# What is going on here?



## goat girl (Dec 11, 2007)

Okay--Here is a soap I have made many times. But I just cut my last batch--cold process/oven
It has the usual lye/goat milk mix but I add to this mix pureed carrot and banana--done this several times. Then when the lye is all dissolved I pour into my mold and then add clay,e.o or whatever. Then oven process it on warm--no pilot light on my oven-until gel stage. Then cool and cut.
Here is the problem. :crazy When I cut the soap there were places that were a little different shade then the other parts of the soap. If I tongue tested the spots where it was off color--those had a zap. The other places didn't. But it is not like lye crystals that don't dissolve. And they are not hard--can scrape those areas and just get soap shreds--not hard bits. What is going on? Did some places of the soap just not cure? I thought I would check it in a day or two and see if it still zaps. I know my soap was completely mixed, that my measurements were exact, and that I hit gel stage. 
could this be the problem--I slice my soap while it is still a little soft--smoother cuts--can it still be curing before completely cooled? I have just recently started cutting when in this stage and liked the ease of cutting it this way--but maybe it is still curing and I need to wait until completely cooled?
christine


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Cure is simply the soap wicking moisture out of it making a good hard soap tht doesn't dissapate quickly when used.

Saponify is the actual chemical reaction in which butters and oils marry with the lye and liquids forming soap. So if you have zap to your firm soap it is either not through saponifying or it won't because it wasn't at trace when you poured it into the mold. Soap in it's unsoaponified state needs the shear volume of all lye/liquid and all butters and oils to saponify. So if you pour unsaponified soap into molds and oven process it and it's not first at trace, than you don't have equally mixed portions of lye/water and butters and oils in each section of your mold. Hot process or cold process soap in which you mix all your lye/water, butters and oils has to come to emulsion and at least light trace before you pour or it can't completely saponify.

Sorry I just can't explain it 

Cooling it more or heating it more if it's in the mold and not mixed in with all the rest of the butter and oils and lye and liquid isn't going to do nothing to it. You are going to have lye heavy and lye light soap throughout your mold unless it gets melted so you can stirr it back up. Vicki


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## goat girl (Dec 11, 2007)

This morning I checked the soap and most of the bars that had a zap last night had none this morning and only a few had a little bit of zap. :/
My guess is that in the next couple of days there will be no zap at all on any of the soap. Any one have an idea of why--besides lots of prayer (which I did)
Christine


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## Guest (Feb 22, 2009)

christine, I believe your soap just needs more cure time..Check it in a week or so...


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Curing does not improve saponification though Barb. Once hard enough to cut, soap should have no zap.

IF you are going to keep this soap, I would further cut the bars into pieces when you are through with cure and make sure your soap is not lye heavy.

I have no idea how long you have been making soap, but you need to revisit the basics from your posts. No offense is meant, but I hope you are not selling soap. Vicki


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## goat girl (Dec 11, 2007)

I see now looking at my first post that it looks like I skip several steps--
I do add my dissolved-goat milk/lye mix into warmed olive oil and then use a stick blender till am at trace. Then add my e.o and clay and mix well. Lastly I pour into my molds and place in the oven to oven process. I realize that when I did my first post I went from lye/milk step right to pouring into my molds--It had been a long day yesterday and I was tired when posting. Sorry for the confusion with my first post. 
Does it mostly sound like the soap just needed a little more curing?

Christine


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## Guest (Feb 23, 2009)

> When I cut the soap there were places that were a little different shade then the other parts of the soap.


Is it all the same color now? What do you mean by 'little different shade'? What color and what size are/were these places?

Christy


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## goat girl (Dec 11, 2007)

It is all about the same color now. The spots before were a light redish -brownish color. By morning the spots had faded. Where there is still just a little zap it is a very light maple syrup color. The spots were anywhere from a pencil eraser size to a quarter size. (The oil I use is olive oil)
Christine


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Oh good  We get new folks soaping, flying by the seat of their pants  And some of the books, simply crazy directions and worse is some of the recipes! Vicki


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## Guest (Feb 23, 2009)

goat girl,
Vicki is right, I am having way too many senior moments lately.... if that soap has zap, it did not get saponified properly and you should grind it up and reprocess or make laundry soap.. do not sell it, or even give it away... 
Make sure that you always put your recipes thru a calculator..
You did not mention if you do this or not.
Barbara


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

I have heard of soap having a zap still if doing strict CP before it is totally cured (but after it has been turned out of the mold and cut)...like within the first week...are people talking about something different there? (Not trying to be argumentative, just wondering...I've only done CP/OP so far and so I have no personal experience with that.)


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

The chemical reaction is over once the soap is firm. Curing only wicks out mositure to make the bar hard and to keep it longer. IF you can't cut and immediatly use your soap there is something wrong with your technique or your scale or your recipe. You should be able to make soap balls out of your soap cuttings with bare hands.

I know that alot of you just soap, learned from books or the internet, but you really need to learn the very basics of what you are doing as far as what lye and liquid....butters and oils do in the saponification process. Heat has nothing to do with it, curing has nothing to do with it. The sap process from beginning to end is a very quick chemical reaction. Vicki


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## Guest (Feb 25, 2009)

that is correct.. I let my pans set until the next morning to wash them out with the soap made in them.. Its soap completely at that point.. sometimes even within one hour of making it has no zap to it.. just soft soap
Barbara


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## goat girl (Dec 11, 2007)

Do I understand this right?
You dissolve lye with gm. then add to oils. stir with stick blender. Is it at trace that it is all saponified?(At trace it still is caustic right?) I then pour the traced soap into molds--(still caustic right?) Put it in the oven. At what point should the soap not be caustic? At trace, at gel in the oven or after it has completely cooled after gel in the oven? If it is after it has completely cooled after gel, that would explain my zap--I cut the soap while still very warm. when I tongue tested and got the zap the inside was still a soft gel. The next morning when hard, the zap was gone.
If this is true that cold process soap not being caustic after hardening, why does it say to let air dry 4-6 weeks in the "untrustworthy" soap books? Is this just to make a firmer bar--evaporation of the water? If your cp bar of soap is very hard in a few days, can I just package it and sell it then or is there another reason for it needing to wait several weeks? I know, lots of questions. But please help us newer soapers out. 
Christine


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## Guest (Feb 25, 2009)

Christine,
yes, you dissolve the lye in the goat milk, making sure that all particles are dissolved, some people actually strain their lye.. I take the stick blender to mine.. 
You then mix the lye mixture into your oils and bring this to trace.. thickened like pudding, add your fo's or additives and pour into molds.. cut later the same day or 24 hrs later.. 
some recipes cannot be cut for a couple of days, depends on amount of water/milk used or recipe.. 
The reason for curing is to get a harder bar that lasts longer.. the moisture in it evaporates
If you are new at soaping, I suggest that you let your soap cure 4 wks at least, the reason you hear some that don't, experienced soapers often do what is called a water discount.. they use less liquids to make the soap and it hardens fast.. Not for the faint at heart when you first start out.. 
Barb


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

Also keep in mind that your milk needs to be frozen and add lye slowly or you will burn the milk


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