Ooops... Distractions Suck!

Well, that was an exercise in futility if ever there was one. The soap looks lovely but that is only half the story.

You can definitely see the difference between the high water (the lighter parts along the outside) and the low water (the white swirly part in the center). There are a couple of issues, though.

I got distracted when some of my lye decided to make a break for it. I spilled a couple of teaspoons all over my kitchen counter and on to the floor. Everything had to be put to the side and my kitchen cleaned up before I'd even consider moving on.

When I did move on, I made the mistake of putting the low water lye mixture (intended for 300 grams of oil) into the bowl with the 600 grams of oil and the lye mixture intended for the 600 grams of oil into the bowl with the 300 grams of oil. That means that the outer two thirds doesn't have enough lye and the soap is on the soft and spongy side, while the soap in the center has too much lye for the amount of oil and it's still zapping like crazy after a good 24 plus hours.

I posted my results on the SoapMaking Forum and was told that because there's no colourant in my soap, this is a good candidate for rebatching. I ran the numbers through SoapCalc and it looks like that may well be the case. Mixing the two parts together will give me a 40% lye concentration, with a 5% superfat.

It won't all fit in my tiny little appetizer size crock pot so I think it may be the perfect opportunity to pick up a second hand crock pot sometime this week, considering I have this week off (to be used for soap only!).

A closer look at the soap, though, does show the difference between the high and low, subtle as it is.

Against a bright light... can you see the streaks along the left side?

I'll give it another try later this week... it will not beat me!