kath4553
Member
Hi guys! So I used butters tonight for the first time and didn't realize I was supposed to add the butters after the oils and lye solution was already blended. It seems ok, but... Has anyone else had this experience?
Added butters to oils BEFORE adding lye solution
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artemis
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I have never added any butters after the lye solution. I have always combined my melted "hard" oils and butter with my liquid ones before adding lye.
kath4553
Member
so it should be ok, then?
Are you talking cold process? If so, yes, you'd want to melt down all oils and butters first then add your lye solution. Or are you talking about adding a butter to hot process as the superfat?
artemis
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It will still be soap, yes. The lye doesn't care in what order you combine your oils/butters and lye. Unless you're doing HP. Then, the lye is done reacting at the end of the cook and any oils/butters added at that point will survive.
kath4553
Member
Cold Process
Rusti
Well-Known Member
You're fine. I always melt my hard oils and butters, if I'm using them, together and then add my liquid oils before adding my lye solution. You don't get to pick your superfat oil/butter when you're doing cold process, might as well combine them all at once.
kath4553
Member
Thanks guys, the recipe said to do add the butters after mixing lye and oils. I only add fragrance and colors after. I didn't really check the recipe until I already poured into mold.
artemis
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There's a misconception that adding the butters after the lye (at trace) means that they won't react with the lye, but will remain as the "superfat" in your soap. So, it shows up a lot in the random recipes found online. However, as has been mentioned above, the lye isn't done reacting yet and will still affect those butters.
You will have less problems with cp if you melt all oils and butters together. By adding the butters after you risk them not totally dissolving. I hope whatever recipe you used you learned to use a lye calculator such as soapcalc to verify the numbers. Many bad recipes are floating around and even books can have errors. Checking all recipes is imperative. The only lye heavy batch I ever made was from a recipe from a well known site and a gal than teaches soaping. I did not check it, and I certainly knew better
SunRiseArts
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Dahila
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I had never read or hear about adding butters after lye. The sources you access are not very good ones. Please, read the stickies and CP beginners subforum, it will answer a lot of question.
Lion Of Judah
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there is a possibility that you mixed up a HP technique with CP soap making such as saving a oil or butter to add to your batch as in "superfatting " [ more specific : superfatting at trace ]
