Lye migration???!!!

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Not that I know of. The pH of a freshly made soap can be higher at the bottom than in the middle or top. Ash on the top can be higher pH than the soap beneath. But neither of these are caused by migration of lye, they are just the nature of the beast.

Can you tell more of what is specifically happening with your soap so maybe we can offer some explanations?
 
If that happened to you it sounds like "operator error" perhaps you should give more details.
 
it wouldn't be the colorants but some other type of error, I believe.
 
I know it is most likely something I did or didn't do but I'd like to work out what that was!!!

This has occurred twice now.

Basically, the soap turns out perfect-beautiful, set, smells and feels like soap. Then it seems to start sweating small droplets, with the first problem batch it was along the bottom and with this batch it was in the crevices of the peaks on top only. The first batch I tongue tested it and it ZAPPED!!! The second batch I tested directly with pH paper and ping it turned black.

If the soap was lye heavy I would expect it be crumbly, but both these batches cut like proper soap. As I mentioned, on both occasions I used powdered botanicals and I was just wondering if the powder absorbs a significant amount of water would that mess up the lye concentration in some way because the sweating didn't occur in the part without additives???

The only other thing that was different with these 2 batches is that they were in the mould longer than normal, but still within 24hours.

Any ideas???
 
I have never heard of this happening. Sometimes my soaps will weep but they have never been zappy. But then again I always gel my soaps so when they are cool enough to cut they are safe to use. If you did not gel your soap it could take days for the saponification process to be complete. How long did you wait before testing? Maybe you just need to give your soap some more time?
 
Both problem batches gelled and they spent the most time in the mould, I usually unmould sooner.

The recent one was still in the mould when it began weeping.

BTW, I really appreciate your replies :smile:
 
I don't know if powdered botanicals would absorb enough water to mess up the lye to water ratio unless you are working with a very tight ratio and a lot of botanicals. Did the sweating eventually stop? Did you test the soap after a longer period of time and what was the results? If the soap was not crumbly and the sweating stopped it may be safe to assume it was glycerin.
 
Kazmi, I didn't re-test after the initial lye positive test. It did stop sweating but the solution was quite thin and watery not thick and sticky as I would expect glycerine to be, so I just decided to rebatch it (which I did last night). I hope its ok cause it has shea in it and I don't really want to use it for the laundry!!!
 

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