Search results

No, I was simply clarifying my take on what you wrote about the contents of the book by failor. There was nothing off-topic about it.

I see. Then the info there is more about titrating for pH balance?

I don't think it was as much your fault, Zany, as it was that I didn't pay close attention to the numbers. After I re-read it a while ago, I realized what the 0.06% meant. Thank you for the link, too.

Okay, I understand now. I don't mind an occasional "cranky" didact, if the information is worthy of the embarrassment — which it is. :) Thank you.

No, when I asked how to address the hard water precipitate, I had no information at all that citric acid was even an option, so I wouldn't have done any researd on it. This thread was what I was going with, by the information above that said, "You can use a 20% solution of citric acid if you...

Thanks for the response. I was hoping I could make it work by just mixing the citric acid without the extra water. But I suppose that little bit of extra water would be inconsequential to the total volume.

Perhaps I'm not doing this right, but I mixed a 50:1 soap to citric acid (50g+0.5g) and it created the precipitate shown in the photo.

Hello, I live on a ranch in New Mexico and our water has about 7,000mg of calcium sulfate per liter. This causes real, non-detergent soap, like we make, to percipitate the sulfates out of the water leaving a film on dishes, sinks, etc. Since we don't want to use Dawn or any other commercial...

By the way, how long should the final dilution cure before it can be used?

Thanks. I kind of thought that was the case, but wanted an opinion from someone who actually knows something about this. I took your advice and covered the chunks with water.

Well, Zany, that is somewhat encouraging. I did do my doubling calculations and conversions to gram/ml three times to make sure I got them right. Perhaps in my sophomoric level of experience in this, I was thinking that, after bringing the oils and KOH solution to the same temp before mixing...

oops

Thank you for the responses. I brought the temperature of the KOH and oils to about 150ºF, according to the instruction on the page link I attached, before mixing them. But the temp climbed rapidly when I mixed them with the hand blender. And, no, I didn't do a calc on it since the...

Hello, I cooked up my first batch of liquid soap (as per the recipe on this blog: Basic Beginner Liquid Soap and Information). I doubled the ingredients because I have only a 6-quart crock pot, and followed the instructions carefully. The soap thickened up to the consistency of something like...

The sodium lactate I use comes in liquid form, and I add it to the lye water after it has dropped below 130ºF. Apparently any hotter than that denatures the compound. Does the powder work better?

Oh, and I did dissolve it in the lye water before adding it to the oils. It's good to know about weighing it. I've always weighed oils, but every reference to sodium lactate I've seen (until now) has given measurements by teaspoons. By the way, you mentioned "21.5%SF" - that's also what I've...

That seems to be a confirmation of what I was thinking, since the only part that gets tacky is that which is exposed to air. So it makes sense to cover it. I'm just not sure what to use. I suppose I could cut a piece of acrylic the exact size of the mold opening.

I add sodium lactate because I've read and watched vids that it's a good additive to make the bar harder - especially when I use olive oil.

Greetings, I made a batch consisting of only coconut oil with 3% total of frankincense & lavender EO. When the mix hardened and I removed it from the molds, the top surface that was exposed to the air was quite crumbly. I could rub my finger over it and roll up the crumbs as shown in the...

Thank you all for your replies. I just now found them because, for some reason, I wasn't notified via email when a response was posted. My original question was if increasing the sodium lactate might make the soap harder? I did another batch, increasing the sodium lactate from 2.75tsp. to 3...