Soda Ash even after spraying with alcohol

[MooreThanBags]

For month I made my goat milk soap with never a problem with ash. I was covering the top of the mold with saran wrap and letting it gel. No ash but dark soap so I stopped gelling and now I am getting soda ash even when I cover with saran. I switched to generously spritzing with 91% alcohol and still have ash worse than ever. Anyone know what is going on and also since I sell my soap how can I remove the existing soda ash.

 

[Stinkydancer]

You can remove ash by steaming the top of the soap and wiping gently. I think there may be a You Tube video on it somewhere.

I got ash every time I didn't gel period except if I use a mold that a bought from a fellow soaper on here. I have not gotten one bit of ash with them gelled or non gelled. Amazing. Basically the soap cannot be exposed to air during sap. Her molds totally seal air out- I also still spritz with alcohol but I found out I didn't need to when I forgot it.
Other than these molds I'm not sure how to stop it- I never could until now.
Not trying to sell anything just talking about my experience with the molds. PM for more info.

 

[three_little_fishes]

I get ash no matter what I do. Gel, non-gel, alcohol or none. I've just been steaming it off.

 

[newbie]

Someone recently posted that she dipped her bars briefly into hot water (they were fully cured) one side for a half second, wiped the bar and then dunked the other half for half a second and wiped. It took off the ash, polished the bars and she said she was able to do them very quickly. I can't remember who it was though.

 

[kazmi]

Someone recently posted that she dipped her bars briefly into hot water (they were fully cured) one side for a half second, wiped the bar and then dunked the other half for half a second and wiped. It took off the ash, polished the bars and she said she was able to do them very quickly. I can't remember who it was though.

I just did that on 1 bar to test and it worked perfectly! I had to let it dry a little before polishing but it looks nice now.

 

[100%Natural]

Someone recently posted that she dipped her bars briefly into hot water (they were fully cured) one side for a half second, wiped the bar and then dunked the other half for half a second and wiped. It took off the ash, polished the bars and she said she was able to do them very quickly. I can't remember who it was though.

It was meeeeeee...lol. It does work really well and is far better than steaming for hours on end. When you have to remove ash from 100 bars at a time, you need all the help you can get.

 

[CaraCara]

Adding beeswax to your recipe helps too.

 

[MooreThanBags]

Thanks for all the tips. Stinkydancer I tried sending you a PM but your box is full.

 

[Stinkydancer]

Thanks for all the tips. Stinkydancer I tried sending you a PM but your box is full.

It isn't now. Sorry I had to delete some stuff.

 

[julieanne]

Curious, for those of you experiencing high or repetitious amounts of soda ash, do you use purified or distilled ater as the lye solvent?

When I use purified instead of tap water, I see a noticeable reduction of ash in the batches that used purified water. Mostly, I see no soda ash development at all. This is probably due to the lack of minearls present in purified water (bought at grocery for .97 gallon) and/or the quality of lye used -Camden Grey is what I am using now, but Essential Depot sells really good technical and food grade lye. Go for the better food grade lye to see if you notice less "ricing" in your water/lye solution. Experiment a little and discuss what you find- I am hoping that we may hit upon a new way to control the ash problem!

When I use the hardware store lye made to clear pipes, I get ash every time and the water/lye solution "rices" prior to adding it to the soaping fats.

Julie

 

[kazmi]

I've been getting ash lately and was attributing it to not gelling. But when I gelled a batch last week I still got ash. Now that you mention it Julie, you may be on to something since I had recently switched to a different supplier. I'm almost out of it now and had just purchaed food grade from ED. Making a batch this weekend with it so I'm curious to see if I will see a reduction in the amount of ash.

 

[MooreThanBags]

Since I use all milk for my liquid that is not the problem. When I first started soaping I gelled my soap and never got ash but I do not like the dark color unless I am making my mocha soap. I am going to post before and after photos here after I sprayed the ashy soap with 91% alcohol. It took most of it off.

 

[Moody Glenn]

I use my basic recipe for all my soap plus additives such as EDTA plus I gel using bottom heat from a heating mat (for nurseries). The only time I get ash is from certain FO's. For example, I use (I think its called) Black Cherry Bomb from Natures Garden. It never fails to provide a sticky pelt of ash all over it - every time. A couple other scents will make a dusting which is easy to wipe off but that one FO makes me work and work to make the bar look good. Long story condensed - maybe some scented oils makes ash develop more.