To Rebatch, Or Not Rebatch...?

[ocean_soul]

...that is the question. XD So I was making my first ever batch of Castile soap, and I figured I'd use goat milk as my liquid. So I add my lye to my frozen milk. One spoonful, stir, another spoonful, stir...methinks, well this is getting lame...*dumps the rest of the lye in* Stir, stir, stir like mad!

Eventually I add my lye solution to my oil. I tried to strain it but the mesh of my strainer was too fine and many fatty globs blocked it up. Hrmph. :\ Will that give my soap a higher super fat, I wonder? So I pour out the rest of the lye solution slowly and my container empties out I see it. A little white clump. Please be a saponified bit of milk fat, I says. I grab my spoon and poke!

Crunch, goes the white clump. Oh dear.

Poke poke?

Crunch, crunch, grumbles the clump.

Poke?!?!?!

Crunch!

Cue the panicking! Aaaaaaah! :crazy: I didn't have time to hot process, so I stuck my soap in the freezer and I've been preparing myself for rebatching ever since. Oh joy. :roll: Also not sure if I should make some lye solution and add that to my soap, to make up for all the stuff I lost on my strainer. I probably should have done that while my soap was still soft and zappy, huh? Oh well. Either way I can kiss my beautiful, nongelled white soap goodbye!

 

[Obsidian]

What was your initial SF and roughly how much lye was left in the strainer? I wouldn't rebatch unless you had a high SF to start with or the soap feels oily.

 

[ocean_soul]

My initial SF was 5%. I don't know for certain if there were any undissolved clumps of lye that got caught in the strainer, but it was full of globs of saponified milk fat, for sure. But then I have no clue if another clump of undissolved lye snuck by undetected once I gave up using the strainer.

 

[Obsidian]

I'd slice it up and see how it looks inside. If there isn't any noticeable lye clumps, I would leave it be. Of course, I wouldn't sell or even give any away just in case.

 

[ocean_soul]

I'm working on slicing it right now...I think the top of the soap that was exposed to the air is firmer than the bottom because the silly thing wants to crumble a bit and bend even though it's not lye heavy! I have discovered random specks of orange that don't zap, I'm thinking that they indicate that the milk sugars scorched a bit before stickblending. Curious and curiouser.

I figured selling this batch would be inadvisable but I figured rebatching it would at least make it safe to give out. We'll see what else I find after I give the bottom of the soap some time to air out.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[HerbalEarthling]

I would definitely rebatch it. Even if you cut it and don't see any pockets, there could be that one bar that has a huge chunk of lye and... *shiver* Not good. That would freak me out. Even if you keep it for yourself, skin is skin.

 

[ocean_soul]

Welp, even if I was never worried about having non-dissolved lye I'll definitely be rebatching. I waited too long to cut, look how horribly they came out! :thumbdown:



Also, a mysterious orange spot of mysteriousness! Doesn't zap.

 

[Obsidian]

Man, I hate it when soap crumbles like that, its nice looking though. The orange bits are mostly burned milk bits.

 

[ocean_soul]

Yep, I concluded that as well. Next time I'll be more patient.

 

[Susie]

Next time, maybe consider mixing the NaOH with just barely enough water(1:1) to get dissolved, and then add the balance of liquid in GM to the oils.(if you use liquid GM) That should help with the not getting NaOH dissolved(at least you can see if it is dissolved or not).

 

[seven]

Man, I hate it when soap crumbles like that, its nice looking though. The orange bits are mostly burned milk bits.

i agree with Obsi. i would personally leave it as is and just use it for my personal use.