Setting of soap
by EP
(Leicestershire)
I have been following Kirstie Allsops soap recipe (from her TV programme on Channel 4, December 2011).
I have followed the recipe to the letter and my soaps are not setting and cannot seem to get them out of the moulds after 3 days - they are wet, sticky and greasy.
Is there anything I can do to rectify my batches?
Thanks.
Answer:Wet, sticky and greasy sounds like the soap didn't reach a full trace or perhaps a mistake was made during the measuring stage.
Unfortunately it is difficult to fix unless you know what went wrong.
You could try rebatching it to see if it sets up better but if the error is a shortage of lye your soap will still be greasy.
It would not be safe, either, to try to add extra lye to the soap since you could very easily end up with a lye heavy batch.
It might be possible to add it to another batch that has a zero lye discount and hot process the two together. This may bring the lack of lye down to a more reasonable level.
Think on this carefully before you try it since you may be throwing good ingredients after bad if it fails.
Cathy