Prairie Creations Lye Burn

Any further resolution to this issue?

 

yes and no......

There was only that one jar that someone made that claim with. I never did find out the order number for that one jar which would help me track it. The jar in question was never returned to me so I couldn't test it myself. Each batch that I make will fill about 22 jars of shave soap, so if that whole batch was lye heavy I would have thought there would have more than just one.

Each batch that I make, I weigh the lye, then reweigh it later to double check that all weights are correct. Also for each batch I have a form of sorts that is filled out, i never make soap or anything without printing a recipe sheet out first. Then as i weigh out ingredients that is when I write down on the sheet, keeping track of everything carefully. Everything is weighed in grams since it's more accurate. (There are 28 grams to the ounce.)

this is what it looks like and as you can see in red how i keep track of what is added and what isn't. The 140 at the top represents the weight of the container that I am using to weigh all my oils in. The liquids have their own container, lye is weighed in another and fragrance in another before it's all mixed together.


Then before I mix my lye into the oils I do use a small kitchen strainer. One that looks like this that has a fine mesh. I use this to strain the lye solution.




What I have started doing is this so this never happens again. Each jar or puck that I send out will have another label stuck onto it. This will look like this.

The born on date represents the date that I pull it out and work with it. Also I will be using pH papers to test the actual pH of the soap before it's used. So now each puck/jar can be tracked to it's batch and everything related to it. The pH of the soap is also recorded on my batch sheet.

One thing I would like to mention with the "cure time" that is talked about is not the time that is needed for the lye to be converted into soap but rather for the excess liquid to evaporate out of the soap. The lye is actually converted within 24 hours. But actually it's usually much sooner than that. The pH will be a little higher with newer soap but it will come down shortly.

I did do an experiment using hot processing a batch of bath soap to test the pH of the soap in conjunction with the "tongue test" My pH paper goes up to 13 and at 13 I did not get a zap but the pH was 13 or higher. But as it continued to go though the cooking process the pH did come down to where it should be. I wanted to do this so I could test the soap pH with the tongue zap test and see how they compare.

I'm very concerned about this and have taken the above steps by labeling each container as well as testing not just with the tongue test but also testing the pH of the soap with test strips before it's used.

If anyone has more questions, please feel free to ask.

krissy

 

the born on label is a great idea . take a pic of you doing the tongue test and put that on the jar somewhere. :happy102

 

I'm pretty sure that qualifies as "illegal in 37 states".....

...but I'm all for it! :happy097

In all seriousness, it does appear you're taking all the right steps in the right direction. I'm certainly glad you've persevered through all this.
​

 

With an eye rolling saying, "MMMMM, Saucy" :happy097

On a serious note, the born on date gets a :happy088. They do it all the time in the food industry. A bad batch of products could happen to anyone and in any industry, and as far as we know it seems to be quite a localized incident. Good luck going forward.

 

Many of us soapers feel the tongue test is more accurate than a pH test because you can feel the zap which feels like you put your tongue on a 9volt battery. I've done this to test many times especially in my early period of making bath soap when I hot processed everything.

But many of us soapers also joke a lot with each other about being a "soap licker", :ashamed001 Even though it sounds funny, it really is a good way to test soap to see if there is any active lye in it.

But in all seriousness, I figured that was the best plan of action so if anyone had any reason to question a particular jar I could easily look up all the information needed about that batch. If I am 1 or 2 gram over or under for the weight of the oils (which isn't much) I even make a note of that. Although my lye weight is always 100% accurate by weight. I will keep re-weighing and adjusting until it is absolutely the right weight. I never use volume measurements because they aren't accurate enough and would be unsafe.

Perhaps I'll even take it a step further and start a separate page using openoffice.org of my own, with the order number and the batch number that was sent out with that order.

 

thanks

thanks for the heads up on this product. I have been weary about purchasing home made sops, you truly don;t know what kind of quality control they have.

 

your right JoAnna, I'm sorry for the confusion that this has caused.

I just wish I had the opportunity to test that one particular jar myself as I'm sure you (or any other soaper/crafter) would want to if someone was questioning something you had made.

 

I think JoAnna was looking for
"Sorry I sent out even one product that was questionable at best"
or
"Sorry I didn't have sufficient quality control on my early product batches and may have sent out a harmful soap"

I know you haven't seen it yourself. I know you're not ready to admit outright you've sent out an soap with excess lye. But as you've obviously seen this as reason to change your production method, you should admit the possibility.

 

Personally I would have liked an apology for my burned face, but I think we are past that now. Sparky currently has the soap. It is going to go through further testing, then you can do your testing. The order number was 108.

Glad you are doing some further testing, and that you found out that the level has to be over 13 to feel a tongue zap.

 

One small thing I noticed is a simple arithmetic problem. 140+532=672, not 662. The best work sheet is not immune to errors.

 

If done on a computer spreadsheet, this won't ever happen.

 

What do you superfat at?

 

After much discussion by the TSD Moderator team, we have decided to the remove Krissy from our membership ranks, as we felt that TSD and Krissy's relationship had deteriorated to a point of lack of trust on both sides. As such, and since Krissy is no longer a member here, we feel it would be unfair to discuss her without her being able to respond and have closed this thread.