Teach Soap

Hello ladies!!! I am pretty sure that someone has asked this question before, I just can't find it at the moment. I made an awesome looking and smelling soap and there is a white film on the top, is this whatls called ash? it is about ready to be finished curing and I did a beautiful swirl on top and if I cut of the top just so I can get rid of the white film, then it won't be pretty enough to sell (hopefully I can sell!!) Anyway, is there another way to get rid of this film without cutting the soap? Thank you ladies!!

I can only confirm that the white film is probably ash! I saved a batch by taking a vegetable peeler to the tops within the first 24 hrs. Made a satisfiable dip / wave texture for the circumstances, but my bars were long & skinny -- roughly 2 x 5 -- not your typical dimensions. :/

I have since played with refrigerating my soap to skip gel stage, and it seems to reduce the occurrence of ash.

Thank u very much, I will try your method. How do u do the skipping the "gel phase" part?

hello,

can you tell me what gel stage is?!

thank you
Lucille

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

thank you

Does anyone know if I'm able to do something besides the peeler idea? I tried it on one piece and I mangled it!!

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

I use a kitchen mandolin

I wipe it away with a clean panty hose wet with rubbing alcohol.

What causes soda ash to form and how can you prevent it if you want to go through gel phase?

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

More questions about soda ash..
I made Cp soap in cupcake molds, put them in the fridge overnight, the next day I made the whipped soap frosting, and then stuck them back in the fridge. They were in there a day or 2, and the whipped soap was already hard so I took them out, and sat them on the counter.
Yesterday I noticed some of the cupcake frostings were starting to get soda ash, by this morning, they all do.
I cant really scrape/rub it off, the curves of the frosting doesnt really allow it. And I have glitter on it that I end up just rubbing it off.
Is there a way to keep this from happening, can I cover everything with a towel or something similar? Do you get ash from contact with the air?

Thanks for any help you can give