IToday I picked up a bar of both the first and most recent batch for the zap test. All I tasted was soap.. haha! I am happy, but can this ever mean that I did not use enough lye? Would this be physically noticeable?
Like Shari said- if you are using a
lye calculator, it's a given that you will have enough lye in your soap.......unless perhaps your scale is not weighing properly, but if that is the case, it could go either way- you may end up with either too much or too little lye.
Suffice it to say that if your soap holds together and lathers (i.e., is not a liquidy, lather-less, gooey mess), you'll know you at least used enough lye to make soap.
If it's really lye heavy, it'll be brittle and you'll most likely find that it will still zap for weeks and weeks later after unmolding. But if you were on the low side with the lye, your soap will just have a higher superfat than you intended, and may or may not feel as hard as other soaps (the degree of softness/hardness will depend on the oils you used and how big the superfat).
For what its worth (to give you an idea of how far off you can be on the low side and still be okay), you can get away with being at least 20% deficient on the lye but still end up with a decent soap, depending on the oils/fats you used. For example, I make a 100% coconut oil soap with a 20% superfat and it it's quite lovely.
Also, I would deeply appreciate input on when it is the appropriate time to zap test. I've read on different posts to zap test while the bar is still in the mold. Is the curing still considered part of the saponification process? Is saponification over after it stops zapping, or if it never does? Thanks for reading!
I would never, ever zap test the soap while its still in the mold......at least not when doing CP anyway. In my opinion, that is just foolhardy. It's different with HP, though- HP should be zap-tested after the cook when the soap is still in batter phase just before one molds it.
For my CP, if it has gelled, I just zap test sometime within the next few days after unmolding/cutting. If un-gelled, I wait at least a week.
RE: Curing and saponification: those are 2 different things. Saponification means 'to turn into soap' and it is complete when there's lather
and no longer any zap in the soap. For gelled soap, saponification usually concludes somewhere within the time-frame of a 6 to 24 hour period (depending on the formula). For un-gelled soap, it usually takes a few days longer, and can even take as long as up to a week (based on my own experience).
Curing, on the other hand, is what happens
after saponification is complete, and it proceeds at a much, much slower pace than saponification. Although the soap lathers and there's no zap, its lathering ability will increase during cure, the pH will go down some, and it will feel milder/less harsh to the skin.
Particular length of cure varies from person to person based on their formula and the acceptable, good, or optimal levels of performance their soap is able to achieve as it matures. For me, I've found that most of my formulas reach an acceptable level of performance by 4 weeks of cure, and they mature to more optimal levels by about the 6 to 8 week mark. But they keep getting even better beyond 8 weeks (albeit at an even slower, less obvious rate).
This raises the question- is there a point where the increase in performance levels off and the gains are so small that it is no longer worth waiting it out any longer? Yes, but it's not a 'set-in-stone' point or anything like that. It will be different for each individual soaper and their formulas, as well as their own personal likes or dislikes. Speaking only for myself, that point lies somewhere between 3 months to 6 months of cure.
IrishLass
