Soaking in water would take a long time but this also depends on what form of soapnuts you ordered. Many places sell crushed soapnuts but IMPO I feel I get more bang for my buck with whole soapnuts. I bought mine when they had a monthly special from Mountain Rose Herbs for $4.50/lb. I get the most out of them when I make soapnut liquid by cooking them in a crockpot. 15 soapnuts to about 6-9 cups of water. After the water is quite dark and has cooked down some (you can add more if you wish as it cooks), usually after cooking for 12+ hours, I let it cool. Then I remove the skins from the pits of the soapnuts, and squeeze all those rich saponins out into the liquid, then strain. It doesn't keep very well so I freeze excess liquid personally but you can use citric acid as a preservative, I've heard. I imagine you could use distilled water to cook a rich soapnut liquid like I described, then add your lye and see what kind of soap you get. :razz: I should warn you about the smell soapnuts have though, if you don't already know. To me it smells like wet dog. To others, vinegar. But it doesn't linger on my clothes or dishes. If used in a bar soap though I'd definitely want EOs in there to offset the odor.
, of curiosity and excitement. Hopefully this week. I don't know how bad they smell.... worse then neem oil? I made some soap with goat milk, wine and beer. the reaction with lye gave off a terrible smell at the beginning. especially with milk. but the smell went off after a while. I froze those liquids... I suppose it's the same for soapnuts boil.
