Soap tastes sour?

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divyadinesh07

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My soaps have cured for 3 weeks and having done the taste test they taste sour, no zap.
Is it normal for them to taste that way or does it mean there is lye still in it?
 
Zap is very similar to the feeling I get when I touch a 9V battery to my tongue.

-Dave
 
What the others,have said is spot on. If you find yourself wondering if it's a zap ... it's not.

Not zappy soap can have a range of tastes from bland or nearly tasteless to salty/metallic to pungent.

Soap high in coconut can have a stronger taste than one with little or no coconut. That's why tooth soap usually has no CO in the recipe.

Fragrance whether EOs,or FOs can also have a big effect on the taste.
 
I've yet to put soap in my mouth and I'm really not planning on it anytime soon. From what I've read, if the soap is aged, then even if you measure poorly, excess lye will eventually become inert with time, or something to that effect.

I have so much soap, I'm sure every bar I use will be at least 3 months old before trying one. So, let's say I measure poorly or forget an oil, what would be the worst thing that would happen if I washed 3 months down the road, with a bar that was lye-heavy when I made it?
 
I've yet to put soap in my mouth and I'm really not planning on it anytime soon. From what I've read, if the soap is aged, then even if you measure poorly, excess lye will eventually become inert with time, or something to that effect.

I have so much soap, I'm sure every bar I use will be at least 3 months old before trying one. So, let's say I measure poorly or forget an oil, what would be the worst thing that would happen if I washed 3 months down the road, with a bar that was lye-heavy when I made it?

But then if you're willing to take that negligible risk, why not take the negligible risk of zap testing?
 
Wow, you don't wait anxiously to test/use every batch of soap? How do you resist? How do you know what to change for the next batch?

After my first few batches, I used a bar within a week or two. As soon as the first batch became 6 weeks old, I tried another bar and it was so different from week 1, that I figured testing withing the first few weeks was worthless to use as a basis for adjusting formulas. I have at least 15 different recipes here that are aging where I haven't tested them because they are less than 6 weeks old. I've made it a point to go a minimum of 6 weeks, so I can get a better opinion of my formula. I have a bastile (70% OO) that I don't plan to test until it's 4 months old.

During the experimentation phase I'm going through, I have a list of things I want to try. Each recipe has been carefully planned and made out in advance in Soap Calc. I just add the date, and notes, when I make it. In order to learn, I've taken the exact same recipe and made it at 2%, 5% and 9% superfat. I've then taken the superfat % I liked best and changed and oil to see what happened. I'm trying to learn the effect and whether it's a big one or a little one. The problem isn't waiting the 6 weeks, it's figuring out where to stop, since the possible combinations are practically endless.
 
But then if you're willing to take that negligible risk, why not take the negligible risk of zap testing?

Putting soap in my mouth has no appeal to me, but I would do it if I thought it was necessary. If I was going to sell soap, I wouldn't trust that test. I'd use a pH test after 6 weeks to see where it was at that point. If I cut a soap and it doesn't look right (pockets of liquid, or some other oddity), I'd be sure to test it right away, but since I have pH strips, that is probably what I'll use. I'm not saying that testing is a waste of time, just that I'm not putting soap in my mouth without a better reason.
 
Except that pH strips are a complete and total waste of time. Soap can't be measured accurately by those little paper strips (which are totally inaccurate anyways). Heck, even the aquarium hobby boards I've been on discouraged the use of strips because they're so bad (there's other tests on the market that are more reliable for aquariums).
 
Except that pH strips are a complete and total waste of time. Soap can't be measured accurately by those little paper strips (which are totally inaccurate anyways). Heck, even the aquarium hobby boards I've been on discouraged the use of strips because they're so bad (there's other tests on the market that are more reliable for aquariums).

You bring up a good point, and likely a potential problem. I figured that "zap" testing was likely equally inaccurate. At what pH do you feel the zap? If that the same with everyone? Does sensitivity differ to pH? Do you lick the whole bar, or do you trust that the tiny spot you touched is representative of the whole batch? If you get my drift, I'm suggesting that neither method is all that accurate and why I haven't bothered to test up until now.
 
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