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DeannaM

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I made a 2 pound batch with 10
oz water, 12 oz olive oil, 10 oz lard, 10 oz coconut oil, and 1 oz of castor oil with 1 oz lemongrass verbena FO from WSP. the yellow is a 1/4 tsp powder dye from WSP and the teal is a 1/4 tsp powder dye also from WSP. But something has gone terribly wrong!!! The yellow is hard and is brittle and breaking but the teal is still super soft and gooey feeling. This picture was taken right after I cut it and it had been in the mold for 16+ hours. I did insulate it and I noticed a major crack along the color line that I tried to repair with the still soft teal. Does anybody know where I went wrong? I've made 20+ batches and this is the first time this has happened.
 
Whenever I hear the words "hard and brittle", my mind automatically thinks, 'lye-heavy'. The first thing I would do would be to test for zap. I personally would test the teal part first, and then test for zap in the yellow part. Can you tell a difference in zappiness from one part to the other?


IrishLass :)
 
Could be you didn't mix till emulsified and the lye solution sank and when you poured for the colors you got an uneven distribution of the lye solution which made the yellow part lye heavy and the teal without enough.
 
Uh-oh. Gremlins at your house. Maybe I should soap today, because they've been at MY house for a week! :)
 
Ahh I think I didn't mix enough before I split it for the colors :( I just had to toss it because I could actually see lye in the yellow part and the teal remained squishy. Thanks for the help y'all!!!
 
Rebatching is something all of us end up doing sooner or later. It may not yield the prettiest soap, but it is still usable. And homeless shelters are always looking for soap if you don't want to use it yourself. It could also be confetti for another soap project. The color should be nice and it should smell good.
 
I didn't even think about it! Duh! But I haven't invested in a crock pot big enough to rebatch. Oh well, maybe next time.
 
uh oh....... I may have the same problem. I made a 100% GM soap yesterday. It was in the fridge for 24 hrs, I pulled it out and started cutting the bars. It was still a little sticky but kind of brittle also.....if that makes sense.
I used OO, CCO,Tallow,Lard and Castor oil. SF at 5%. Water % of oil wt was 33%.
Maybe it will get better as it dryes??
 
I know people mentioned lye heavy, but brittleness can also be caused if there was too much heat loss in the soap. I had it happen with a recipe where it was not lye heavy, it was just a tiny batch that I did at room temperature and it created that effect. I rebatched it by melting with water and it's fine, didn't have to add any additional oils.
 
I'm confused. When you melt the cp soap back down are you supposed to add -in my aunts case- the missing 8oz of olive oil? Tia.
 
If you forget to add an oil yes, you can grate the soap and then add the extra oil into the crockpot with the soap and rebatch. However, it's best if done soon after making it when you realize you forgot the oil.
 
Can I rebatch this, or is it a lesson in the school of hard knocks?

I made a batch of hot process today, two layers. I have Soap Maker 3 software, and had changed my regular recipe to 80% of the regular size, then made a batch in each of two crock pots so I could layer it in a large wooden mold my friend's husband made for me.

As I was doing the resize, I thought, "Hey, the software has a built-in lye calculator, I'll just use the numbers it gives me." What I didn't realize was that the decimal place setting in my options was set to 1.0 rather than 0.1. So, the recipe called for 4 oz of lye, rather than, as I figured out later, the 3.6 oz that it should have been.

Things didn't seem right when I put the second layer in. Awhile later, I got looking closer, realized it should have been 3.6 oz per batch, and came to the forum to see what I could do.

I've read a few things, including about rebatching, and about lye pockets, and read conflicting ideas of what to do in this case. Some say to rebatch (like this thread), others say to discard the batch.

I had decided I'd try to rebatch, did the math and figured out an amount of olive oil I could add to use up the excess lye, and began cutting up the mass when I found this:

It looks like pockets of lye to me.

So now, my question is can I rebatch this, or is it a lesson in the school of hard knocks? I learned a lot on this (double) batch, and it's worth the knowledge if I have to throw it away. But, the frugal side of me says, "Hey, maybe it can be saved...."

Thoughts?

Thanks!
Lisa

photo (30).jpg
 
If you can, by which I mean physically can get the soap back in to a state to play with, I would always do it rather than throw it away.

One other thing I will say in general with hot process, test it for zap before your pour. Even if you think that you were spot on with your recipe, never assume it is okay
 
If you can, by which I mean physically can get the soap back in to a state to play with, I would always do it rather than throw it away.

One other thing I will say in general with hot process, test it for zap before your pour. Even if you think that you were spot on with your recipe, never assume it is okay

I did test both batches for zap, and didn't feel anything. Must be something wrong with my tongue. :(
 
No, zap is unmistakable. If you can feel your teeth with your tongue, then you can't mistake zap.

Those white spots could be something other than lye. Have you zap tested just the white spots? And could you possibly share the recipe, SF amount, and what happened while making(how long to gel, etc)? It helps folks figure out what is actually going on so very much!
 
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