Try dual lye (95% Naoh and 5% Koh). You will get wonderful bubbly soap that bubbles straight away. Since it becomes so bubbly, you can also use those last slivers almost to the end, which is a bonus. Dual lye is wonderful! I tested it once out of curiosity, and finally got a soap that was like a dream. I made soap today, of course with a handful of mistakes as always, and of course using dual lye. That way I know I can get a soap that feels really nice regardless how much I mess it up along the way.
If you want to know my mistakes, today it was as follows:
Measured 4 grams of wax (stearic and palmitic mix) instead of 30. Grabbed my lye bottle, and it was empty! Just when I had everything ready. Luckily I found another bottle. I almost forgot my scent, but remembered it in time. I had set my stickblender beforehand at the minimum speed. When I grabbed it and used it, it was at max! I could not get it down, but I think I pressed the wrong button. My micas mixed in oil from the recipe went solid (I took oil from the recipe after I had melted the hard oils in, I should have taken it before melting). So I had to microwave them. Everything looked fine when I add the lye to the oils and stirred, even if I realized as soon as I dumped in the scent that it was strongly floral and expected a seize. As soon I came in there with my stickblender, it thickened like crazy. Even if I did hardly use it. My plan was to pulse 2-3 times at minimum speed, and not more. It became 3-4 times at maximum speed. I should not have used it at all. I had to hurry like crazy to divide it into the cups with color. The perfect Clyde slide I had in vision, well, it became blob-blob in the mold. If I had a hanger, I would have tried a hanger swirl (my soap was too thick, but not seized in any way). But had nothing and let it be like that. I was afraid to make another disaster. What I should have done, and it struck me after the soap was in the mold, so too late. I should have dumped everything back in the bowl, and then dumped the soap from the bowl into the mold from high height. That way it will be a clyde slide, even with a too thick soap. I have done that before, and it turned out just perfect. When cutting I was expecting a mistake but got a success. And that success should have been repeated. But well, too late. Blobs can be nice too, I hope. I did remember to line my mold ahead in time. Which can not be taken for granted around here.
The worst thing is the 26 grams of wax too little. I used -1 (yes, minus) in superfat, because I added 10 grams of citric acid, and didn't bother to do calculations. As soon I realized I had measured 26 grams less, I started to get really worried about lye-heavy soap. So I had to do more calculations to estimate if it was lye-heavy or not. And luckily it isn't, because my lye was not 100% pure (it had a big lump inside, so I guessed it to 92%. But I have no clue, really). I measured 5 grams more of one fat, just because the whole package was 5 grams over and I didn't bother to take it out. Luckily I had 26 grams too little wax, because my superfat was already at 10% (not accurate since I don't know my lye purity, but my lye is old). I wanted to try less superfat this time, so I hoped for around 5%.
So yes, very clumsy as always. I have too little hands-on experience, that is the fault. I have gained lots of experience in working with soap thickening up on me, that's for sure. I think I can make it work if I next time don't use the stickblender, just stir, and choose a fragrance guaranteed not to accellerate (I have no idea if the fragrance made trouble today or not). I used Petra from Eroma, which I think is a perfume dupe. Too strong, even if I did not use all of those 25 grams (2,5%) I had measured out, I used maybe 20 grams. I will go down to 1,5% fragrance. It should be plenty. Scents from Eroma don't fade much, it seems. My old toilet-cube-smelling soap (horrible coconut flower) have only faded a tiny bit, and if I have tried to air it as much as possible.
Well, back to dual lye. If you want to give it a try, you must find a calculator that does dual lye, or calculate the old fashioned way.
Dee-Anna knows how to do it (it is not very difficult):
https://classicbells.com/soap/dualLye.html
