What to do about a bleeding soap

[scrubbie]

Well my desert rhubarb is bleeding. It is very slight but it is there. Is there any way to correct it? Does it get better with age? The soap is a few days old and I ran a Ph test. I am PH at 8.5. But the sample was very veyr slightly yellow on hands but I did see some slide in the sink. it is an extra white sink. I will post a link to a pic.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/854/frontdrr.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/4/ ... barb2.jpg/

 

[IrishLass]

My experience with my own bleeding soaps is that they continue to bleed (sometimes worse as time goes on depending on my FO).

What are you using to test your pH?

IrishLass

 

[scrubbie]

Well I am using strips from the sceince company. I know that strips arent 100 percent accurate but, it is within the range that is safe. SO what do I do with this bleeding soap? I used the rhubarb powder recipe from that site learn to soap. 1.5 tsp per ppo was too much. If i give that soap to my OCD uncle he will flip. I am going to look at a lrge bar rather than the sample bar and see what happens. I pretested strips in pure distilled before I ran soap test on another strip to make sure it was okay. If there is a better way to PH test I would like to know.

My uncle I love him but he is just like this TV show detective Monk. SO much so that when I was going to give him season 1 of the Monk TV series my aunt said' " Do not give them that as a gift for one the humor will be lost on him and for two I dont want him getting any more ideas!" I can just see his pearly white, immaculate sink, with this bleeding red rhubarb soap splashing a lite orange droplets on it. NO THANK YOU!

 

[IrishLass]

Well I am using strips from the sceince company. I know that strips arent 100 percent accurate but, it is within the range that is safe........If there is a better way to PH test I would like to know.

It is difficult to get a true/reliable pH reading of bar soap with pH strips. From all I've read on the different forums, those who want a more reliable /accurate numerical measurement of their soap's pH, use pH meters (properly calibrated ). When compared to pH strips in side by side tests, the readings via the strips came out deceptively low. Here is a link with some excellent info from Lius Spitz (a retired soap chemist) on the subject (scroll down to "pH of soaps"): http://www.soapnuts.com/indextips.html

As for me, I follow Dr. Kevin Dunn's advice (and the advice of many seasoned soapers) that it's really not necessary to know the exact numerical pH of one's soap if all you are wanting to determine is whether or not it is safe to use or if it is lye-heavy. In order to that, a simple tongue test (aka zap test) is all that is required. If it tests out tongue neutral, then all is well.

What do I do with this bleeding soap?

I see the point about your Monkish uncle (we love that show, by the way ). I definitely wouldn't give any to him, that's for sure. You can choose to keep it and just use it yourself. There's nothing wrong with bleeding soap other than harmless, discolored lather. Or you could always grate it up and use as decorative 'soap confetti' in another batch that isn't prone to discoloring (maybe the lesser amount used as 'confetti' will dilute the discoloration some so that it's not so noticeable).


Edited to add another great article for pH info and strips vs. meters: http://www.millersoap.com/phtome.html


IrishLass

 

[Fragola]

My uncle I love him but he is just like this TV show detective Monk.

I suggest a plain white soap, instead of rhubarb.

 

[scrubbie]

So what happens if your soap zaps? What do you do then?
How can a soap be lye heavy when you use lye calc like soap calc and a digital scale?

 

[IrishLass]

Many soaps can zap when they are a few days old or just out of the mold, especially if they didn't go through the gel stage. Usually, they settle down within a week. If your soap is still zapping by the time 2 weeks rolls around, then something is wrong. Maybe your scale was off or you mis-measured somewhere or forgot to add an oil (it happens). In that case, you can apply Bunny's surefire cure for lye heavy soap, which is to rebatch it and stir in more oil 1 tsp. or so at a time as it is 'cooking' (checking for zap about 5 or 10 minutes after each addition of oil), until it ceases to zap. At that point you can mold it.


IrishLass