# My Soap... Disaster



## Lacinayia (Aug 9, 2003)

So I took a hand at making "Coffee" soap from a recipe I found online... It never became neutral according to the tester bottle I purchased. (When I put a drop on it the drop still turns red.) I made the soap on September 22nd. It never turned out the pretty swirl color in the pictures on the sight and quite frankly it smells like dung not coffee. I'm very interested in these "crafty DIY" activities but for some reason they do not seem to be interested in me lol I'm gathering the supplies to try again but would love any tips that yall could provide. Here's a link to the soap recipe I tried last time. http://heart-hands-home.blogspot.com/2011/02/crockpot-coffee-kitchen-soap-tutorial.html


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## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

Have you tried the zap test. Touch the end of you tongue to the soap, if you feel a zap similar to what you would feel if you touched your tongue to a 9 volt battery, then your soap is lye heavy. If you don't get zapped, it should be OK. I ran your recipe through SoapCalc and came up with 4.5 oz of lye. I am assuming you added some extra oil at the end of the cook, so that may have taken care of the .3 difference in the lye. 
It will still work for hand washing even if it doesn't smell great. 
Always run any soap recipe through a lye calculator such as SoapCalc before making it. 
Hope this helps.

Try Cindy's blog for info:

http://www.mullerslanefarm.com/soapmaking.html


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## lathermaker (May 7, 2010)

Coffee soap ALWAYS stinks like a sewer for about 2 weeks. The smell WILL go away. Handmade soap will not show up as neutral. The pH of a neutral soap is 7.0. Real handmade soap has a pH of about 9.5-10.5. pH strips are notoriously wrong for reading soap. Cook the soap until it reaches a "old vaseline" look. You'll know it once you see it. Add your fragrance and additives at this point. Let it cure out a couple weeks then try the zap test.

I would not mix up the lye in glass either. Go to the Dollar store and buy a thick Rubbermaid Pitcher to mix the lye up in. I've had the bottom pop out of a quart jar mixing up lye years back. 

and finally.......WHERE IS THAT WOMAN'S SAFETY EQUIPMENT??????? Bare minimum you should have on goggles & rubber gloves. I soap with a full face mask on to stop any splatters.....you should see what shows up on the face mask when I'm done, that will convince you.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Safety equipment .. yes, totally needed, but this recipe wasn't checked by a reputable lye calculator and is so lye heavy it needs to be immediately rebatched.

BRB with the formula to rebatch

eta: totally agree with lathermaker's comment about what shows up on a full face mask. I soaped for many a year without one and don't pull out my lye bucket without one now.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

This recipe is lye heavy!!

18 oz olive
8 oz cocount
6 oz palm
2 TBL sweet almond (how much weight??? 1 oz???)

12 oz coffee
4.8 oz lye


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## lathermaker (May 7, 2010)

Cyndi is absolutely right! I didn't check the formula before responding...duhhhhh

But, what I said about the stinky soap is true even if the soap wasn't lye heavy. Rebatch that puppy asap!


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## NostalgicGranny (Aug 22, 2007)

Thanks for mentioning something I have this recipe pinned. 

You should be able to rebatch in your crockpot adding more oil and a bit of fragrance too. Let us know how it turns out.


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## Lacinayia (Aug 9, 2003)

I looked up how to rebatch lol I'll try this over the weekend and see how it turns out! Thanks everyone! I'll post an update.


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## Lacinayia (Aug 9, 2003)

Is there a downloadable Lye Calculator out there somewhere? I don't have internet access at home and an app that would work seperate from the internet would be WONDERFUL! Oh and what would be the best milk to rebatch with? Personal opinions of course


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Tallow_Soapers Yahoo Group has an Excel worksheet based downloadable Lye calculator in the Files section. (There is also a Rebatch Calculator for fixing a lye heavy soap recipe.

Soap Calc may be downloadable or have an app.

Brambleberry has a lye calc app, but it has received bad reviews.


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## NostalgicGranny (Aug 22, 2007)

There are spreadsheets:
http://www.millersoap.com/worksheet.html

Any ol milk can be used. I've used cow or goat.


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## Lacinayia (Aug 9, 2003)

Thanks so much! I'll rebatch it tonight


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## Lacinayia (Aug 9, 2003)

Ok so I rebatched it. It still has the odd smell but I'm letting it cure now.


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