Teach Soap

As long as they don't mind store bought cookies I should be fine then

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Okay so I just couldn't let this one go ...

I went back and grabbed the bar of soap with that sizeable white "bloom" in the corner. I sliced off that side of the bar and then sort of picked apart that white spot.

UGH! It's lye. I'm almost certain. Got a teensy zap from it (though I have to really lick it. lol) but it's sorta crumbly, not like soap. Granted the soap itself isn't even 24 hours old so I suppose it could still zap me even if it was a perfect batch. But here's a pic of that soap slice with the white stuff partially picked off (by me):

http://twitpic.com/6dck4m

I remember a soaper telling me that when she gels it helps prevent the lye from "settling" to the bottom of her soap and creating crumbly edges. Not sure if she was mainly referring to castile on this point (we were chatting about castile at the time) but worth noting, because I don't think this batch of mine gelled and it's 70+% OO.

My lye solution was definitely mixed well and I strained it through about 4 layers of cheesecloth laid over top of a stainless steel strainer too, just to be safe.

So if it's not a mixing thing then is it bad lye or the fact that it didn't get hot enough or??

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

If that's the case I would have a lot of problems with my soap since I don't gel, but I don't. I would get more lye and see if that makes a difference.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Yes and I've had plenty of soaps not gel or partially gel without any problems so ...

I'm going to have to find a decent online supplier somewhere that's affordable. Meh.

I read that Boyer Corp. sells very high quality lye ... maybe I'll check them out though they're probably in the U.S.

Should I wait a couple weeks and test the soap anyway? Seems there isn't a firm conclusion to be drawn yet. I hate to throw it all out but I hate rebatching even more.

Karri

_________________
I soap therefore I am.

It won't hurt to wait a couple of weeks. If the ends didn't gel, they can zap, up to three days later.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.