My recipe calls for the use of coconut milk (no water) I pull small strands out like cob webs and stir well while incorporating all of the lye. I am pretty sure I am not adding too much silk - while stirring it appears to be dissolved but when I go to add the lye mixture to my oils I seem to still have a clump of silk. Does silk also thicken lye solutions? I am trying to keep the temp down on the lye solution and oils. If I strain the lye solution to catch any undissolved silk am I still getting the silky benefits of the silk? Any help would be appreciated.
Help with Tussash Silk in Coconut Milk
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I would use the split method of mixing your lye, by making a 50/50 lye solution and adding in your silk to the hot lye. It will Not dissolve in cool lye and you need your lye solution completely mixed before adding in the silk. Add the balance of your liquid (Coconut Milk) to your oils.
I agree with Carolyn. Silk won't dissolve in cool solution. I use as much water as lye to dissolve the lye and silk. Then add the milk to my oils. I also add powdered milk to my liquid milk and dissolve it to make 100% in my batch.
I always put my silk in the water or milk before adding the lye because it definitely needs the heat of the lye to break it down. By the time it has come down to room temperature, the silk is fully dissolved (maybe a couple stragglers left behind). I also cut my silk into very fine small pieces so that there won't be long strings of it incorporated in the final mixture that missed getting strained out or broken down.
How much silk are you adding? For my batches, I pinch off a hunk of silk that is about 1/8th the size of a regular cottonball (per every pound of soap I'll be making). I stretch out/pull on the hunk until it looks like I'm holding a wispy cobweb, then I add that to my water, gently pressing it/poking it down into the water in such a way as to saturate it without it losing too much of its cobwebby shape if I can help it. Then I let it sit there and soak for about a good 10 minutes before I dissolve my lye into it. This has worked really well for me in helping it to dissolve with the least amount of left-over dross.
IrishLass
IrishLass
