Hi, I need some feedback on these soaps.
Bottom soap is with Rose Clay, I used a lye masterbatch. I used a white plastic container (PP#5) to mix the salt with the distilled water. I weighed the brine, then added the masterbatch. When I added this to the oils, I used a strainer and found that some of the salt did not dissolve. I discarded the strained out salt.
The top soap is with Green Clay, I used brine water and lye. I used the same formula as the Rose Clay, without the masterbatch option. I made sure all of the salt was dissolved, using a a clear container to mix the brine, weighed it, then added the lye.
As you can see, the top soap has more ash and is cracking. I'm not sure why. The only theory i can come up with is that my lye masterbatch must be a little lye heavy or I mis-measured the liquid or the lye for the top soap.
For the brine I was using 4 parts water to 1 part salt by weight. I used about 1 ounce of salt for each batch. The reason I tried the second batch is that I could not get all the salt to dissolve for the first batch in the lower quantity of distilled water. In the first batch i used 2.8 oz of liquid plus 4.5 oz of masterbatch; in the second batch I used 5 oz of liquid plus 2.25 lye. I tried to dissolve about 1 ounce of salt in the water for each batch.
So I wanted the thoughts from you more experienced soapers -
What may have caused the cracking for the second batch?
How long do I need to cure brine soaps? I usually cure my "regular" soaps for 8 weeks.
Also, had i dumped in the undissolved salt in the Rose Clay batch, would that have hurt anything, since then it would be sort of a combined brine and salt soap; and if so should I cure longer?
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