Orchidgirl
Well-Known Member
Hi there,
I could use a little help as I begin to experiment with water discounts. Please be patient with me, as anything involving math makes me break out in hives.
Being new to using Titanium dioxide, I read as much as I could on here and elsewhere about properly dispersing this colorant, and in the process learned that "glycerin rivers" would often occur in the finished soap if 1) the soap gelled and 2) no water discount was used. I had always used soapcalc's default setting for my water amount, which I believe is 38% water as a percentage of the oil weight. However, last night I used what I thought was a water discount, using a recipe in which my water was 33% of the oil weight. I was somewhat surprised that I got glycerin rivers in the soap.
But I was reading this article on Auntie Clara's marvelous site earlier today ( https://auntieclaras.com/2014/05/glycerine-rivers-secret-revealed/) and she mentioned that she often uses a lye to water ratio of 1/1.4. Using my very shaky math, I figured that this equates to a nearly 71% lye concentration, whereas my supposed water discount of last night was a measly 42%. (Does that make sense? I have only just now discovered that I can create recipes using ratios of lye weight to water weight, so thinking of lye concentration in these terms is new to me).
Anyway, I am going to try to remake the soap tonight in an effort to not get glycerin rivers, but running my recipe thru soapee's lye calculator using the 1/1.4 lye/water ratio gives me a mere 3.15 ounces of water to use with the 2.25 ounces of lye called for. (I had used 5.28 ounces of water last night). Am I going to have trouble dissolving the lye in this skimpy amount of water? Should I filter/strain the lye water just in case? And is it likely that trace will be so sped up that I'll even have trouble incorporating the TiO2?
I don't know why I am so leery of a stronger lye solution, but I am. Thanks for any tips or ideas for further suggested reading for me.
I could use a little help as I begin to experiment with water discounts. Please be patient with me, as anything involving math makes me break out in hives.
Being new to using Titanium dioxide, I read as much as I could on here and elsewhere about properly dispersing this colorant, and in the process learned that "glycerin rivers" would often occur in the finished soap if 1) the soap gelled and 2) no water discount was used. I had always used soapcalc's default setting for my water amount, which I believe is 38% water as a percentage of the oil weight. However, last night I used what I thought was a water discount, using a recipe in which my water was 33% of the oil weight. I was somewhat surprised that I got glycerin rivers in the soap.
But I was reading this article on Auntie Clara's marvelous site earlier today ( https://auntieclaras.com/2014/05/glycerine-rivers-secret-revealed/) and she mentioned that she often uses a lye to water ratio of 1/1.4. Using my very shaky math, I figured that this equates to a nearly 71% lye concentration, whereas my supposed water discount of last night was a measly 42%. (Does that make sense? I have only just now discovered that I can create recipes using ratios of lye weight to water weight, so thinking of lye concentration in these terms is new to me).
Anyway, I am going to try to remake the soap tonight in an effort to not get glycerin rivers, but running my recipe thru soapee's lye calculator using the 1/1.4 lye/water ratio gives me a mere 3.15 ounces of water to use with the 2.25 ounces of lye called for. (I had used 5.28 ounces of water last night). Am I going to have trouble dissolving the lye in this skimpy amount of water? Should I filter/strain the lye water just in case? And is it likely that trace will be so sped up that I'll even have trouble incorporating the TiO2?
I don't know why I am so leery of a stronger lye solution, but I am. Thanks for any tips or ideas for further suggested reading for me.