Too much lye?

[shelbywilkerson]

I'm new to soap making.
I made two batches and they seem to have turned out ok. On the one batch, however, it hardened up faster and I notice a white powdery coating on the finished product. The other batch had just a little powdering.

Does this mean I used too much lye?

 

[maiseycat]

The white powdery substance is called soda ash, and is harmless, some just find it unattractive. Some people cover their soaps with plastic wrap, or spray the surface with alcohol to prevent it.

You can check if yourrecipe uses too much lye by running it through a lye calculator like the one at soapcalc.net.

A very easy way to check for active lye is to do a tongue test. Shawnee described it rather brilliantly in this post http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f11/zap-test-visual-guide-30690/ and I don't eve want to try and improve on that.

 

[lsg]

You can also spritz your soap with rubbing alcohol after pouring into the mold.

 

[shelbywilkerson]

Thanks for the help you guys, I'll try those and see if it helps.

I thought maybe I'd used too much lye.

 

[MaitriBB]

You can try the tongue zap test. Touch the soap gently with your tongue - if you feel a "zap" (trust me, you'll know it!), then the soap is lye-heavy.

 

[chicklet]

Some have said before that ungelled batches will get soda ash more often than gelled soap. I don't gel most of mine and I do get ash on a lot of my soap. Sometimes I just go with it - in my opinion it adds to the look of some of my soaps. Other times I rinse it off as I cut the bars. Another method of removing it is to hold cured bars over a pot of steam. Or you can try to prevent it with the methods listed above.

 

[Gryfonmoon]

Zap test is a good idea - just don't do what I did on my first zap test. Somehow I managed to cover 1/3 of my tongue in burning sticky soap. *facepalm*

I got my sense of taste back though. Eventually.

 

[Genny]

Zap test is a good idea - just don't do what I did on my first zap test. Somehow I managed to cover 1/3 of my tongue in burning sticky soap. *facepalm*

I got my sense of taste back though. Eventually.

That's why I put water on my finger and then run my finger across the soap. If it tingles, I know that it's lye heavy & to wait another day or so.

 

[Gryfonmoon]

That's why I put water on my finger and then run my finger across the soap. If it tingles, I know that it's lye heavy & to wait another day or so.

That's a good idea.

It's humorous to think about now but then I was all D: "HALP" and flailing my arms around and stuff. Hahaha.

 

[Genny]

That's a good idea.

It's humorous to think about now but then I was all D: "HALP" and flailing my arms around and stuff. Hahaha.

I know exactly what you mean. When I was a newbie, I licked a batch of soap that was about 6 hours old because I wanted to know what zap felt like. I'm very thankful that I was alone in the house. I said words that would make a sailor blush.

 

[CaliChan]

I'm new to soap making.
I made two batches and they seem to have turned out ok. On the one batch, however, it hardened up faster and I notice a white powdery coating on the finished product. The other batch had just a little powdering.

Does this mean I used too much lye?

O.O ive noticed that different batches cure...well differently. Different recipes at least. My coffee soap hardened up enough to take out of the mold after 18 hours. But the wine soap... i tried taking it out after 24 and well... they weren't ready and i ended up with really funky looking bars.