coconut milk and water substitute

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jayhkr

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Hello everyone, been lurking on the forum for a bit and have a question about milk substitution. According to soapcalc, my recipe calls for 11.9 oz of h2o, 4.52oz lye, 9.45oz coconut oil, 20.3oz pig lard, and 5.25oz coconut milk. Should I continue to input the coconut milk into the equation if I'm going to substitute half of the water with the milk? So in reality I would have 4.72oz h2o and 9.97oz coconut milk? I want a rich, lathering bar that isn't overly drying.
Thanks for any input and suggestions.

Edward
 
Math aside, I would keep at least 6 ounces of my lye as water. You want your lye to fully dissolve. 1:1 ratio at room temperature is the minimum amount of water. I like to use a little extra above the minimum to be safe. So subtract 6 from 11.9 (=5.9 and that should be your balance of coconut milk). Dissolve your lye in your water and then add the balance of your coconut milk after your lye solution has cooled down.
 
You could also freeze the coconut milk, and use it to replace all of the water. Just be sure to add the lye very slowly to keep the temperature as low as possible, Edward.

The only "problem" with doing it this way is that you'll most likely get some discoloration of the coconut milk due to the heat given off as the lye dissolves - even if you do have the patience to add it really slowly ...... So you'll probably end up with a cream or light yellow soap, rather than the white you may have been hoping for. (Its still lovely and creamy to use, though.)


Sent from my iPad using Soap Making
 
So if I freeze the milk, am I to assume when I add the lye to the container with the ice cube milk, it will start to melt the cubes that way? How low of a temp will I want it to stay?
I appreciate the feedback. Thank you.
 
Keep it under 100 deg F - preferably less. Add your cubes one or two at a time stirring constantly until the cubes are melted then add some more. If you are having trouble keeping your milk/lye mixture cool while you are doing this then put your milk/lye container in an ice bath. I've never had this happen but if your milk/lye mixture starts getting so cool that the lye stops melting the cubes stop adding cubes and remove from the ice bath for several minutes.
 
Thank You ALL for adding your understandings to this question! Answers mine!
 
What have you all found about using nut milks, other than coconut, also??
 
When I make my soap with coconut milk I replace the water with it but... Say for ex. that my batch calls for 9 oz of milk i use two ounce as water to mix lye and once it is mostly done will add a bit of milk to heat it up enough to make sure lye is dissolved. The rest of the milk goes in at the end at light trace or just before light trace. This keeps my soap real white unless FO has vanilla in it.
 

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