Adding sodium lactate and sodium citrate to my soap

[sapanificator]

Hello,

I want to try a new batch with sodium lactate and sodium citrate for having harder and more foaming soap.
I know for sodium citrate it's 1-3% and sodium lactate 2-5% of the oils weight.
Do you know if it has an incidence with the quantity of sodium hydroxide I have to use ?

 

[AliOop]

Hi @sapanificator

Neither of those ingredients will affect the amount of lye that you need. However, I'd try adding just the sodium citrate first, and see what you think. Otherwise, it's hard to know which ingredient is to blame if you don't like the results.

Also, as @DeeAnna has pointed out in previous posts, adding too much and/or too many different salts to your recipe can cause unintended and less than desirable results. So if you do add both ingredients into one batch, my recommendation would be to start at the lower usage rate of 1% each.

 

[sapanificator]

thank you for your advice, yes I'll try first with low quantities.

 

[dibbles]

@AliOop gave you good advice about adding one ingredient at a time. I use both sodium citrate and sodium lactate in my soaps with no problem. I use sodium citrate at 1.5% of the total oil weight, and sodium lactate at 1 tsp per pound of oils (which, when I've weighed it, turns out to be close to 1.5% of the oil weight as well).