Why Didn't My Lye Dissolve?

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BlondeSquirrel

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Hello!

I'm sort of new to soaping and I have a question!

I was making some Christmas soaps the other day, and ran into a problem. I made a big batch, about 3000 grams, and tried the CPOP method. On some of the soaps, it looks like I have undissolved lye. When I mixed the lye, I used goat milk. I didn't care about the color, so I mixed kinda fast. It heated up and became that ugly orange color. I didn't care, though. I thought that since it was so hot, the lye would have no problem dissolving. I did a 2.5 to 1 milk to lye ratio.

Why did some of it not dissolve? This never happened before and now I'm scared :(
 
It sounds like you didn't stir the lye enough. When I made soap with coconut milk I know I had to stir a lot to get the lye to dissolve completely. It seemed like it would stick at the bottom of the measuring cup and I had to stir until it would dissolve.

Assuming that you had measured your oils right and used a lye calculator you should be able to rebatch the soap and it should take care of the undissolved lye.
 
Can you post a photo?

It might be ash. But more likely, you might have some lye crystals due to overheating. Goat milk soap is notorious for overheating and if you didn't chill the milk first AND used CPOP, it probably got too hot.

ETA, as Tim suggests, you can probably rebatch.
 
It's not ash, I know that for sure.

It's only on the soaps that I poured over sponges to make a 2 in 1 soap and sponge. The rest that I poured into molds or slabs turned out OK.

They looked more grainy 2 days ago, and now look like just tiny white spots. It zapped a lot the other day, and now just a tiny bit. Maybe I'll give them more time before I throw them away. They looked so cute, too :( :(

Would making a big batch have an effect?
 
might not be lye if the zap is mellowing. give it more time.

never did a sponge soap so don't have any other thoughts on it.
 
How long should you wait before tossing it? I've heard of people zap testing after two weeks and then throwing away any zappy soap. Is that the average wait time?
 
for however long you have the patience - or until it goes zapless, of course. try it periodically and see what you have going on.
 
If your lye hasn't dissolved, your soap probably isn't lye heavy and it doesn't zap. However, it may have lye pockets, especially if you haven't mixed well.

On the other hand, if your soap is lye heavy, waiting for weeks will reduce the zap on the surface, but the soap will still be lye heavy on the inside. You'd have to cut a bar and lick the inside.
 
Fragola said:
If your lye hasn't dissolved, your soap probably isn't lye heavy and it doesn't zap. However, it may have lye pockets, especially if you haven't mixed well.

On the other hand, if your soap is lye heavy, waiting for weeks will reduce the zap on the surface, but the soap will still be lye heavy on the inside. You'd have to cut a bar and lick the inside.
Click to expand...

if the lye hasn't dissolved then it will be lye heavy in areas in which the lye crystals are present.

if it is lye heavy, why would the outside not zap?
 
As a whole, it's not lye heavy. I had a 10% SF. I made a bunch of different shapes and molds, and only a few of them are a bit tingly at this point.

I think, too, I'm having trouble determining zap from just tasting really really awful! It's like, super salty or something.
 

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