[boyago]

Really? I would not have thought the amounts for KOH and NaOH would be the same to saponify oils. Plus there is a mess of micas and fo in it.

Not really, I am assuming you added the weight of NaOH in KOH right? You could have however saved it if you threw it into the crock and balanced the H2O and KOH to make it a liquid soap. I haven't made liquid soap yet so I have no idea what the mica would have done.?

 

[kchaystack]

Well, I haven't thrown out last night's mess yet. I was thinking about seeing if it could be saved as... something. Yeah, I used the amount of KOH instead of NaOH. If I need to cook it down I'm willing to try. I know the fo probably won't survive the heat.

 

[Susie]

Just re-run the recipe through the soapcalc with the KOH and the 90% checked. Then note the difference between the NaOH weight and the KOH weight. Add that amount of KOH, and 3 times that amount in water. I probably would not even cook it, unless absolutely necessary. Just mix the KOH to the water, and pour that HOT mixture into the soap paste you have. Mix well and put the lid on for a couple of hours, then see what you have. You may have perfectly gelled liquid soap. Or, you could need to cook it a bit.

 

[DeeAnna]

Oh, yeah, I didn't think about that. Thanks for pointing that out, Boyago! You are most right.

The correct KOH weight for any soap recipe is 1.403 times the NaOH amount.

Example -- You need 125 g NaOH for a batch of soap. You added 125 g KOH by mistake. How much extra KOH is needed to fix this and make a proper liquid soap?

Proper amount of KOH needed = 1.403 X 125 g = 175.4 g KOH

Amount of KOH to add to the messed up batch to make it right = Proper KOH - Actual KOH = 175.4 - 125 = 50.4 g extra KOH needed

 

[boyago]

I am not very familiar with micas, will the micas drop out when/if the soap is diluted?

 

[kchaystack]

I have a feeling I will just have a muddy colored LS. The micas are a turquoise and a purple from Nurture. Maybe I will just have purple LS...

I will do this tonight or tomorrow. Unfortunately real work calls

 

[Susie]

Oh, yeah, I didn't think about that. Thanks for pointing that out, Boyago! You are most right.

The correct KOH weight for any soap recipe is 1.403 times the NaOH amount.

Example -- You need 125 g NaOH for a batch of soap. You added 125 g KOH by mistake. How much extra KOH is needed to fix this and make a proper liquid soap?

Proper amount of KOH needed = 1.403 X 125 g = 175.4 g KOH

Amount of KOH to add to the messed up batch to make it right = Proper KOH - Actual KOH = 175.4 - 125 = 50.4 g extra KOH needed

OK, for people allergic to algebra, can it just be entered into the soapcalc and subtracted?

 

[DeeAnna]

Yep, Susie, that would work fine!

 

[kchaystack]

Ok, I calculated the amount of KOH I needed to finish this out, dissolved it is some water and mixed it. Not sure how to tell if I need to cook it...

I guess I will let it sit and see if it zaps after a day or so. If so I'll dump it in my crock and cook it til it's zap free. Here is a pic....

 

[kchaystack]

Ok a little over a day later, and no zap. I will just let it set out for a while before I bag it up and dilute some as a test. If it seems fine in my tests I will give a bunch away. This is not going to be good for anything but hand soap because of the FO and mica in there, and that is more liquid soap than I could use in a year.

 

[cgpeanut]

On the bright side I can try liquid soap at some point.

or a shaving crough soap.