Can someone tell me if my first batch is lye heavy?

[Brian Bonfield]

Hi all,

Please remove if not allowed, or even better point me in the direction that is!

So this is my first ever batch of cold-process soap. Its main constituents are coconut oil, olive oil, shea butter, avocado oil, cocoa butter and castor oil.

I am actually quite happy with how it turned out, it's quite hard and quite conditioning whilst being plenty cleansing.

Whag I'm worried about is the top of the soap, it seems there is a white film on top, and only on top , and I'm wondering if it's because maybe its lye heavy? There is no sign of it in the middle or bottom, and it rubs away if i try firm enough. It's coming to 4 weeks since making on sunday.

I'm just checking because I will be giving it to people and I want to make sure it's safe first!

It turned out to be:
Sat:Unsat - 44:56
Lye concentration: 27.125%
Water:lye ratio: 2.6866:1

Thanks for your time!

Brian

Attached are pictures.

 

[DeeAnna]

If you want to know whether your recipe is lye heavy, you need to give the recipe, please. It's best if you give all ingredients in weights not percentages. There's no way I can answer that question from the info you provided.

But my guess from your pictures is your soap simply has ash (sodium carbonate) on it. It's a common problem and it's just a cosmetic issue.

After 4 weeks of cure, I suggest you should zap test the soap just to prove to yourself that your soap is skin safe. https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/how-to-properly-safely-conduct-the-zap-tongue-test.63199/

 

[fish123]

did you use "soapcalc_com"? Did it gel? What was superfat? If it is over 5% (looks like in picture) it should be fine.

Considering you had 27% lye solution - it is most probably just soda ash - common if there is a lot of water and or superfat in recipe.

Or it might be "soda ash" - all my extra high fat soaps develop "soda ash" after some time (and they are fine - since I use my own soap my eczema has gone completely and I don't even need hand cream anymore.) and I feel it is not soda actually, but more like fatty film, comes after gelling only, like white film on chocolates after they were in sun too long.
Calculate precise, use high superfat, mix well and gel every time and you will be fine.

Oh, and it might be come carbonats in lye - to keep it from clumping... What lye did you use?