What soapy thing have you done today?

[SunRiseArts]

I came to this forum and also made this super cute fat cat soap, that I painted the top with mica!

 

[Scooter]

Three firsts today:

1) Made soap from shreds of a former batch that had overheated to the point of ugly. It is the confetti half of the batch I made today.
2) Replaced half my water with vinegar in the batch above.
3) Used less than full water (used 2:1 H2O:NaOH, instead).

I was going to make a 5% KOH batch but decided I had enough new things to test in one batch.

 

[earlene]

Some soap labeling today and a bit the past couple of days. Maybe I'll make soap in a couple of days when my husband goes back to work. He's been sick and missed a couple of days of work, so not much soaping got done.

 

[artemis]

I played with a new fragrance. Description said, "moderate acceleration," but that didn't look very "moderate" to me! Oh, well. It smells pretty, anyway.

 

[SheLion]

Last week I made a bastille soap. Today, I unmolded it and discovered after cutting a couple bars that it's still soft almost to the point of being gooey in the center even though I used sodium lactate in it. But the lye used was old. So I decided to do some psuedo-sciency stuff and repeat the batch but use fresh lye. Changed nothing else.

First batch took 22 minutes of SBing to come to light to med trace (which I know only because I've started a soaping notebook in which I keep careful notes, a direct result of reading SMF). Today's batch was pudding in 5 minutes. I CPOPed it for about 20 minutes while I cleaned up then moved it so I could use the oven. There was already a big crack down the center and it was really, really warm. :mrgreen: Yeah, I think maybe the lye was the problem.

I also made a complete seat of the pants lip balm. It's not looking like that will be a success.

 

[Scooter]

So I decided to do some psuedo-sciency stuff and repeat the batch but use fresh lye.

Are you going to salt out the extra lye?

 

[earlene]

Are you going to salt out the extra lye?

I don't think she has extra lye in the first soap. The old lye was probably somewhat less than pure because of opening the bottle again & again can introduce oxygen into the bottle; the oxygen reacts with the lye and instead of 100% pure it becomes less pure. So what she has is not lye-heavy soap, but a higher SF than planned. That's why it would still be so soft.

 

[earlene]

Still just working on labeling soaps. My sinuses are not normal, but am hoping this will be mild and I can maybe do my ebru soap in the morning. I may need to call Social Security, though and that can take some time. We will see how it goes. But I would like to make soap.

 

[Scooter]

I don't think she has extra lye in the first soap. The old lye was probably somewhat less than pure because of opening the bottle again & again can introduce oxygen into the bottle; the oxygen reacts with the lye and instead of 100% pure it becomes less pure. So what she has is not lye-heavy soap, but a higher SF than planned. That's why it would still be so soft.

My question should have been clearer... how can one know, precisely, how much extra NaOH to put in the second time around without putting in too much? That is, if the lye was too weak the first time, how do you know how much is in there before adding more to it? is there a way to measure this? I would think adding in "too much" the second time around and then salting out any extra is the only way I would know how to fix this.

 

[earlene]

Good point, Scooter. Not being my soap, I can only postulate of course. But what I'd be tempted to do is simply make a 0% SF batter and do a mix of about 50:50 old and new as a re-batch. I've never had trouble with a 0% SF soap being harsh on my skin, so mixing it with something of an unknown SF would not be a risk IMO. I'd also add in a bit of extra ROE or vit E or whatever anti-DOS additive desired to help offset any excess SF which could lead to DOS. Then after an appropriate cure, I'd try it out and see how it does. If it seems okay, I'd be happy.

In fact, if I knew the recipe of the original soap was supposed to be 6% SF, but I suspected it was much higher, I might go to a -2% SF for the additional batter as long as the old soap gets completely melted and incorporated before molding. But that's a judgment call and would have to based on my own hands on and face to face experience with the soap in question. That's a bit more of a guessing game.

 

[SheLion]

My question should have been clearer... how can one know, precisely, how much extra NaOH to put in the second time around without putting in too much? That is, if the lye was too weak the first time, how do you know how much is in there before adding more to it? is there a way to measure this? I would think adding in "too much" the second time around and then salting out any extra is the only way I would know how to fix this.

