Soap is too greasy

by Suzanne Hewitt
(Tracy, CA, US)

Tried a new receipt using my home rendered beef tallow and canola oil. Calculated the weights with a chart. But my scale is not digital. My small batch came out too oily. 3 days in mold and is harder but still to soft to come out of molds. Very oily to the touch. No lather but leaves hands soft. Texture is like softend margarine.

Should I wait and give more time, or rebatch with a little more lye solution?

Answer:

I'm guessing if the soap is still greasy after 3 days that the lye calculation was off.

Since you probably don't know how much extra lye is needed, I wouldn't recommend adding more lye with a rebatch...guessing with lye wouldn't be a good thing.

Give the soap another week to see what happens. If it's still too greasy then you could try this method.

Finely shred some of the soap up and add it to a fresh batch of soap that has a small lye reduction. The excess oils from the first batch will be absorbed or at least better distributed throughout the soap during saponification of the second batch. With this method you don't end up with lye heavy soap.

Before doing anything however, I recommend checking the accuracy of the charts you are using...try an online calculator...they're wonderful. Also check the accuracy of your scales. You don't want to make up the second batch only to have it fail as well.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Sincerely,
Cathy