Now what?

[Sabelkat]

Made my third batch of soap today and I'm afraid I ruined it

I hadn't realised that part of the lye had stuck to the buttom of the container before I poured it into the oils. I found out when I was about to clean up a while later. The soap is now sitting but it was very thin when I set it aside. Is there anything I Can do?

Kindly,
Katrine, new to this....

 

[DeeAnna]

Here's one possibility:

If you still have the left-over lye, add at least enough water to the lye to make a proper solution. You will need water to at least equal the weight of the lye, but you can add water up to 2-3 times the weight of the lye. As long as you have at least as much water as lye, the total amount of water is not super critical, so just eye-ball the amount.

The next step is to rebatch the soap -- If the soap is firm, shred it up and put it into a crock pot (or double boiler). If it stays soft and pasty, then just get it into a crock pot. Gently heat the soap up until it is a pasty fluid. Slowly, carefully mix the left-over lye solution into the soap. Rebatched soap is usually thick and lye solution is thin, so splashes are possible -- be careful when you do this. Put the rebatch into a mold to finish saponifying and harden up.

Here's a good method for rebatching. Your situation is a little different than what's in this tutorial, since you need to add the lye back into the batch, but maybe this rebatch tutorial will be helpful in a general way: http://www.pvsoap.com/instructions_for_rebatch.htm

 

[Dorymae]

I hadn't realised that part of the lye had stuck to the buttom of the container before I poured it into the oils.

Are you saying that the lye did not completely dissolve in the water or are you saying that some of the lye never got mixed into the water because it was stuck in the container you were using to pour it into the water?

If you know how much lye you are lacking you can put the batter into a crockpot with the lye(mixed in water) and HP the soap.

If you don't know how much lye....you could still save it by adding an excess of lye and then salting it out later.... However if this is only your third batch of soap I'm going to suggest that you cut your losses if you can't figure out how much lye is missing.

There are things that can be done (salting, extra long cure) however there are more things that can go wrong as well and I think you need more experience before you could pull off the save if you don't know the lye amount that was missing.

 

[Sabelkat]

Tanks!!! I Will try to look into HP. Havent troede that before the lye wasnt properly mixed into the Walter, so I still have the exact amount, that was missing. It is currently dissolving in some water. Ill have to try and see tomorrow if I Can save it. Thank you for your help!

 

[cmzaha]

I personally would wait and see if the soap will set up. Put a lid on the lye container and wait a few days. Rebatching can be done anytime and the lye will last if it is sealed. Worst case scenario would be a higher superfatted soap, if it sets up. Or am I missing something here? LOL, I will do anything to avoid rebatching!

 

[shunt2011]

I too would wait a couple days to see if it sets up. I've had that happen in the beginning and still ended up with soap as not that much stick to the container usually.

 

[wetshavingproducts]

What exactly is left over? Do you know why it didn't mix? Are you sure it's lye?

I would personally rebatch it since it's very new. But if you don't want to and you're just going to use it yourself, you can just wait to see if it sets up. Make sure to zap test (lick) it before using.