Too Much Lye

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WhackySoaper

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Hi everyone, I'm new here and to soaping. Last night I attempted my 2nd batch of HP soap it was a simple recipe with only 8oz. each of 2 oils so I don't know how I messed it up but I think I added the same amount of lye as water which was 6 oz. I cooked the soap 6 hours and it would not gel and the lye did not neutralize so I gave up, is there anything I can do to save this soap? Please any help is appreciated, Thank you

I used Coconut and Olive and yes I did run thru a calc that's why I'm so upset with myself for messing this up when I measured out the lye I kept saying to myself this doesn't seem right but I added it to my oils anyway. I cooked it so long trying to get it to gel and also to try and cook the lye out, I did the zap test and almost burned my tongue out.
 
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can you be more specific, which oils did you use? every oil has a SAP value to determine how much lye is needed. for hp, you don't need to cook for 6 hours. usually 45 mins to 1 hour is enough.
 
I used Coconut and Olive and yes I did run thru a calc that's why I'm so upset with myself for messing this up when I measured out the lye I kept saying to myself this doesn't seem right but I added it to my oils anyway. I cooked it so long trying to get it to gel and also to try and cook the lye out, I did the zap test and almost burned my tongue out.
 
Since you know what you used you can run it through soap calc and keep tweaking the oil number until you get the amount of lye you used, then recook it and add in the oils. But you need to know exactly how much lye you used to begin with. If using 6 oz of lye you would have needed around 40 oz of oils. Ball park figure, it will depend on your combo of oils. If the color changed in your soap it most likely did gel. I would add in additional oil and try rebatching it
 
Hi and Thanks for the reply. I never saw it get because it almost instantly turned to a solid brick that I had to break up with a knife and by adding lots of water to get it back to liquid form. I went to mash potato but never gel adding more oils was the only thing I could think of but wanted to be sure that was my only option besides garbage disposal
 
If it were me, I'd pitch it and try again. It's only a pound of oils. There's something to be said for not throwing good ingredients after bad.
 
Hi Judy, yes I'm wondering if that is the best thing to do because I don't want to waste an additional 32 oz. of oil if rebatching doesn't work. I'm so new at soaping I'm not sure about anything, also thinking I wouldn't feel it safe to use this on my skin maybe laundry. I'm so confused and don't know what to do.
 
i agree with judy, it's better to ditch it and start fresh, rather than waste another a lot of oils if the rebatch ain't working.

if you want to use the lye heavy soap for laundry, you can try giving it a long cure, zap testing it periodically till it doesn't burn anymore. i'm no expert in chemistry, i just know that at one time i made a castile soap with -40% SF (yes, minus 40) and i can use it on my skin although it feels a bit drying. the recipe has a lot of excess water though, and yours did not, so i'm still not sure about what's going to happen with all the excess lye in your soap. but anyway, you can try giving it a nice, long cure, and see what happens.
 
I agree with Judy - pitch it.

I am still confused how you got the wrong amount of lye if you used a lye calculator - did you write down the recipe and write down the wrong amount of lye by accident? I always print the recipe and triple check the amount of lye.
 
Hi dixiedragon, I know I should've printed it out, but told myself I would wait until after I made the soap in case I did some tweaking which was a big mistake. I wrote down the instructions and somehow looked at the amount of water for lye. This was one of the most basic soap recipes I've seen and should've been a piece of cake to make but instead I'm kicking myself and will be all day and sitting in the corner with my dunce cap on.:(
 
Thanks all for your help, I have another question I wanted to ask if I do add more oils would I need to cook it again or just blend till smooth and pour?
 
Thanks Seven, that helps a lot now I just need to know do I recook or do I now have to finish with CP?
 
I would recook as well, if you choose to add the proper amounts of oils and rebatch. And for future, you can't cook lye off. You can cook and cook but the lye won't go away just from heat.

You are smart to start with small batches for just the reason you discovered; if things don't go well, you haven't wasted a lot of ingredients. Lots of people start with 5 pounds batches, which can be awfully expensive if something goes awry.
 
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