Rebatch Beeswax Soap

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kwolf

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Hi all!

I'm a new soapmaker and tried my hand at a beeswax recipe and ran into a little trouble. The batch of soap is sitting at about 24 hours. It set up but when I cut it I can see that the lye hasn't all saponafied. There are a few small pots of straight up crystals, and you can see swirls of discoloration throughout the bars.

When I first added the lye to the oils it started to set up very very quickly and so I think maybe I didn't stir enough? The recipe is sound and measurements accurate.

My question is, can this safely be melted down and rebatched?

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
Can you post a pic and your recipe. It will be easier to give advice if we can help figure out what the exact problem is first.
 
DO NOT zap test those straight up crystals. That happened to me once and I foolishly put my tongue to one. My tongue took a long time to get back to normal.

Do they look like this?

Do not lick the lye crystals.JPG
 
14 oz water
5 oz lye
6 oz beeswax
4 oz coconut oil
2 oz palm oil
28 oz olive oil

I don't have a way to post a photo, but this is how it looks when the bars are cut. (photo borrowed from lovinsoap.com) There are two small spots on the outside, each about the size of a pencil eraser, that look like a clump of lye crystals. All the rest looks more or less like this photo.
IMG_0454-1024x768.jpg


Thoughts? Can it be saved?
 
Can you post pics of your soap? I can't decide if the soap in the pic has lye crystals, or if the white bits are from over-cooked hot process. Please give us your recipe and your process.

BTW, when I make beeswax soap (5% beeswax, 1T honey PPO - per pound oils) I have found that hot processing is the way to go.
 
6 oz is a lot of beeswax! It's mostly unsaponifiable (won't turn into soap) so your spots are possibly beeswax that settled out of the emulsion. I think most soapers use beeswax as just a few % (1-3 maybe) of their recipe because of the unsaponifiables and the higher temp needed to keep beeswax stable.
 
dixie- Sorry, I can't post photos. Recipe is listed above. I heated the oils and beeswax. I added the lye to the water and let it cool to around 100 degrees, once the oils were around that same temperature I mixed them with a stick blender. It thickened almost instantly so I probably only blended it for two minutes or so. Aside from the two small spots I mentioned, none of it has actual crystals, it just looks discolored like the bars in the photo above.

Would it be safe to rebatch it, let it cure, then zap test it?
 
Yikes! 15% beeswax! I've never done that much. The most I ever did was 10%, and I used hot process. Was the beeswax completely melted and blended well into the pot of oils when you added the lye water?

Here's what I'd do - wearing gloves, I'd grate the soap. I'd be concerned there are bits of wax in there that would mess up my food process so I wouldn't use that. Mix the shredded wax with enough water to moisten and let it sit overnight (or for a few days if you aren't in a hurry). Put it in a crockpot on low.
 

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