A question for the group. Rhonda made a bad batch! Help!

April 20, 2001

Okay my cyber soap group friends!

I think I really blew my 6th batch of soap in my soap making career! :-) I

must have. I can wait to hear your opinions on this one.

I made are recipe right from a book. I followed the directions almost

100%......I slightly changed it a little. I did not change it to get the

result that I got though. Here is the recipe:

472 grams sodium hydroxide (I put in a little over 16 oz from my measurer).

3 pounds of olive oil (48 oz)

1/2 pound (227 g) avocado oil (8 oz)

2 pounds 8 oz (1.13 kg) coconut oil (40 oz)

1 pound (227 g) sweet almond oil (8 oz)

30 grams grapefruit seed extract

18 teaspoons of Lavender E. S.

The only things I changed was at the end I put in 2 oz of Wheat germ oil.

and an extra on or two teaspoons of Lavender for extra scent.

A couple of tablespoons of Rattanjot oil for color.

This is exactly (to my knowledge what I did). How the soap has turned out is:

Hard and Brittle. When I set it out and cut it up.....it broke off in funny

pieces (which hasn't ever happened to me before). It is very even in color

and consistency. It sure does smell great. It cannot be cut into nice bars!

Upon taking a piece and looking VERY CLOSELY I can see small little bubbles

in it --> here and there. The bubbles are empty. Cannot see bubbles from a

waste length away. I was handling it with my bare hands and I didn't feel any

kind of burning.

My conclusion is " too much Lye " .......and stirring too fast?? That doesn't

seem right when I look at the recipe??? Do I have to just throw this soap

away now? It is quite a big batch as far as my standards go so far. I hate to

throw it away.

Can any of you please tell me what you would do with this bad batch?

I really appreciate your time and energies.

Sincerely,

Rhonda

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