Teach Soap

Hi everyone. Does anyone has experience using Phenolphthalein to test PH? I checked several sources and they do not agree with each other.
One says to use one drop directly on the soap and wait for light pink or pink color to appear.
The other states this:
The proper way to use phenolphthalein is to dissolve some liquid or solid soap in a roughly 50:50 mix of distilled water and alcohol (ethyl or isopropyl rubbing alcohol is ok) in a clear glass. When the solution is as clear as it will get, add a drop or two of phenolphthalein solution and stir it. Then view it well-lit in front of a white background. This way, one can see the slightest little bit of pink color (which is ok) and all its graduations up to a deep red (definitely not ok).

So what is the correct way to test for PH?

I would lightly wet the soap scrap, then add a drop of pheno to it. If you dilute it in water, it will be harder to see and that much water could change the reading. Make sure that you throw that scrap away as the pheno is toxic.

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

I decided to do a second test with the pH strips and the test showed that the soap is OK. So test which would be more accurate. Test with feno indicated that soap is the lye heavy

pH test strips will only give you a range. They are not accurate for soap.

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

Thank you for explanation soapbuddy . The reason why all theses questions came up is that I made two batches of soap and they were lye heavy. I don't think that it was a human error because I'm sure I measured everything correctly. So besides the scale not functioning properly what else can it be?

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

5%

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

I don't think that I indicated the ingredients of the soap that I made. Irena, would you recommend to superfat in general 7-8% or only soap with certain ingredients ?

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

What role superfat % plays in my case where the soap is lye heavy? If I superfat at higher %, will I have less of the chance to end up with lye heavy soap?

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

Thank you Irena for your suggestions. I will try next time higher superfat rate and will make sure that I measure everything correctly.
How do you test PH?

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

I see. Would you be able to share with me the information on your scale ( model # and brand) so I could buy the same since it's already tested by you. By chance do you use brambleberry calculator if not then which one?