Question about soap making...too much lye?!

[lwm126]

I made a batch of soap yesterday and changed some of the recipe to have more olive oil and a little less coconut oil.

I forgot to run the lye calculator to see if it was the right amount of lye to use.

Well we made it and then it dawned on me to check the calculator. When I did it said that we only had a 4% fat excess.

Is this soap safe to use?!

 

[SoSoapy]

did you check to see if it zapped?

 

[lwm126]

No, I didn't check to see if it zapped. I did cook it an additional 15 minutes though to make sure it was "done".

 

[Genny]

I'd check it for zap, but with at least a 4% super fat, it should be okay.

 

[lwm126]

How do you check it for a zap if it has already molded? It was a hot process soap.

 

[Fragola]

4% should be ok, but putting that aside, soap should always be checked.

You do zap test with the tongue, once you get it out of the mold.

 

[Genny]

Get your finger wet with water, run your finger across the soap, then touch your finger to your tongue. If it give you a zap, then your soap is lye heavy.

Be prepared with a glass of water or something to rinse your mouth out.

 

[IrishLass]

Even if you do get a zap right away, don't throw the towel in just yet. It may very well be that it just needs to cure for a longer amount of time. Let it sit for a week, and if you find that it's still zapping after about 7 days or so, then I'd call it officially lye heavy. At that point, you can re-batch it by melting the soap down and adding more oil to it little by little (and periodically checking for zap as you go), until all zap ceases.

Having said that, though, I think your soap will be fine with only 4%. I oftentimes soap with a 3% superfat with one of my soap formulas and it has never zapped on me yet.


IrishLass

 

[lwm126]

I had my husband taste the soap with his finger (I'm 9 months pregnant and didn't want to risk it) and he said: That's gross! It's taste like soap!

I would still like for it to be more fat %. Should I try and melt it down again and can you do that with hot process soap?

Would I just put it back in the crock pot and add more oil?

Thanks.

 

[IrishLass]

Yes, you can do that, although I probably wouldn't want to rebatch it more than once. And if you do it while your soap is still new you probably won't need to add any water to it, although you can if it seems too dry.

I would grate the soap up, stick it in your crockpot and cook it until it's all soft and gushy like vaseline (it won't be liquidy-smooth) and add some oil to it. The trick is how much oil to add, though. You don't want to over do it. As a general 'ballpark' guideline of sorts -and I base this on the advice given in the book called 'The Everything Soapmaking Book' by Alicia Grosso on pg 242- you can add 1% extra oil to your particular batch if you want it superfatted at 5%, or 2% extra oil if you want it superfatted at 6%, etc... The extra percent of oil that you add should be based on the amount of oil you already have in your batch.

For example sake, let's say your 4% superfatted batch contains 16 oz of total oil already (I don't know how much you actually used, but I'm just saying). To increase the superfat to 5% (1 more % than 4%), you would multiply 16 by .01. This equals .16. So you would add .16 ounces of extra oil to your batch. Or if you wanted to superfat the same 16 oz/4% superfatted batch to 6% (2 more % than 4%), you would multiply 16 by .02, which gives you .32, and so you would need to add .32 oz of extra oil. Hopefully that makes sense.

IrishLass