Prairie Creations Lye Burn

Thanks, Sparky. I have a hand held pH meter laying about the house somewhere. I am going to find it and test my batch of soap. I will report the results here. I have never had a reaction to soap before, and was wondering what was going on with my face because of the redness and irritation I experienced. It was indeed more of an all over redness, rather than anything splotchy.

 

Good link I was wondering if you had to use a certain concentration of soap to water, but it sounds like you just need to use DI or distilled water.

 

What scent was this so folks can atleast do a tongue test before burning their face. Being that some folks had no problem it may be 1 bad batch that should not have been shipped.

Issy

 

While the one that Rodd had is indeed almond scent, I have read Krissy say that she makes large unscented batches, then rebatches to add scent as needed per order.

 

Unless it was re batched, then it could be multible scents.

Issy

 

I've been off line the last few days because i've had a daughter sick with a stomach bug and last night I had to drive my son down to a hospital far from home to be admitted for a week.

Yes I do use lye, there is no getting around that. The recipe has gone through a lye calculator to check for the correct amount of lye to be used. The lye is actually weighed twice to check for accuracy. And each batch is given the "tongue test" to check for zap. If I get any zap then it's not ready to be used. I make sure to check every batch and just not "assume" that it's ready.

Sparkey did you receive the response to the email that I sent you? I replied as soon as I got it.

Also I am personal friends with the guy who has the knice-n-clean website as well.

 

These two statements cannot exist together (and both be true) in reality. Either you were offline the last few days (and thus not able to read or respond to spark's email) or you were online in the last few days and did respond.

All that aside, good luck with the sick kids... having children under the weather is #1 priority, no matter what.

 

actually, they can, if she just responded to the message she just got after getting online for the first time in a few days. That's how I interpreted it, it makes perfect sense, and can coexist. Whether that's the case or not, I cannot know, but it can be true.
Sparky did say he tried personal contact first, then after no response made a public notice.

I have a sister in law with kids that get sick a lot, they don't have any kind of major illness or anything that would explain, but battle illness after illness it seems, and it's certainly a stress and causes a lot of time away from other things. I do pray that these frequent issues with your children can become less interfering, and that much of the recent "negatives" of your soaps show to be a growing pain and not a discouragement for you.

 

If that's how you chose to interpret the two statements, that's fine. That's not how it came across to me, and not how it reads given the context of this thread.

Agreed completely.

 

Let me rephrase that question. I have been online, just not to the shave den and these are my reasons. Although I have answered emails and PM'. And Sparkies was the ONLY email I got about this to which i replied immediately.

Wednesday I worked long hours late into the night on orders. I did that because my hubby was home to care for my daughter who was puking every 20 minutes. She brought home the bug that has been going around her kindergarten class. I worked very late and I believe I sent 15 packages out on Thursday. I did this because I knew i would need to play "mommy" on thursday. And I did.

Friday was a very emotional day, my daughter wasn't throwing up anymore but she wasn't feeling her best either so she stayed home. (she's 6) I had to call my hubby home from work because of the decision my son's doctor made. She wanted him brought to Grand Forks which is 140 miles (one way) from home to be admitted to the pedadric psych ward to be pulled off all his medications. Since the 1st of December he's been on several meds without success. They need to observe him to see what else is going on apart from the very severe ADHD that he has so we they can figure out what medication he needs to be on that will work the best. Then before we were going to leave my daughter vomited again so i had to drive my son to the hospital alone and admit him on Friday night. I've been an emotional wreck since. Tomorrow we need to go back for a "family meeting". BTW, my son is only 9 years old.

Between working on orders and replying to emails on questions and dealing with my son i haven't been logging into the shave forums as much. I have a lot on my plate and chose to pick my battles. I do have a life outside of making soap, most of it revolves around my children. However when I make soap I do so with 100% safety in mine and am very accurate with everything that is weighed out and part of the recipe. Nothing is left out because I use a very specific print out where I document the weight of everything added on the sheet. Everything is double checked.

Last night a friend of mine told me about a thread started on this on "the other big shave forum" to which they banned me a long time ago so i could not reply. Where the mods there made it look like i chose to ignore the thread rather than to reply to it. Which is interesting because they knew i had no way of responding to the thread but it makes me look even worse by not. I did reply to the mods questions, they make it look like i ignored them. So I logged in here and found this thread. To which I did reply to.


Editing, why would a fragrance sensitivity be 'blotchy' wouldn't you get a reaction anywhere the lather touched? Is it possible it's a reaction to "wheat protein" that was added instead? Could you PM me an order number from the jar in question. That would help me a lot.

 

Well, I hesitate to post this in a public forum, but I have licked my soap.:sick007 Apparently, the 'tongue test' is supposed to be quite sensitive and conclusive. Any free lye will give your tongue a tingling sensation. My result: nothing. No tingling of any kind. Just a lime and vanilla flavor (I tested the lime version). So based on this, there is no free lye in my soap. Therefor, any reaction I am having is some sort of sensitivity to a fragrance or the wheat protein. But since I have no problem eating wheat, I'll chalk this up to the fragrance.

I am still trying to locate the pH meter, but I haven't used it in two years and one move ago. It will take more time than I though to go through all the boxes it could be in. I will post a pH level when it turns up, but I expect a normative result.

P.S. I did the tongue test just before brushing my teeth. That helped.

 

I've only heard of one confirmed soap that had this problem. A couple reactions have shown to be "maybe" lye, but I'd give Krissy the benefit of the doubt unless it is confirmed otherwise. Hopefully your soap is just fine, as the one I've used was.

As a soap was confirmed to have excess lye, it's a good warning as more soaps MIGHT have this issue. It could also have been a single lye pocket from incomplete mixing and be the only soap that came out this way. I hope it is the latter and the last time it happens, but better for people to be aware and this be the only bad soap than to not say anything and have someone who is very sensitive to lye to get a bad lye burn.

 

I tested mine also (bought in Nov, Sandlewood) no tingle, just soap taste:sick007

 

Sparkey do you have the soap yet? If so can I pay for the return shipping to me so that I can test it as well? I'll find the message in my sent box and send you a copy of it here.

Also get the order number from the guy that purchased it.

That would help me a great deal. I'm leaving for the day to go to a family meeting and won't be home till late tonight, but this does bother me a GREAT DEAL !!!! So I'll check my messages either late tonight (if i'm emotionally fit) or if I will tackle it first thing in the morning.

Thanks, please don't for one second think that this isn't bothering me because I take safety very seriously and the safety of all my products.

krissy

 

Krissy, I hope you're able to get everything sorted out with the children. Kind of tough to think about anything else when they're not doing well.

And thank you for responding to this. While we don't want to accuse you unfairly, nor do we want hurt your business, we do take the safety of our members seriously, as do you, I'm sure.