I messed up - Can this batch be saved?

[EtrainMD]

I'm relatively new to soap making, having made about 5 batches with more or less success. I've been working with lard and olive oil/castor oil. This particular batch I wanted to try 16 oz of lard, 16 oz olive oil and 4 oz castor oil. Well I totally forgot to put in the castor oil. The lye calculation was about an once more than if I had used the castor oil. I'm assuming the soap is too lye heavy to be usable but I'm curious if that can be re-batched, chunked or otherwise used? The design came out quite nice and I hate to waste the batch.

 

[Obsidian]

Yes, it can be rebatched. Chop it up, melt it down and add the oil you forgot. Make sure to mix it really well.

 

[EtrainMD]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll try that. Of course I'll lose the nice design (I did a pot swirl at a very very thin trace with white, light and dark blue) that resembles clouds. Live and learn from ones mistakes.

 

[penelopejane]

If you play around with the SF in Soap calc you will see you've made a soap with -5% SF.
That is not a huge amount.
I would wait and see what the soap does after a 2 month cure.

 

[Susie]

You can wait it out. The extra lye will go away during cure.

That is quite a bit of castor oil. Most folks use 5%. If you do rebatch, you may want to reduce the amount you had planned. For that sized batch, it would be about 1.8 oz. (off the top of my head, use a calculator)

To prevent myself from doing just this over and over, I check off my ingredients as I weigh them and add them, then before stickblending, I look the recipe over to be sure everything is added in.

 

[Arimara]

I'm going to add that 16 oz batches are ideal for newbies for testing purposes. You waste less resources and you'll have less of a soap you're not crazy about. Unless you are using a mold that is not flexible or something to that extent, You would not have too much issue getting that soap out.

 

[cmzaha]

How much lye did you actually use, or maybe I am reading this wrong. You mention an ounce more lye than the recipe called for but 4oz castor only requires 0.5 oz lye. So did you mis- weigh something? No coffee yet this morning so maybe my interpretation of the OP is off. Might be better if you actually post your recipe. A minus 5% superfat may work itself out over a long cure but than a -5 may not

 

[iwannasoap]

I'm relatively new to soap making, having made about 5 batches with more or less success. I've been working with lard and olive oil/castor oil. This particular batch I wanted to try 16 oz of lard, 16 oz olive oil and 4 oz castor oil. Well I totally forgot to put in the castor oil. The lye calculation was about an once more than if I had used the castor oil. I'm assuming the soap is too lye heavy to be usable but I'm curious if that can be re-batched, chunked or otherwise used? The design came out quite nice and I hate to waste the batch.

There should not be an ounce more if you would have forgotten to use the castor. I don't know what you superfatted for so I am assuming 5% but I will calculate both ways.

(1-SF)*((16 *.141)+(16 *.135)+(4 *.128) = 4.67
(1-SF)*((16 *.141)+(16 *.135) = 4.2
((16 *.141)+(16 *.135)+(4 *.128) = 4.92

@5% 5% w/out Castor 0%
4.67 .oz lye 4.2 .oz lye 4.92 .oz lye

I think if I knew your lye and SF I can tell if it is lye heavy. Hope this helps you.

Edited: I don't know why there are smiley faces? The number is supposed to be .128

 

[Kittish]

The smiley faces are because you did an 8 and a ) right next to each other, which is the code for the smiley. Try putting a space between them.