When Soaping Hurts

[Happy Lass]

Okay, time for a little confession.

I have a failed batch. It's my first failed batch. And, of course, it's my best looking batch to dates.

Let's go to the photos!

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Doesn't that look nice? That's a 4 color swirl, scented with Smokey Patchouli.

The recipe is
10% Sweet Almond oil
5% Castor oil
20% Coconut Oil
40% Lard
25% Olive Oil

Thats a fine bar of soap.

Except, lets look a little bit closer:

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See the white spot there? Yep. That's a lye pocket. I trimmed off all the crystals that formed on the edges of the bars. After ten days these things are still zapping and feel slippery when wet in the way only lye does. (sigh)

So, after 10 days of hoping, I'm finally facing the music and making my first rebatch. Say Bye-Bye to all those great swirls. I don't know what happened, except I added salt & sugar to my lye water after I had mixed in the lye and there were chunks when I poured it into the oil that I *thought* were salt, but maybe were lye?

Blah. So that's my sad tale. I've made two batches since then to get back on the horse and all that, but I'm still very disappointed.

 

[krissy]

i had that happen to me recently and it sucks. :cry: i have been soaping for a long time too. every now and then shtuff happens :?
good luck on your rebatch though

 

[yoenoess]

how much lye that you use? Excess lye makes your soap too dangerous. Try check it with soapcalc

 

[paillo]

try thoroughly mixing your sugar and salt into your water BEFORE adding the lye, that may help. if you're adding silk, also mix it well into your water BEFORE adding the lye. i usually add my sugar into whatever milk mixture i'm adding at trace, no problems with this method.

 

[Happy Lass]

The lye should have been correct. All my recipes are print outs I make from Soap Calc, so I know that was right.

I rushed the sugar and salt at the last moment, because I had almost forgotten them, and I think that was my problem.

Mostly I'm unhappy I had to trash such a pretty soap. I did the rebatch and, well, it's not beautiful. We'll see how it looks in the morning, once it's out of the mold, but I'm not too hopeful.

 

[soapbuddy]

That's too bad. It happens.

 

[ToniD]

Yes, why does it happen to the pretty batches? bummer!

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Sorry for your loss Heather. Such a pretty soap too and so young. :wink:

 

[Dragonkaz]

Such a shame ... that is one gorgeous looking soap!

Damn ... at least you know how to get a great swirl again! The smokey patchouli sounds fabulous!

 

[honor435]

Are you sure its lye pockets? sometimes you get little white flecks from fos etc, did it zap?

 

[Happy Lass]

It totally zapped. I thought at first it was oil.

So I touched it, hmmm, can't tell.

Then I tasted it. :shock:

Then I got to stand at my kitchen sink running water over my tongue. :roll: So glad no one saw me doing this.

And the soap was a full trace and going into 'chunky' when I pour it. I don't know why some bits seperated out, other than maybe the salt or maybe the temp was too low? (It was a lard batch and it was definitely less than 100 F)

On the good side, the rebatch came out much better than I expected. It's an ugly color, but the scent is still there and its sudsing beautifully.