# This is getting to much.



## Jo~* (Oct 26, 2007)

The other day I screwed up 2 small batches of soap and I posted about that, turned out fine by the way.
Today about did me in......when I checked the milk lye temp it kept reading really low but the milk was turning really dark orange so I thought OK my thermometer is no good. Got out my old candy thermometer and tried that and it was like 150 degrees or something and the oils were even hotter. Thermometer was fine but I had it on Celsius :crazy Then I had a bottle of lavender FO sitting on the window sill opened and at ready well it fell upsidedown on the kitchen sponge (soapy wet sponge) then my mixer feel in the sink of water. :tearhair Guess I can drag out the stick blender now but I liked my big old mixer RIP mixer you will be missed. 
JoAnn.


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## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

Sounds like you need to lay out an offering to the soap fairies so they leave you alone.


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## todog (Dec 10, 2011)

:blushLol must be the weather. I have had days like that. I buy hand mixers from thrift stores cause I am always dropping mine into the soap batch after I add the oils. Its kind of a running joke in the family now :blush I have found that if I slow down and collect my thoughts things will improve.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

JoAnn, why do you check temp? If you use milk ice and "just melted" oils/fats, you should not need to check temp. No issues.

I have had dark orange milk at times, too (I'm sure I posted about it). Don't know why, don't know how. Same recipes so not lye heavy. What I've found is that if my milk is AT ALL slightly melted, I'll get orange milk when I add the lye. However, it never affects the color of the final product. How? Why? I don't know.

Darlene, when you say you drop your mixer into the batch "after you add the oils". How is that? Dont' you add your lye mixture to the oils? Do you wear gloves?


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## todog (Dec 10, 2011)

lol i add the oils to the lye mixture and no i dont wear gloves because even with gloves i dropped it. actually i havent dropped it since i started bare handing it. anyway i just get mixers at the thrift stores when i see them.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

I have those soaping times every so often. Like the last 4 big batches. I hurried and screwed them up. Now I am faced with rebatching and so have not even soaped for two weeks and I'm waaayyy behind! I have been trimming a lot more horses than usual (a good thing for my pocket book) and trying to put up fences and work on the house...and I'm still soaping in the kitchen which is waaayyy too small with barely any cabinet or counter space even for ordinary cooking...let a lone cooking and soaping in the same space...it's overwhelmed me and that is when I start goofing up. After a break though, I'll be able to get back at it having learned a few things and it will go even better.


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## In it for the Bucks! (Mar 12, 2012)

Anita I have a small kitchen too. My way to make it work is soaping in a bucket. I clean off every avaliable counter and then go to work. It has worked great!! Thank DGI members for that!!


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## NPgoats (Mar 18, 2010)

I'm new to soaping and so I use a thermometer to check my temps of oil and lye before I mix them together. It's just a safety precaution for me. I'm sure as I get better and have made tons of soap by then I might not do that any more. I'm a little OCD but it gives me pease of mind...and for me that's fine. I'm sure there are a lot that don't check temp and that is their procedure and that's fine too. 
I hope you have better days to come. That was funny about the celsius temp. Lol I've done something similar. If your milk was frozen then I would say the reason it turned dark orange might have been a higher fat content in those cubes. Just a thought. Linda


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