Freezing water to mix

[lillybella]

Hi
Some people freeze the liquid they are going to add lye to. Is it measured out first & then frozen or chopped up?

Is any liquid added to the frozen part or is the lye just sprinkled on top of a frozen block?

 

[Cactuslily]

My understanding has been to freeze things with high sugar contents for example milks. I only did this once. I measured my milk. Got it slushy frozen, then added the lye a little bit at a time. I kept putting it back in the freezer before adding more lye. This avoids burning the sugars and discoloring your soap. If I am understanding your question, the frozen milk ( or whatever contains sugar) is used in place of water. So, you are adding the lye crystals a bit at a time to frozen milk.

 

[Cindy2428]

I make my own coconut water and coconut milk. I generally pour into brownie bite molds and freeze. I then take my individual cubes and use for my liquid. I keep some store bought stuff on hand to use to make up the difference sometimes. Once I have my main recipe perfected, I will probably weigh and bag for a specific batch, but so far this works well for me.

 

[lillybella]

My understanding has been to freeze things with high sugar contents for example milks. I only did this once. I measured my milk. Got it slushy frozen, then added the lye a little bit at a time. I kept putting it back in the freezer before adding more lye. This avoids burning the sugars and discoloring your soap. If I am understanding your question, the frozen milk ( or whatever contains sugar) is used in place of water. So, you are adding the lye crystals a bit at a time to frozen milk.

I just mean any water for any soap to help the lye from getting too hot. I don't mean for just sugars.

Do you weigh the water first & then freeze it into a slushie?

 

[Susie]

You don't need to freeze water to mix with lye. Nothing bad is going to happen to the lye when mixed with room temperature water.

If you are trying to get cooler lye/water to soap with, just mix ahead of time, and allow to cool. Or use refrigerated water. Or add ice cubes to water to make the correct weight...many options to avoid freezing water specifically for mixing with lye. But, if you MUST freeze it, pre-weigh the water and then freeze. You may need to add a bit of water to replace evaporated water, but it should just be a tiny bit.

 

[Sonya-m]

I just mean any water for any soap to help the lye from getting too hot. I don't mean for just sugars.



Do you weigh the water first & then freeze it into a slushie?

If it's just water there's no need to freeze. Yeah it will heat up when you add the lye but as there are no sugars to burn I can't see there being a benefit to freezing it. I just use cold tap water then leave it cool down to my soaping temp so unless freezing it will reduce waiting times I wouldn't bother.

 

[lionprincess00]

It is really unnecessary to freeze your water just to prevent the lye water from getting hot. Lye water will get hot, and it's not a big deal (I mean, I've never seen it boil or do anything crazy before). I have used a 1:1 ratio of lye to water and added sugar 1 TBS ppo, watched my water get nice and amber colored (and hot as a pistol!), and it was fine.

In fact, you wanting to freeze water just to make sure lye remains cool could cause more problems than not. There is always a chance of having lye crystals undissolved when using a slushy. A lot of people strain there slushy lye mix to prevent crystal from ending up in there finished product. Having to do this constantly could prove more hazardous than just mixing lye with regular temperature water. For a full milk soap, I understand, but for regular water soap to do this everytime is truly not necessary.

Now if you're adamant about cool lye water and don't want to mix it hot every time, you can master batch your lye one time and it will be room temperature after the initial mix. I really don't know if I'd recommend this to a brand new soaper until they fully understand the entire process and ratios of lye to water, adding things back, measuring etc etc. I threw that out there because I am not positive how new you are or how much you already know. I also wanted to throw that out there for any new soapers that might be reading this.

 

[lillybella]

Thank you All :razz:

So if I mix my lye up in the morning & set it aside even with sugars it should be fine?

 

[lionprincess00]

So long as you don't have curious cats or kids, it will be fine I would recommend weighing the bowl, adding the water and lye amount, then compare after you let it sit because water will evaporate out and could make trace speed up some. So if you do 11 oz water, 5 oz lye into an 8 oz bowl, keep the 24oz total written down and replace evaporated water before pouring into the oils. Again, the water loss does not change the lye from mixing and saponifying the oils in anyway, it just makes it a more concentrated water lye solution and could mess with your trace a little bit if you're trying to do swirling techniques.

 

[Cactuslily]

Are you all referring to adding simple sugar ppo to boost lather? As I understand it, that doesn't need freezing, but if your adding milk sugars, then you must freeze? Do I have that right?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Thank you All :razz:

So if I mix my lye up in the morning & set it aside even with sugars it should be fine?

No - if you're using a beer or milk it is still a good idea to freeze it as the heat generated at the start can cause issues (like burnt milk). That is what the freezing is for. But water is often hot with no lasting issues, so it is fine for it to heat up and cool down again.

 

[lionprincess00]

Are you all referring to adding simple sugar ppo to boost lather? As I understand it, that doesn't need freezing, but if your adding milk sugars, then you must freeze? Do I have that right?

Yes. You understand correctly, and teg I assumed she too meant sugar as in table sugar, but I agree with what you said on milk and beer.

Table sugar to boost lather is fine mixing to dissolved state in your water, then adding lye, and letting it cool however long you choose.

Adding milk or beer- it can be frozen and lye added slowly a bit at a time to dissolve, or can be added as refrigerated cold milk or beer to emulsion or trace.

Adding lye (for dissolving ) directly to milk and beer that isn't frozen can cause volcanoes. So that's to be avoided, and thus you wouldn't be doing this and allowing it to cool all day....

 

[hmlove1218]

I just mean any water for any soap to help the lye from getting too hot. I don't mean for just sugars.

Do you weigh the water first & then freeze it into a slushie?

I use ice and water for my lye water. It helps it keep cooler thank just cold water. I use about 3/4 of my liquid as ice then add the last little bit as water. This way the lye has something to react with while the ice melts.

I don't weight my water before freezing, I just weight the ice cubes.

 

[lillybella]

Thank you All.

I want to add honey to my recipe like in the Dollar Store Soap Recipe.
She makes a slushie.

 

[Susie]

She makes a slushy to not burn the honey. That is why she wanted it cold. If I were you, I would mix my plain water(minus 1 oz water) with lye, mix that one oz boiling water with the honey, then when the lye/water cooled, I would add the honey water to avoid overheating it.

 

[lillybella]

Thanks so much, Susie

 

[MagicalMysterySoap]

I freeze my water into ice cubes. I honestly prefer this because I don't get any fumes compared to when I use room temperature or even cold water

 

[lillybella]

WOW! This would help a lot!