Sodium Lactate Not Helping

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homesteaders

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Is there a difference in Sodium Lactate brands? Do some work better than others? I purchased SL from Amazon -- Dr. Adorable, Inc. brand. It seems worthless for my purpose (more fluid HP soap, and more manageable liquid soap paste). I was about to give up on using SL, but thought I'd ask if any of you have noticed a difference with your soaps when you use a different brand of products, be it SL, oils, lye, etc.

I have recently started using Sodium Lactate in my HP soaps, but have not noticed any difference, no matter when I add it. I've added it to lye water, at trace, and at the end of the HP cook, and for the dilution water in the LS process. My soap is no more fluid with the SL than without. I also recently made a batch of liquid soap using the recipe and method IrishLass posted (Thank You, IL!!! :) ) It worked great, but the paste was very stiff and hard, yet still somewhat pliable. Reminded me of the taffy pulls we had as kids. During the dilution, the pieces slowly dissolved, but even when they were tiny, they were still too hard to stick blend. They never softened to a jelly/jam consistency. When I tried using the stick blender, they just swirled around the pot.

Any thoughts? Thanks! :)
 
Is this a powder that you're working with? If so, are you adding that powder straight to all of the above? I've heard people mentioning that they find it easier to work with sodium lactate when it is made into a 60% solution.
 
Hi Arimara. Thank you for the reply. I am using Liquid Sodium Lactate. It is 60% according to the label. I just wonder if that brand is inferior, or maybe a bad batch. I think I'll order another bottle from a different company and see if there's a difference. I have been using 1 tsp. ppo in HP. When doing LS, I used it as 3% of the paste weight added to the distilled water for the dilution, and then boiled before adding the paste. (I don't think I was clear about that part in my first post)
 
I think I used 1% of my oil weight for the sodium lactate for my last batch. So far, given my recipe, it's holding up nicely and I know it helped. I have one ungelled bar that is hardening up nicely for such far. Maybe weighing out your sodium lactate might help you out.
 
You're talking about bar soap, right? I've always used the 1 tsp. per pound of oils that Brambleberry recommends. I just weighed my Sodium Lactate. For a 3 pound batch, 1% would be 0.48 ounces, but the 3 tsp. that I've been using weighs 0.75 ounces, so I've been using more. I do mostly hot process, and it hasn't made my bars crumbly, but hasn't helped the fluidity, either. I'll try a different brand and see if that helps. I can't remember what I paid for this bottle, but I remember it being significantly less than Brambleberry, or anything else on Amazon.
 
Yep, bar soap. I got my sodium lactate from Nurture Soaps and I have no opinion on it right now. I'm also new to the sodium lactate business but I've been trying to poke around to see how to use it, where to get it. I'm also replying in hopes someone chimes in too. It's the weekend and I'm expecting another snow storm to hit my area.
 
I wish. I need to pull a previous recipe out my hat if I want to enter the monthly contest. I'm also debating on HP or CP, as an experiment.
 
I do not use Sodium Lactate in LS or bar soap, but I have purchased some products from Dr Adorable and they are fine. With LS paste the Oils you use make a big difference it hardness of the paste. For instance a 100% Sweet Almond Oil LS barely forms a paste, if my memory serves me correctly. If no all your paste is dissolving during dilution you may need more water added. Coconut Oil and OO make a pretty hard paste. I have tried SL in the past in both bar and LS Paste and never saw a noticeable difference, so I save it for lotion
 
Thanks, Carolyn! In my LS, I used 65% olive oil, 25% coconut oil and 10% castor oil. Since it was my first try at LS, I only diluted half the paste initially. I forgot to boil the distilled water/SL, and was working with a double boiler rather than a crock pot or the canning jar method. All of the paste dissolved, but I had to add a little extra water (1 : 1 instead of 1 : 0.75), and it took about 16 hours. Now it's a beautiful clear honey color, and slightly thicker than warm honey. Works well in a regular pump bottle and lathers great. For the second half of the batch, I boiled the water/SL before adding the paste (paste weight x .75 for the water weight). The dilution time was cut in half. When I make HP soap in a double boiler, it always takes much longer than using a crock pot. That could have been part of the problem. Not really a big deal since I didn't have to do anything but check on it from time to time. I think I'll buy another small bottle from a different company just to see if it makes a difference. It would be nice to speed things up a bit, and get a more fluid HP soap so I have time to play with it a little. :) Thanks again!
 
I've bought my SL from a few different places such as WSP and Soapies Supplies. Right now I'm using the SL I bought from Soapies Supplies. They've all been in 60% solution form and I use 3% ppo, which roughly turns out to be just under 1 tablespoon ppo, going by my tablespoons and scale (pretty much equivalent to 1.75 or just a titch more when I eyeball it).

I find it makes a huge difference when diluting my LS paste. I've diluted both with and without, and the paste definitely softens up quicker, no doubt about it. I never dilute without it.


IrishLass :)
 
Thank you, IrishLass! I must have a bad batch. New scale. Haven't tested it, but everything else with it seems to work. Glad I finally tried LS. LOVE IT!!! Looks so pretty and it's so easy! :)
 
Update: New SL Works!

Update. I just purchased new Sodium Lactate from Molly's and it worked GREAT!!!! Wow! What a difference!!! I never imagined HP soap could be so smooth and fluid. This SL was much thicker than the other. This was more like glycerine. I was amazed at the difference.
 

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