Made a boo boo and miscalculated the lye :(

[pinkadink]

Hello, long time lurker and on-and-off soaper here (picked up the habit a few years back, make a batch or so every year or so) and only experimenting with it now.

First of all, thank you so much for all the great info and tips. A huge part of why I'm making soap on a regular basis (or trying to) these days is because you all sound like you are having a blast with it. For the most part, I've had more okay batches than bad.

My problem now with a recent batch (poured not more than an hour ago) is that I realized only after I poured that I miscalculated the lye by almost 30% less. I calculate manually using SAP values.

I was wondering why it took to long to trace. I got to a very light trace after almost 15 minutes with a stick blender (on and off every 30 secs or so)

So was wondering if anyone has tried to salvage a batch with too little lye? I was thinking to remelt and mix it into a new batch with the extra lye to compensate. Or would I just be better off leaving it be and hoping for the best?

Appreciate any insight or help anyone would have. Thanks!

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Well, you'll definitely have a high superfat unless it would put your superfat over say, 15%, I'd leave it alone and see how it turns out.
Otherwise you could try running the amount of oils you used through SoapCalc, and subtract the amount of lye you actually used from the amount that SoapCalc gives you. Make a lye solution with the difference between the two. Add your soap you just poured into a crock pot, add the lye solution, and hot process it.
Make sense?

 

[pinkadink]

Hello AlchemyandAshes! Thank you very much for the reply. I ended up just leaving it be. The superfat is something like 28% but I figured that since I got it to trace, it may still become soap and not a slimy mess (probably wishful thinking on my part).

Anyway, will post an update in case anyone is interested on how this turned out.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

If it lathers, then you'll have a "highly conditioning" soap that may turn out to be your favorite :-D Make sure you post pics after cut!

 

[pinkadink]

Keeping my fingers crossed for "highly conditioning soap." Will post pics when I unmold and cut