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[PUREAnticipation]

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!

I have felt zap before, and did not this time, but the soap was very harsh on my hands! Not at all like any of the other hot process batches I've made.

I did not test the white spots. I take care of my mom, and she was up during the night, and I couldn't get back to sleep, so I rebatched it at 4:00 a.m.

It's embarrassing to tell all the things that went wrong with this batch. I've made dozens of batches with no issues--I guess they were all piling up to happen at once. And, if given a choice, I'd choose 3 mistakes in 1 batch over 1 mistake in each of 3 batches, anyway!!

My original recipe is:

9.6 oz Olive Oil
8.0 oz Coconut Oil
8.0 oz Palm Oil
4.8 oz Sunflower Oil
1.6 oz Castor Oil

4.45 oz Lye
10.55 oz Distilled Water

I resized the batch in Soap Maker 3 to 80%, measuring in grams for my oils:

218 g Olive Oil
181 g Coconut Oil
181 g Palm Oil
109 g Sunflower Oil
36 g Castor Oil

Then, the setting for the degree of accuracy for my scale was off, and the recipe called for:

4 oz of lye, which should have been 3.6 oz (Mistake Number 1)

And somewhere in my recipe, the original amount of water got to be 15.55 instead of 10.55, so the 80% recipe called for:

12 oz distilled water (Mistake Number 2)

I had started using half aloe vera juice in my lye solution a couple batches back, and did so here:

6 oz aloe vera in place of 6 oz distilled water.

There is a place in SM3 I hadn't seen before where you can check a box to have an additive reduce the amount of water in a recipe. I didn't have that box checked. If I had, and had looked again at the water amount, I might have seen the strange numbers in the lye solution strength field (23%). (Mistake Number 3)

I made two of the 80% batches in separate crock pots, added Mulberry FO to both and Red Sandalwood powder to one and Activated Charcoal to the other.

When I was making it, it seemed a lot thinner than usual, but like I said, I did a zap test and didn't feel anything.

So, I went on. When I put the lid on to flatten the top, a bunch squeezed out the edges. After it cooled, I picked it off, made it into a ball, and washed my hands.

And my hands felt awful! Dry, tight, a little tingly.

When I handled the soap ball again later, it crumbled.

On to the rebatch.

I added 86 g of Olive Oil to each batch, and put the pink half in one crock pot and the black half in the other. I didn't add any other liquid because I already had too much water/aloe vera in there.

It melted down nicely, (took less time than I figured it would), zap tested again, and put it back in the mold. This time, the consistency was correct--mashed potatoes.

I just finished it about 4-5 hours ago, so I haven't taken it out of the mold yet.

Like I said before, I learned a lot through this experience. I learned to trust my eyes and what I know of consistency. I learned at least 2 new things about the software I'm using. I just can't figure out why I didn't get zapped when I tested it.

If there's more information needed, let me know.

Thanks!
Lisa

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Wowsers, quite a headache. I have to say, so early in and with issues like this, I would really reconsider selling my soap!

 

[PUREAnticipation]

Wowsers, quite a headache. I have to say, so early in and with issues like this, I would really reconsider selling my soap!

I'm certainly not going to sell this batch! I'm trying to learn from my mistakes, which I have identified, except I can't understand why I did not get zapped when I tested this soap that is clearly lye heavy. Any help in understanding that would be much appreciated.

 

[shunt2011]

I wouldn't be selling any soap as yet. It looks like you've only been making soap since the end of July. You don't know how your soaps will perform 3 months down the road much less 6 months or longer. Will they get DOS? It takes time to find just the right recipe(s) and then time to know how they will perform/last etc. There is so much to learn in the process and that takes time. I gave away 100's of bars of soap and went through 15-20 formulas until I finally found a few that I was happy with then waited even longer before selling as I wanted to be sure I was providing quality/lasting bars. I know it's hard to wait.