Liquid lye

[Domoils soap]

Good morning everyone, I am very new to soap making but would love to do it. I have tried the CP and it worked out good. I would love to do the HP, but I only have liquid lye that I received from a major soap making company. So i got a little confused as to how should I measure the liquid lye. the ingredients I would love to put in it are: coconut oil, castor oil, shea butter, lard with the base essential oil (bay oil - pimento racemos). This essential oil is very pungent and has properties close to clove, can only add a few drops to the soap, but I only tried it with CP. not yet sure how may drops will i use for a basic HP. Has anyone tried using bay oil as an essential oil in their soap making?
Thank you.

 

[IrishLass]

Hello Domoils. Does your bottle of liquid lye mention what the concentration % is of the lye?

IrishLass

 

[ResolvableOwl]

One great thing about HP is that you don't have to add the essential oils at the beginning! Just make the plain soap, and add the fragrance just before pouring into the mould. HP is much more gentle to lye-sensitive additives (like EOs with high ester content), and the method itself (unlike CP) is not complicated by ill-behaving fragrances (like clove or bay EO with their eugenol).

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I only have liquid lye that I received from a major soap making company

MMS (Majestic Mountain Sage) has a calculator with a liquid lye option. Also a fragrance calculator for EOs and FOs that I use and have found to be helpful even though I'm using a fragrance from another company.

bay oil - pimento racemos

Clove EO is in the MMS drop down menu. I would use that for Bay EO - I used it once and had a major do-over because I neglected to do the research and used too much! OUCH!

Here's a thread that talks about it:
FUN WITH BAY EO - PIMENTA RACEMOSA

For using essential oils in soap, there's a lot to learn. You may find this thread helpful
ESSENTIAL OILS EDUCATION