u/the_salamilid

I only had a few hours to make soap today and I was in a rush (first mistake).

I was making a batch today with a recipe I have used about a dozen times. I added the lye and BAM! The whole batch traced immediately and became hard as a rock. Even when I purposely do a thick trace for layering it’s still workable but this was something else.

I scraped it out of the pot and it looked like little rocks, I think they look great so I was feeling better but I needed to know where I went wrong.

I looked at my notes and my heart sank. I flipped the water and the lye in the recipe… SO STUPID

This soap was made with a 67% lye concentration…

I figure now the whole thing is probably ruined right? It’s mixed together very well but I don’t think theres enough oil to balance out all the lye even with a 5% superfat. There are little white specks on the soap rocks and I’m almost certain it’s unreacted lye because I’ve never had that on any of my soaps before.

Has anyone been through this before? Any advice?
If there is any way to keep them like this without rebatching I’d be greatful - I really like the look of the rocks!

TL;DR
I made soap with a 67% Lye concentration and I don’t want to scrap it. Please give me good news!

I have been wanting to make soap for YEARS now and every time I dusted off the plans, something would come up or I would get bogged down trying to do research into recipes.

I started working as a chemist this year, and I do a lot of work with fatty acids and have learned a lot. My partner was gone this weekend and I FINALLY DID IT!

Recipe included, I also used cranberry and lilac essential oils for the scent (8g of each), and red Moroccan clay for the colour. I wanted it to be more red. I totally had beetroot powder beside me the whole time but I panicked at trace and decided to go with the clay.

It is also worth mentioning that I used a 2:1 water to lye and 5% superfat.

This is definitely something I would like to experiment more with. Please let me know what you think about the recipe!