Teach Soap

I am new to soap making so forgive me for asking asking or saying anything stupid I made my second batch of soap today. My first batch was a castille soap which is on week 3 of curing. So far it looks and smells good. This batch is an oatmeal soap. I used 12oz of lye and 32 oz of water. I added the lye slowly and stirred and stirred, but there were about 5-10 small floties in the water. I didn't think much of it and added it to the oil. After it was in the mold I started to get really worried about it. Is that whole batch bad? Will those few flakes of undissolved lye (I'm assuming that is what it is) burn the skin? Or would those small bits get dissolved when I blinded the lye water with the oil.

Is your lye fresh? Did everything else dissolve? Did the floaties look like lye or more like lint? Did you wash the container with anything other then water after you were done with the first batch? Those floaties could be from left over soap after washing.

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

Thanks for the fast response! I bought the lye from the Lye Guy about a month ago, so I would think it is fresh. The floties did look more like lint than lye. I did wash the container out with soap. Is that going to be a problem?

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

Hello...In " The Soapmakers Companion" By Susan Miller Cavitch(pg.183) she addresses lye "lint" . If your containers were clean and you are sure it wasn't some kind of residue , it may be your Sodium Hydroxide reacting with the carbon dioxide in the air to form what may be sodium carbonate, which does not dissolve into the larger lye solution. She states that cooler conditions are most favorable for this chemical reaction. The sodium carbonate , looks like lint, specks of crystal that float on the surface of the cooling lye. She says it does not affect the quality of the final soap, that the lint is incorporated during the soapmaking process and are indistinguishable within the final bar. I love this book. Hope that helps... Blessings..Linda

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Linda