Good Percentage for Water?

Is there a water percentage most of you like. I am often unsure what % I should use in a recipe. My logic says if you want your soap to be more "conditioning" you would use less water but I'm not sure I'm thinking correctly.

It depends on my recipe and what I want to do with it. If I want to do a lot of swirling or something fancy I use more water. If I want it to set up faster I use less. The water really has nothing much to do with conditioning as most of it will cure out of the soap. I use anywhere between 32-38%

The water% will change based on experience, fo eo, technique. The initial water has nothing to do with conditioning. I almost always use 33%

My favorite go-to water amount that I use for probably 98% of all my batches is a 33% lye solution. If I'm working with a tricky FO, or if I'm HPing I'll use more water (anywhere from a 28% to a 31% lye solution), and for my really slow moving Castile batches I'll use less water (usually a 40% lye solution).

IrishLass

Same here, but I typically use 35%. And, if I'm working with a tricky FO, I'll go down to 30%.

I just use what SoapCalc has inserted. I think it is 35%.

I just stick with the calc..my soaps always come out great, cut within 8-10 hrs, and are lethal hard in 4 weeks so I'm happy

I used to play around with the % all the time. I finally got to the point of settling in at a 35% mark. There's a couple of recipes I'll change that on, but it's not often. I would suggest you experiment with a few batches and find a number that you're comfortable with. In my experience, having confidence in your recipe/technique goes a long way towards a nice bar of soap.

IrishLass said:

My favorite go-to water amount that I use for probably 98% of all my batches is a 33% lye solution. If I'm working with a tricky FO, or if I'm HPing I'll use more water (anywhere from a 28% to a 31% lye solution), and for my really slow moving Castile batches I'll use less water (usually a 40% lye solution).

IrishLass

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Same here!

Water can be measured as a % of oil weight or as a relationship to lye amount. A 33% lye solution is roughly 1 part lye to 2 parts oil.

I typically use the 38% recommended by Soapcalc. The only benefit to discounting water is that the soap gets harder faster. My soap is almost always ready to unmold in 8 hours or so. I actually recently bumped the water up to 45% for a hot process batch and the soap went into the mold more smoothly and it was easier to smooth the top a bit.

I don't personally think that is the only benefit. I did some water discounting experiments and i found the less water in the batch lead to better scent retention. I had identical batches except for water amounts and there was a difference to my nose and a few others'.

judymoody said:

Water can be measured as a % of oil weight or as a relationship to lye amount. A 33% lye solution is roughly 1 part lye to 2 parts oil.

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Yes- Judy brings up an excellent point. I should clarify that when I say I use a "33% lye solution", that it's not the same as changing SoapCalc's default "water as % of oils" box from 38% to 33%.

Instead of using the "Water as % of Oil" box on SoapCalc, I use the "Lye Concentration" box, which bases my water amount on my lye amount instead of my oil amount, which actually makes much more logical sense to do since it's the lye amount that determines how much water is needed (instead of the oil amount being the determining factor).

Here is an excellent description of why I choose to base my water on the lye amount instead of the oil amount (see page 3 of the following PDF): http://rivercitysoaps.com/dwcp/dwcp.pdf

A case in point as to why the 2 different methods are different and should never be confused with each other:

A 33% lye concentration/solution for a 100% coconut soap equals out to a 35.4% water to oils amount on SoaCalc,

....but for a 100% Castile batch, a 33% lye concentration/solution shows up as a 26.13% water to oils amount on SoapCalc.

Did you see how the water-to-oil % is radically different in the 100% OO soap as compared to the water-to-oils % in the 100% CO soap, even though the water to lye ratio remains the same?

Again, please refer to the link I provided to see Roxanne's most excellent explanation of the radical difference between the 2 and why I believe that the better and more consistent method to figure water amount is to base it on the lye instead of oils.

I believe her explanation will help to explain the reason why certain recipes that work great for one person, work horribly for another....... not because of soap fairies, but because we are all assuming that when a person says that they are using 33% water or whatever other % water, that they are using the same method of determining water as you, when the opposite may actually true. That's why I always include the words 'concentration' or 'solution' whenever I disclose my water amount. It differentiates the one from the other.

IrishLass

2:1 or twice the amount of lye is my usual go to water amount. i'll bump it up a lil bit if i'm using fussy FOs. i don't think water amount has anything to do with conditioning.

with hp, i use full water, or the default setting at soapcalc.

Meganmischke said:

I don't personally think that is the only benefit. I did some water discounting experiments and i found the less water in the batch lead to better scent retention. I had identical batches except for water amounts and there was a difference to my nose and a few others'.

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That's interesting. Sounds like another good experiment to try.