Soda Ash Sux!

Dont you hate it when you create such a beautiful soap, and the pour is so good, and the trace was *chef kiss* muah! But then the next few days a grayish film starts to develop on top of your pretty textured top and you're like… well damn.

HOW DO WE GET RID OF IT?!

I’ll tell you things I’ve tried that didnt work, things I havent tried, and the ONE thing I have tried that WORKED!

What I tried and didn’t work: spraying the top with alcohol. I did this for years. YEARS. And it did nothing for me. Maybe it works for some people, but over here? Nope.

I also tried covering the top with cardboard and a towel. Still got soda ash. It might help with insulation, but it didn’t eliminate the issue for me.

Something I have not tried: is steaming the tops with a garment steamer. The reason? It just seems so time consuming. I’ve seen videos where people steam them so slow and carefully. I’ve got four kiddos and need to use my time wisely. If I’m making multiple loaves, I’m not trying to host a spa day for each bar.

Some thing I did and got he best results: One thing I did try is a water discount. Using less water in your recipe can help reduce soda ash because there’s less free water sitting around to react and form that gray film on the surface. And yes, it helped. But it’s not always foolproof.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

I use ONE base formula for four different soaps. Same oils. Same lye concentration. Same temperatures. Same exact process. Literally everything is identical except the fragrances.

And guess what? Two of them always come out with soda ash. The other two are perfectly clean on top. No ash at all.

Same formula. Same method. Different fragrance.

That told me real quick that some essential oils and fragrance oils absolutely play a part in this. Certain scents accelerate, some heat up differently, some behave wild during saponification. I fully believe some of them increase the chances of soda ash forming. Colorants can also have an effect. Clays, oxides, even certain micas can influence how the surface cures and reacts with air. Even when everything else is the same.

Soapmaking is chemistry, but it’s also unpredictable.

You can control your recipe. You can control your temps. You can measure everything perfectly. And it can still decide to act up.

That doesn’t mean you’re a bad soap maker. It doesn’t mean your formula is wrong. It just means you’re working with a living chemical process that sometimes has a mind of its own.

Soda ash is annoying, yes. But it’s harmless. And sometimes it’s just part of the rustic craft.

We’re out here turning oils into magic. A little gray film is not about to stop the show.