Lye pockets, now what?

[Susie]

I know that is not a lot of EO. But, let me assure you that using 6ml of peppermint will make your whole house smell like peppermint(for 3 days and counting now). And I am not a huge fan of peppermint. My daughter is like me, it is OK to smell the EO in the bar and while lathering it up, but it needs not to linger on the skin.

The lavender EO is from NOW foods. I have used their other EOs in the past with no issues. I made her a big batch of soap so I won't have to make more anytime soon. I am not a fan of either peppermint or lavender. When I get my lotion multi-base in, I will scent that with the lavender and ship it all to her.

 

[49.bussey]

Lye Pockets, do I need to rebatch?

Hi, same thing happened to me today...here are the pictures, you can see clearly the lye pockets shown as those white dots. The soap was created at room temperature and the oils clearly did not integrate well with the lye. I am wondering if I let the soap cure long enough if it will be safe for use? Or will I have to rebatch the soap?

 

[shunt2011]

Is it possible that your lye didn't totally dissolve before adding to your oils? Or, perhaps some of your oils resolidified becasue they were too cold? I RTCP most the time but have not experienced this so just guessing. I usually strain my lye mixture as I'm adding them to the oils. Have you zap tested them to be sure it's lye?

 

[Obsidian]

If those are indeed lye pockets, then you will definitely have to rebatch. Zap test to make sure though.

 

[Susie]

That is NOT what my soap looked like. Mine had liquid pockets around the outside of the molded soap, none in the center. The liquid touched my thumb(did not wear gloves to cut my soap), and it definitely burned. And smelled like lye. I did a rebatch, but it melted so readily I did not get to add any colored oil or anything. So it is ugly. And I am thinking I will grate it up for speeding up trace for liquid soap. Or maybe use it as confetti in another batch.

 

[judymoody]

49.b - those look like lye crystals, unfortunately. You will need to rebatch. The crystals won't go away over time and it is not safe to use.

 

[eyebright]

Like with everyone---rebatch would be a good option.

 

[Susie]

I grated the ugly soap today and used it for confetti in another batch. I will use more tomorrow for a different batch. Then I guess I will save the rest for speeding up liquid soap trace. It did not zap.