It's official - I am an idiot!

[Cookie]

Let's just say that maths is not my strong suit by any stretch of the imagination. And that in my defence I'd slept terribly the night before. Yesterday I put about 10 tablespoons of pink French clay into my 1200g soap :shock::thumbdown::cry:

Ok, so it's not the colour I want, I can certainly live with that. But any guesses whether it will be safe to use and what effect it will have on the skin? FYI it's still quite warm about 10 hours later, no evidence of gel

On a side note, I have to replace my scales. I made the mistake of not putting them in a protective bag and I was a bit sloppy pouring my fragrance :thumbdown: there's now a sticky and stinky layer on the underside of them. The FO has mixed with the plastic and created something yuk! Even if they still work I don't think I can stand the smell.

I also dropped my whisk, it was a mini one, right into the batter because I somehow lost control of it. So the 'swirl' should be very interesting although the top looks quite pretty

Note to self, never try two new things at one, clays and FOs. And never, ever soap sleep deprived. And always remember you are crap at maths!

 

[fuzz-juzz]

I'm not sure about the clay, maybe see how it turns out and then decide it's fate.
If your recipe is 1200gr then is similar to mine. I get about 10 bars from my mould. That amount of clay would equal to about 1 tablespoon per bar if I'm correct.
Maybe you can chop it up or grate and put into another plain soap?
As for scales, I hope you will find something you like but make sure it's working correctly and keep an eye on it. I had one for few years and decided to get a new one, one of those fancy flat ones. I "caught" it measuring 130gr of lye as 140gr the other day :shock:
As I poured lye numbers would go up and then stop for a split second and then start again. Battery is new, so it's probably just dodgy scales. I've been using it for few months only.
I checked all my latest soaps, they seem fine, appart from one that turned out way to oily, now I know why.

 

[Cookie]

Thanks :smile: it's hard as a rock so definitely ready to be unmolded tonight. It if passes zap then maybe either a chop up or once a week scrub type thing.

That is a huge difference for your lye. Are the batteries new from the store or did they come with it? I've sometimes found that when they're supplied with something they're just not very long lasting or reliable. Luckily I do overtime and one of my large regular weekly bills has been suspended over last three weeks so it's allowed me to buy some extra supplies. I've just ordered a new scale that was recommended in another post.

I'm so glad I found this forum because I've learnt so much from you all in just a few months It would never have occurred to me that scales need to be checked, but after reading a couple of posts it's obviously important.

 

[fuzz-juzz]

I just realised I was meant to say it measured 140gr as 130 lol.
Battery was bought new, separately from scale, I don't know why is it playing up. I'm just glad I realised it did. I'm back to using old scale at the moment, too scared to buy something new. Lye is measured 2-3 times now.

 

[Cookie]

Hmm, that's like the first one I had. Brand new with new batteries, but it just died right in the middle of my first batch :cry: Don't blame you for checking 2 and 3 times, I'd do the same!

So it's definitely not pink by any stretch of the imagination. But I'm happy with the swirls and I quite like the choc colour. It smells devine, Peony FO from Aussie Soap Supplies, now just to wait and see if the enormous amount of clay I put in will make it unusable.

 

[seven]

beautiful soap!

dont worry, you're not alone... we all have those moments.. if it makes you any better, i put NaOH into my lye mixture that was meant for liquid shampoo. the other day, i ticked the KoH box on soapcalc when all i wanted to do was make bar soap, and ended up with lye heavy soap

 

[hud]

It's ok , it happens, I have my own mistakes, too, like every soap maker, mistakes help us to learn, be happy and take it easy, don't forget to tell us how your soap turns please. :smile::smile::smile::smile:

BTW I forgot to say that your soap look very nice!

 

[Cookie]

Thanks you guys :wave: :wave:

 

[Cookie]

So I emailed Aussie Soaps and they couldn't have been more helpful :smile: they were suitably impressed by the magnitude of my error :wink: and advised me to rebatch or grate into several other batches to spread the 'clay load'. Of course the problem would be that it is very likely to crumble and be very drying to the skin.

I just say, if you're going to make a mistake do a good job of it!!

 

[Purplerain]

Well, it looks gorgeous!