Bad lye?

[lisajudy2009]

How can I tell if I have bad lye? I ask because I made soap 24 hours ago and it is still super soft

 

[PerthMobility]

I calculate the hardness at 44 and the INS at 164 which is well in the preferred ranges.

 

[Susie]

Does it have clumps? With my humidity, my lye clumps if too old.

If I were trying to rule out bad lye, I would probably make the same recipe with new lye to compare it to.

 

[dillsandwitch]

What was the temps that you soaped at? did you gel or put it in the fridge freezer?did you add and sodium lactate or salt? some soaps can take a few days to be hard enough to unmould. This could be the case with your water recipe

 

[topofmurrayhill]

How can I tell if I have bad lye? I ask because I made soap 24 hours ago and it is still super soft

I'm sure your lye is at least good enough unless you left in open overnight or something. That is less than 27% lye concentration. If you soaped it cold, maybe it separated to some extent. Did you get a good trace before pouring or was it thin? Is the top different from the bottom? Maybe tongue test both.

 

[kchaystack]

With full water, and a large amount of soft oils I do not think it is too unusual to still be soft. Even more so if you did not gel the soap.

 

[Seawolfe]

That just looks like the ungelled soap was cut too soon. I've had an ungelled soap take 5 days before it was ready to cut.
You cut according to when the soap is ready, not a set time.

 

[shunt2011]

I agree, high olive, full water and no gel will make a very soft soap. It just ooks like you cut it too soon is all. I would let it sit for awhile.

 

[DeeAnna]

Looking at the pic you shared, I'd also say whatever colorant mixture you used to make the colored soap layers made those bits softer than the white bits. Did you use more water or oil in those parts and not account for the extra fluids? Anyways, when your cutter went through the colored layers, it looks like that soap didn't cut cleanly and smeared onto the cutter. That made a messy cut even worse.