I didn't do a rebatch. I made a whole new batch of soap using the same recipe but with fresh lye-meaning I just bought it.The lye in batch #1 was some that I've had for a few years.

Hopefully that clears up the confusion.

 

[Scooter]

I didn't do a rebatch. I made a whole new batch of soap using the same recipe but with fresh lye-meaning I just bought it.The lye in batch #1 was some that I've had for a few years.

Hopefully that clears up the confusion.

Oh NOW I SEE... I read that other post too fast, sorry. I thought you meant you took the first batch and mixed it again with even more lye. Whew.

 

[CTAnton]

I made a 1 kg test batch of a lard/sheep tallow blend hoping to have some synergy between the 2. Split the batter in half and tried some 1 ounce fragrance oils from Rustic Escentuals, Redwood and teakwood and Fern. Upped the amount of sugar in the lye water to 2 Tbsp. per pound of oil, sodium citrate at 1.5% of oils weight and the highly touted(thank you Susie and DeeAnna!) 95%/5% NaOH/KOH blend. 12 hours later its falling out of the molds rock hard. And the smell! I'm a terrible judge of fragrance oils..I only met one I didn't like...that was a lavender fragrance oil. The soap I made with that oil I couldn't wait to get out of the house, only to receive raving reviews ffrom the people I gifted it to.. Go figure...makes you think instead of YMMV...your mileage may vary there should be a YNMV...your nose may vary...

 

[mx5inpenn]

I have planned and prepped my first and second challenge soaps. I'll make one tonight after the kiddos are asleep.

 

[Susie]

I will be cutting a batch of eucalyptus/citrus/wintergreen soap I made yesterday. My first one that I used a heating pad to ensure full gel. I got tired of getting "mold rash" on my loaves after CPOP. I have got to get a wooden mold!

I will be masterbatching NaOH and KOH today, and making a batch of something today. I am feeling very uninspired at the moment. I find that making a certain scent soap is by far my strongest inspiration. From there I know what colors it should be, and can't wait to get it made.

 

[Gerry]

I don't use weird additives in soap anymore normally, but today is not a normal day. I received some requests and ingredients to use from some Chinese friends. I made a very concentrated "tea" of goji berries, luo han guo, and ginseng root that I'm substituting for lye water. I just added the lye and... OMG what a wicked smell! I'm starting to wonder if even the tree tea oil will cover that up later.

Update: Well now that the lye has cooled down it smells a bit better. Smells strongly of ammonia though. I can tell it's going to take a long time for this soap to mellow out.

 

[SheLion]

I didn't do a rebatch. I made a whole new batch of soap using the same recipe but with fresh lye-meaning I just bought it.The lye in batch #1 was some that I've had for a few years.

Hopefully that clears up the confusion.

Oh NOW I SEE... I read that other post too fast, sorry. I thought you meant you took the first batch and mixed it again with even more lye. Whew.

I unmolded and cut my confusion-causing bastille soap. It was what I take to be appropriate hardness for those actions. Certainly easier to deal with than its gooey forebear.

I also unmolded and cut an activated charcoal face soap I made. Since I made it with the now known problem old lye, it was still sticky and messy despite spending 6 days in the mold. That's okay though. My drying rack is in an out of the way place in the basement so it can hang out, age and harden up with the gooey bastille.

I wanted my mold free-I have lye and oils to use! :mrgreen:

 

[Scooter]

I unmolded and cut my confusion-causing bastille soap. It was what I take to be appropriate hardness for those actions. Certainly easier to deal with than its gooey forebear.

This sounds so cool. I'm glad to hear it is working out. :bathtub:

 

[SheLion]

This sounds so cool. I'm glad to hear it is working out. :bathtub:

Thanks. All the soaps on my drying rack are new recipes for me so I'm anxious to try them. Unfortunately, only one has hit the 4 week curing mark. One is a castille so I'm not even going to look at it until June (made just before Christmas) and all the others are too new. I will just have to content myself with making yet more soap. Since I recently went crazy with the cheez-whiz and ordered 24 FO samples (my first ever foray into FOs), that will keep me occupied until I can use the other soaps!

 

[Pepsi Girl]

I looked at this soapmaking forum!!