First time for everything - left out some oil!

[KiwiMoose]

So I reverse calculated the recipe and it works out to a -2, that's MINUS 2 % superfat.

How concerned should I be? Will a good cure do the trick? Should I use it myself and not sell it?

Advice from all soap gurus welcomed.

 

[Marsi]

From memory, you don't account for some additives reacting with your lye?
If this is correct, then you are likely to be a lot closer to zero than you think.
After the normal cure time, cut a full bar in half and zap-test the middle ... you might be surprised at the result.

 

[earlene]

KiwiMoose, have you zap tested the soap? (Soapqueen suggests waiting until the soap is 5 days old before zap testing.) Do you have any phenolphthalein to test it? (See DeeAnna's or Kevin Dunn's how to on that.) If either of these methods result in positive for excess lye, then try this:

Several sources also suggest that waiting a few weeks and retesting the soap may give a different result. Reason for the change: atmospheric carbon dioxide interacts with (& neutralizes) excess lye. Kevin Dunn's experiments with lye heavy soap found that after 11 weeks, the soap was no longer lye heavy. The Andalusian soap experiments here at SMF found that even extremely lye-heavy soap lost excess lye over time and became mild and skin safe in a relatively short time. Some references addressing the loss of excess lye over time with super-lye-heavy soap:

Obsidian -- I haven't rebatched the superlye castile, but I'm sure it can be done successfully. It might be a challenge to get it grated up however -- got a food processor?

I'm glad I cut my bars a generous size, because they too have shrunk considerably. I still like how they look ... just a little more rustic than the usual soap I make.

My 8 week old homely superlye olive soap is still lathering more freely than a castile made with a more typical recipe. The lather of the superlye soap is looser and more fluffy. The lather from the "normal" castile is more like a lotion and doesn't bubble quite as much. Both soaps like a lot of water to lather their best. Neither of the castiles lather as well as my favorite bath soap recipe made with lard, castor, high oleic safflower, and olive.

The superlye castile does not seem overly drying or lye-heavy to me. There's certainly no zap anymore. I don't have super-sensitive skin either, so what works okay for me might bother someone else.

I will weigh my experimental bars and update my chart in the next few days. I also need to get to work on my lab experiment of tracking the alkalinity over time. Time flies when I'm having fun, I guess.

I went ahead and rebatched this morning, grating it wasn't bad and I only had a pound. It was still damp in the middle and I zap tested at different depths and there was no zap anywhere.

I had cut my bars a bit thicker then normal, once they shrank they were close to 1" but they warped so bad it was crazy. I should have taken pictures. Where there was partial gel, the shrinkage was less which left the bars with a big lump on the face.

I did decide to add coconut oil for the SF and 8oz of 100% peanut soap so while I don't have castile anymore, It still should be a very gentle bar though. The peanut soap had really big bubbles but they didn't last long and were thin. I hope the combo will produce bigger bubble with some staying power.

I'll post up pics of my new bastile once its cut. If I did my math right, it should be roughly 66% OO, 33% peanut.

It's roughly Day 70 since I made my two batches of superlye soap. The rate of moisture loss for both soaps has tapered off quite a bit and is looks comparable to the data for my normal soaps. The 100% olive soap is still continuing to lose moisture a wee bit faster, but the trend is not greatly different than the others.

Both of my superlye soaps have deformed and shrunk somewhat (photos 1 and 2). The olive soap has very little ash. It has remained more yellow, especially where it was initially soft and goopy in the center. The safflower-lard soap has a thick coating of ash on the top a lot like thin frosting with a scattering of ash on the other surface. It has remained a pale ivory underneath the ash.

Both have similar lather when I wash my hands at the sink. With very little water added to my hands, the lather that develops on my skin is thin and ropy (photo 3). With more water added and a bit more rubbing, the lather loosens and bubbles up nicely (photo 4). I'm sure this type of lathering is due to the low solubility of oleic soap -- it just doesn't want to lather strongly without plenty of water and a bit of encouragement.

I have now been using samples in the shower with a bath puff. The lather is a fairly dense foam with a nice overlay of fluffy bubbles (photo 5). I am getting absolutely no zap and no skin irritation, even in (ahem!) tender places. I do not notice any unusual dryness after my shower either.

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Cpacamper is right -- the bars are very hard and also last a long time. The soap is very mild just like a classic castile -- absolutely zero sign of any harshness or lye heaviness. I use mine in the shower with a pouf or washcloth and enjoy using the soap like this. I don't think I'd use the soap at the sink, because it needs a little more abrasion and aeration to make a nice lather.

And Kevin Dunn's response to what happens when lye heavy soap turns neutral - search the words 'lye heavy':

https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...ference-guest-post-kevin-dunn-aka-dr-mcsoapy/
One more link where DeeAnna share's information she and Kevin Dunn shared with each other concerning the neutralization of excess alkali in the Andalusian experiment (and also mentions Chapter 15 in his book which covers his experiment mentioned in the link directly above this one): Deanna, I have a question...

 

[Zing]

Wait, what? You're human?!

 

[DeeAnna]

Soap that really does test to be slightly lye heavy will most likely be fine after curing. Your lye-heavy soap, Kiwi, falls in this category. I'd not be too worried about your batch for two reasons --

A small amount of excess lye (under, say, -5% excess lye or less) does react with CO2 in the air to form sodium carbonate (washing soda) during cure.

Another reason is most calcs assume NaOH is 100% pure and it's not. So your soap with a calculated -2% excess lye most likely has a small positive superfat in reality.

***

Extremely lye heavy soap (20% excess lye or more) made with excessive amounts of water (like 15% lye concentration) will also most likely not be lye heavy after curing. That's what the Andalusian soap experiments showed us.

Extremely lye heavy soap made with normal amounts of water remained lye heavy even after a long cure, however, so don't take this idea too far. This connection between lye heaviness curing out and the overall water content was shown by someone (Carolyn I believe) who made an extremely lye heavy soap with a normal amount of water during the Andalusian soap experiments. This has also been show to be true since then by others who have made this mistake, for example used a soap recipe calculated for KOH but used NaOH instead.

 

[earlene]

Thank you for clarifying that about the amount of water, @DeeAnna. Important point I had forgotten.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Woot! I just cut and zap tested it and there is no zap! Along the lines with what @DeeAnna has said - I do generally soap with high-ish water content ( 30% concentration) AND i noticed that it's considerably ashy compared to another batch made at the same time, so the lye has already started reacting with the air.
The oil left out was approx 130g of a 2000g batch - so not a lot by any stretch.