Forgot the danged sodium lactate!

[Deborah Long]

Okay, so hopefully everyone recognizes that I'm new. Today I made my 5th (?) batch of soap, maybe 4th...lol

I brought to a light trace, did an in the pot swirl, put it in my mold on top of my microwaved heating pad and tucked it under a couple of towels. 7 hours later it looks very liquidy! I was surprised that it didn't seem to thicken as I added my FO and colors, since I'm not all that fast...

Now I realize that I forgot to add sodium lactate! (first time without it) So, how long will it take to finish saponifying and then get solid enough for me to unmold? I'm used to about 24 hours, but I'm thinking it will take longer without the sodium lactate.

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions to get me this far! You folks are just wonderful!
*hugs*

 

[DeeAnna]

The time to unmolding depends on your water content, the fatty acids in the recipe, your soap temperature, whether the soap gels or not, etc. Your soap is clearly gelling, so that's a good sign for faster unmolding, but I don't know anything else about the batch, so it's hard to say. But it might be ready about the same time as your batches with sodium lactate in them.

I seldom use sodium lactate in my soap -- just often enough to know how SL behaves and almost always in hot process batches. My CP batches without SL are usually ready to be unmolded and cut sometime the day after I make them. It seems like it's a bit of a recent fad to use SL in just about everything.

 

[Deborah Long]

Coconut oil - 33%
Canola oil - 16%
Castor oil - 3%
Olive oil 14.9%
Palm oil - 33%
and a little bit of vitamin E
11 oz distilled water
4.6 oz lye

I used Cedarwood essential oil with a little bit of Frankincense EO. Tried again for a yellow with tumeric, used spirulina and then some black powder pigment from BB for use in CP.

It's definitely gelled! lol

 

[DeeAnna]

I'd soap that recipe using a 33% lye solution. (This is not "water as % of oils. Set lye concentration to 33 or set water:lye ratio to 2, whichever you prefer) Less water will give you a harder bar without the need for SL, although you can include it if you want.

Less water will also reduce the chance the soap will gel. The soap will get at least as hot compared to the same recipe with more water, however, so you get many of the benefits of gelling (brighter colors, harder sooner, translucent appearance) without the disadvantages ("rivers", cracking, overheating, emulsion failure).

 

[Deborah Long]

When I ran it thought the calculator the original water value was a little over twelve, and I reduced it to 11oz (if that helps, or means much). I may not have realized that less water reducing the chances of gelling, however! lol

 

[DeeAnna]

The lye concentration with 12 oz of water would be in the 27% range, give or take. That's awfully "wet" for a CP soap recipe, and your instinct was right to reduce it to 11 oz.

One of my soapbox topics is the widespread use of "water as % of oils." The math involved to calculate "water as % of oils" results in recipes that often have too much water to perform well. Using water:lye ratio or lye concentration entirely eliminates this trouble, so you don't have to entirely rely on your gut feel to get things right. Here's more: https://classicbells.com/soap/waterInSoap.html

 

[Deborah Long]

@DeeAnna - You are always a font of information! Thank you! It seemed like way to much water to me, even with my very limited experience. Thanks!

 

[Deborah Long]

@DeeAnna - So, I re-read your posts, and I'm assuming that 'water:lye ratio to 2' means 2:1?View media item 1292 It didn't turn out too bad at all, but no yellow. Maybe yellow is just not my color! lol

 

[DeeAnna]

@Deborah Long -- Yes, the "2" means a "2:1" water:lye ratio written out in full. The ":1" never changes so people sometimes just give the first number. My apologies for being unclear.