Lye Heavy Soap Vs. Soda Ash 

I test EVERY batch personally...which is why I have 15 bars in my shower!😂😂😂

Thank you for sharing, this happened to me once and I got so disapointed but it was a very good learning experience, after that I started to double check my recipes before I start a new batch. 😊😊🌷

I agree soda ash can be quite attractive sometimes but I learned to eliminate it with water discounting :) I also do HP soap. I love HP because soda ash doesn't happen, ever. Someone told me she makes HP and gets soda ash. . . . .I found that to be surprising and Googled soda ash in HP soap. It led me to your video. I like it when other soap makers share the "mistakes" also! It's how we all learn! Thank you, Hila!

Thank you for sharing with us☺ great explantaion.

Very honest of you, thank you, I been soaping a lo

omg really helpful. a big thankyou for the video!

Thank you so much for sharing this honest video. Sacrifice your hands before your clients👏

I have less experience but agree with you 100%

Thank you for sharing

New subscriber here..thank you for this information.

Thank you for sharing your expertise with us. I'm surprised the pH test didn't reveal the problem. It's good to know how to accurately test the soap by using it. Best wishes!

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and knowledge with us! You have just helped me get through my first flop with cold-processed soap, which looks strikingly similar to yours. I have only been watching you since the beginning of this year, and have learned so much, and you inspired me to start making soaps from home, too. I cannot work outside the home, and so have thoroughly enjoyed watching and learning from your videos here. I recently learned that you have become popular with one of our U.S. Torah observant Messianic groups on facebook, where TO people sell their crafts and products to other believers in Mashiach. How wonderful it was to see that others I recently met have also found you! Maybe I'll see you on the facebook page sometime. I'm new to that group and so can't recall the exact name of the page, but I'll try to check later, and come and say hello again. There is a link to one of your videos shared on our page there, which I think is wonderful. Okay, sorry for the long comment. May you be continuously blessed in all you do, and protected in these uncertain times. Shalom aleichem.

Fascinating gotta be very careful

thank you for posting this video. I just made a small batch and I noticed ash on it so I washed my hands to test it out. I think I need to invest in a better scale because my scale is one digit off .

Thank you for this information! It is quite scary to know that PH test is not really reliable! We must test!!!

I bought soap at a flea market and it looked good but burned my skin up ... I would never buy at that place again . I now make my own soaps and I always use mine

I appreciate the confessions that you hv honestly made in all good earnest. It is a vy good learning experience. Recently, i happened to copy an african black soap with a very small batch. Again, with a mixture of coconut and olive oil. Though olive oil was a mere 10% of total fat, I messed it up, the oil had leaked and the batch never transformed into a bar. I didnot even burn the plaintain skin to convert into ash. I had just powdered and used it as an additive along with wood ash. Like you said, I used it up as a liquid soap and finished it off. Mistakes are a part of learning. Good that you shared. Tqs.

You should be able to rebatch cold process soap by hot processing it and adding more fat.

i subscribe directly because you are honest and very kind to share your experience to others.

another way to know if the soap has more than the usual lye is that it adding faster, soap need to take two day befor removing it from the mould

For a long time and never happens to me until this year, is like every soap I make has ash, I dont know what to do, thank you

how do you measure pH level of soap ? how do you know they are completely cured and what level of pH do you think is good for our skin..

But how it's even possible to make that lye heavy soap? We need to calculate at least in soap calc to be sure. Or how its possible to make that heavy lye soap?

I spray my soaps immediately after molding with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol. Then after 20 hours or so, I remove the lid to my molds and I spray again. Then after the curing process I take a whistling tea pot and allow the steam to pass across the top of the soap, just once briefly. Also, I had to unsubscribe from your site, because it was contacting my cell phone, and not just my Google mail box. But I love your site and your teaching. Be Blessed

Thank you so much for this video!, It my first time to make soap and there is white spot in it. But I don't know if its not cook or it's bad soap. Also I used roebic 100 percent lye, is it safe?

Does it have anything to do with the temperature in the room at time of curing?

What to do with it

My soap does not have ash, but it's brittle, I washed my hands with it and it feels good, did not burn, even my daughter with sensitive skin used it and it did not burn her, so why was it brittle

"At first I was very depressed" Same😭😭😭

Thank you so much . I had a soap that leaked oil and couldn't figure out why none of my other soaps have done it. I did not sell it I used it and my husband loves it I have had soda ash but some are very hard to remove and some don't clean up at all couldthey be lye heavy?

Hi lovely soap :) Do you use natural lie for your soap making? If you test the PH when the soap is still liquid you can neutralise the ash with vinegar or lemon basically we get lye heavy soap when we don't have enough fat to completely react with the lye and make saponification, you can reboil soap and add more fat to balance it but need persision in temperature and quantities to achieve the re-saponification

Can I add to other batch

Can you use less lye or ash to avoid this burning!!!!!!!!

If soap is not getting hard after 2 days.How can we fix that.

No debe usarse metal con Sosa....

So sorry that happen to you, it happen to me too.

You need to run a new recipe through SoapCal online. Double check. Something I will now get into the habit of 😁 Somebody else's recipe can be slightly out on their calculations, without them knowing.

Hi Hila, this is Leah from Lavinia's Garden. I was so happy to find an Israeli soap maker as I lived in Telz Stone for quite a few years, and I miss Israel and all of my Israeli mishpacha! The first thing I would like to touch base on is your safety. I too test everything on myself first, but the minute I feel burning I spray myself with vinegar. This is a weak acid, and will counteract (bitul) the effects of the lye (which is akaline) It is helpful to have a large spray bottle of it at all times as accidental spills do happen. The other thing I found helpful was to not use just one lye calculator at first. Look at a few trusted sites and compare the amounts of lye given. The amounts of lye should be similar. Two of my favorites are brambleberry.com and wholsalesuppliesplus.com. The last thing is you can make laundry detergent from the soap by adding 1 cup of borax and 1 half cup of washing soda to about 400 grams of soap. Grate the soap into a five gallon bucket, add about a gallon of boiling water and dissolve the soap. Add the borax and washing soda and fill the rest of the bucket with water. Let this mixture sit overnight ,it will gel which is normal. Use about one half cup per load (maybe less as washing machines in Europe and Israel tend to be somewhat smaller) Kol ha kavod Hila! I look forward to more English speaking videos. Happy soaping.

what i do is this, add half of the measured lye at firstly as i stir i kept on adding little when i see there is trace i will stop adding the lye, this reduces soda ach and also keep ur soap free from heavy lye

use a steamer it will work