CP soap with sodium lactate

[sunny shine]

Hi,

I am making CP soaps at home, and trying to improvise as I make each batch. First time I tried with sodium lactate with a recipe I found on the net.

My soap becomes hard within the next day usually, but with this recipe my soap is still soft (i ran this recipe through a lye calculator before trying), I thought sodium lactate would help increase the hardness of soap, but does it delay the soap from becoming harder during curing and later become very hard after curing?

"Plain Jane Olive Oil Soap - makes 2 pounds

8 oz. coconut oil
24 oz. olive oil
4.44 oz. lye
0.64 oz. sodium lactate
12 oz. water or other liquid

Follow recipe for basic cold process or hot process soap, adding sodium lactate to water before adding lye."

Thank You

 

[judymoody]

Given that your formula is mostly olive oil and you are using full water, 2% SL will help a little but not that much. I'd try reducing the water or upping your % of saturated oils to achieve a harder bar.

 

[sunny shine]

Thank you how much water can be discounted, I have never tried with a water discount before!
or can I simply increast the SL % say to 3-5%?

 

[IrishLass]

I agree with judymoody. If it were me, I would decrease the water instead of increasing the SL.

By how much? I would decrease the water down to 9 ounces instead of the 12 oz listed. If you are using SoapCalc to calculate your recipe, the 9 oz of water is based on using a 33% lye concentration, which is an all-around good concentration to use for this type of recipe. You can keep the SL level at 2% or 3%. I personally woudn't go higher than 3%.

IrishLass

 

[sunny shine]

Thank you, I will try that next time around! now I cannot do much but wait until it cures completely. Thanks