Interesting Observation

So, 8 batches of soap in so far and I have an observation that I don't think is coincidence. I made the first 5 batches of soap with distilled water and all developed soda ash despite spraying the tops with alcohol ad covering with plastic wrap.
I used tap water in the 6th batch by accident and it did not get soda ash, I tested it again with the next two batches and low and behold neither of them developed it and all three batches were different recipes.
I live in the city so I have city water but I have a water softener too. Not sure what it is but I don't think I will be going back to using distilled water.

Pictures attached are the last 3 batches.

I always use tap water and ash is hit or miss with me. Most of the time I don't get it but when I do, its quite thick. I never spray my soap or cover it with plastic. Your oatmeal soap is beautiful by the way, you need to post cut pics

Obsidian said:

I always use tap water and ash is hit or miss with me. Most of the time I don't get it but when I do, its quite thick. I never spray my soap or cover it with plastic. Your oatmeal soap is beautiful by the way, you need to post cut pics

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Thank you, that is the newest soap I just made last night and I'm actually happy with it for once.

Great looking soaps!

And I started using tap water for mine as well a long time ago {in the city I used city tap water, now in the country and use well water}..I don't get ash much anymore, but when I do its light..I stopped spraying with alcohol too and I never cover mine either...

Jstar said:

Great looking soaps!

And I started using tap water for mine as well a long time ago {in the city I used city tap water, now in the country and use well water}..I don't get ash much anymore, but when I do its light..I stopped spraying with alcohol too and I never cover mine either...

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Thank you! Here I thought I discovered something new, lol I had no idea of this little trick since everything I've ever read or watched said to use distilled. Glad I found it out early in the game.

It's the water softener I suspect. Hard water has a lot of minerals in it. Must be why. My tap water is very hard so I don't have that option. But with distilled and a spritz of alcohol I get almost no ash as well.

everything I've ever read or watched said to use distilled.

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True that...and my discovery was a happy accident so I just went with it

I find spritzing with alcohol does nothing. I also find some EO's such as lavender and some fo's more prone to ash. I still get ash when using 100% gm with lavender eo. Ash just laughs at me wasting good alcohol spritzing the tops, and still goes on its merry way developing on the top of my soap

I have the hardest of well water. I am too chicken to try using anything but distilled. I develop ash all the time using the distilled along with the alcohol and covering. Don't know what else to do since everyone I know has well water so I guess I'm stuck with the distilled and the ash.... I love your soaps. They're so pretty.

Mmmm. Should I try my tap ??

I will be trying my tap today. Ash is my worst enemy.roblem::Kitten Love:

Let's see if this does the trick for me as well. Your soaps are beautiful!

I've said this a couple of times on this forum. My grandma had the worlds worst well water known to mankind. Like drinking sulfur water. She made her soap out of that well water every time and had no problems. It's been a while, but I can still remember how her soap always looked, and can't say I remember any SA.

At times we can get too picky/technical about what we use. Water definitely falls into this category, in my opinion.

Love your soaps! I've got well water that makes me use distilled (plus I'm a chicken). I've only had ash once when I tried to gel (nothing gelled but I did get a lovely layer of ash on top of my alcohol spritzed top). I do spritz my top tops with alcohol since I was used to doing M&P: it just feels weird not to spritz everything in sight.

godschild said:

I have the hardest of well water. I am too chicken to try using anything but distilled. I develop ash all the time using the distilled along with the alcohol and covering. Don't know what else to do since everyone I know has well water so I guess I'm stuck with the distilled and the ash.... I love your soaps. They're so pretty.

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Thank you, if your soaps develop ash anyway, couldn't hurt to try tap just to see then maybe?

You soaps are all beautiful. Can't believe you are just 8 batches in!

It seems that as I've gotten more confident and get a better trace on my soaps before molding that they ash less. Not sure if that's the reason, but I don't seem to get it anymore, and everything else is the same. Always tap water here...sometimes filtered.

I only use distilled (my tap water is very hard) and it's a very rare occurrence for me to get ash. Although it does happen, I would say that it's only about 2% or so of the time. The other 98% is ash-free. And I don't do the alcohol or saran-wrap trick either.

For what it's worth (in case one or any of the following aspects might matter), this is how I conduct the majority of my soaping sessions:

1) I use a water discount (usually a 33% lye solution)
2) I soap on the warm side (110F/43C - 120F/49C)
3) I pour at medium-thick trace
4) I cover my mold with its normal/accompanying cover and then drape over the cover with a few old cotton diapers (clean of course ;-) )
5) I encourage gel by placing my soap in my oven which is pre-warmed to 120F/49C, then turned off once the soap is placed inside.
6) I then let my soap alone 'do its thing' and then totally cool down before uncovering/unmolding/cutting.

The only times I seem to get ash is either

a) when I unmold my soap too soon (i.e., when my soap is still warm);
b) on the extremely rare occasion when I purposely try to avoid gel;
or
c) when I (accidentally) get partial gel.

Interestingly, on those particular occasions when I get partial gel, the ash only shows up on the un-gelled parts.


IrishLass

Despite of soda ash, your soaps look very lovely!

Ellacho said:

Despite of soda ash, your soaps look very lovely!

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Hmm, none of the ones I posted have SA, lol

DWinMadison said:

You soaps are all beautiful. Can't believe you are just 8 batches in!

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Thank you!!