Soaping Fail

[lizzysoap]

Soap Fail! I wanted to make soap tonight. I used up all of my master batches oils, so I carefully measured out my lye and water mixed those. Measured out all my oils, mixed those and heated them to 115°. Measured out my FO. Mixed my colors to perfection with oil out of my main batch. Checked my Lye water it was down to 125°. So I set my stick blender in the oil and went to pour in the lye water. This is when catastrophe happened my stick blender fell and dumped all 2 pounds of oil. All over my deep freezer, down the side, underneath the deep freeze, down the wall, in between the wall and the base board, and under the edge of the laminate wood flooring. Long story short, I haven't made soap yet, and am trying to figure out how to clean up all this oil. Oh and the lye water splashed my wrist above my glove.

 

[Cellador]

I've done this before...sorry to hear about the mess. That's so frustrating, but at least you hadn't added the lye yet.

 

[lsg]

So sorry to hear about the soaping diaster. I hope you got all the oils cleaned up. I also hope you don't get a burn from the lye/water splash.

 

[Soapandso]

I have done this so many times, I always think the stick blender will balance but it always tips the bowl! soaping disaster for me today was red rose soap with buttermilk, seized utterly within 8 seconds of adding fragrance, i therefore have a rock hard loaf after 1 hour! I am sure it will be fine!

 

[zanzalawi]

terribly frustrating!
hope your wrist is okay!

 

[scard]

I can never trust my stick blender to stay put so I have been looking for an inexpensive no frills tall heavy ceramic crock to stand it in. I have had a few FO spills so now I put them in baby food or mason jars. (much harder to knock over, even for me) I hope you didn't get burnt.

 

[cmzaha]

This is why I will not soap in the flimsy measuring pitchers from ninety nine cent stores, and use hdpe buckets for soaping. The bottoms are as wide as the top and my SB will not know them over, but then I do not stand up my blender in a bucket of raw soap, but I will prop in against a side of the bucket. I have had many boo boo's when making soap but fortunately never had a bucket of oil or soap batter fall over.

 

[loriag]

Oh not fun. Sorry for the lye water splash, hope it doesn't turn too bad for you.

 

[SunRiseArts]

Oh Yikes, let us know your arm is ok. Hope you ran tons of water on it.

Fall, is been over 100 here in Texas .... I wonder if the dessert is cooler!

 

[OldHippie]

I hate it when that happens. Cleaning up the oil is easier if you keep telling yourself how lucky you are that it was not the lye that spilled...

Now I work with the mixing vessels inside of a large shallow serving tray. Anything that spills stays contained.

 

[dibbles]

I do hope your arm is ok. I spilled oil once - not fun. My stick blender comes apart, so I detach it and only leave the bell part in my soap pot if I have to pause and don't want to take it out of the batter. It takes away the top heavy issue of the stick blender, and I've never had it tip on me.