Lye question for Cold Pressed Soap

[Bekabat]

I'm new here so apologies for a lot of the possibly very basic questions....

I've started making Goat's Milk Soap and I am going with a recipe that uses the lye directly onto the frozen cubes of goat's milk which is working beautifully. Other recipes I read, call for the lye to be made into a solution with water first. What is the difference between these two options please? I was keen to try a different recipe I found but I'm not sure what the effect would be using lye water. Will it change curing or unmolding times or is it just personal preference?

Thanks in advance

 

[Martha]

I think it is how different people try to avoid the lye scorching the milk. Either dilute it first and then add the milk, or add the lye to frozen milk and it won’t get so hot it will scorch it.

 

[TheGecko]

Welcome. And we like to answer questions so ask all you want.

The biggest difference, IMHO, is the amount of time it takes.

I use frozen goat milk and an ice bath (water, ice and salt). I add the lye in small amounts and stir well...it can easily take 20 minutes or more, but I end up with a creamy soap. It should be noted that I don’t gel my GMS; during the spring/summer it goes in the frig and during the fall/winter it goes in the cold garage.

 

[Bekabat]

Welcome. And we like to answer questions so ask all you want.

The biggest difference, IMHO, is the amount of time it takes.

I use frozen goat milk and an ice bath (water, ice and salt). I add the lye in small amounts and stir well...it can easily take 20 minutes or more, but I end up with a creamy soap. It should be noted that I don’t gel my GMS; during the spring/summer it goes in the frig and during the fall/winter it goes in the cold garage.

Thank you! That's exactly what I'm doing too...ice bath, into a fridge so it doesn't gel...I'm still experimenting with different oils. I am so crap at maths that I'm finding the percentages for substituting oils etc a little confusing at the moment. I should probably also learn to use the lye calculator! LOL!

 

[TheGecko]

Thank you! That's exactly what I'm doing too...ice bath, into a fridge so it doesn't gel...I'm still experimenting with different oils. I am so crap at maths that I'm finding the percentages for substituting oils etc a little confusing at the moment. I should probably also learn to use the lye calculator! LOL!

My recipe is Olive, Coconut, Palm and Castor Oils and Shea Butter. I also use appropriate amounts of Sodium Lactate and Kaolin Clay. Until the weather cooled, I was using a 30% Lye Concentration then went up to 35%.

Recipes written in percentages are easier to use because all you have to do is enter the percentages into SoapCalc, make sure it’s 100% and then you can resize it easily. Brambleberry has a Beginner’s Guide to Common Soapmaking Oils that I found very helpful.

 

[Jennifer Horne]

I make ALOT ALOT ALOT of milk soap, i personally dont notice a difference when i use water and lye and the milk(s) but i prefer to make the milk "slushie " and slowly slowly add the lye keep the temp low to avoid scorching the milk. Sometimes i stick the milk lye slush in the freezer between the times i add the lye, so it goes like this milk slush, add lye and stir, freezer for about 10 minutes, add more lye, freeze for 10 minutes repeat.

 

[Relle]

I am so crap at maths that I'm finding the percentages for substituting oils etc a little confusing at the moment. I should probably also learn to use the lye calculator! LOL!

You should be using a lye calculator from the very start. Don't hesitate, make life easy, not hard.

 

[Bekabat]

I make ALOT ALOT ALOT of milk soap, i personally dont notice a difference when i use water and lye and the milk(s) but i prefer to make the milk "slushie " and slowly slowly add the lye keep the temp low to avoid scorching the milk. Sometimes i stick the milk lye slush in the freezer between the times i add the lye, so it goes like this milk slush, add lye and stir, freezer for about 10 minutes, add more lye, freeze for 10 minutes repeat.

Thank you...yes, I've put my milk ice cubes in the bowl which then sits in a larger bowl of ice... adding lye very slowly so that the cubes break down and get slushy over about 10-20 minutes. So far, I've not had any colour changes in the milk and the temp has always stayed around 10-15 degrees C

My recipe is Olive, Coconut, Palm and Castor Oils and Shea Butter. I also use appropriate amounts of Sodium Lactate and Kaolin Clay. Until the weather cooled, I was using a 30% Lye Concentration then went up to 35%.

Recipes written in percentages are easier to use because all you have to do is enter the percentages into SoapCalc, make sure it’s 100% and then you can resize it easily. Brambleberry has a Beginner’s Guide to Common Soapmaking Oils that I found very helpful.

Yes, I've been watching the Brambleberry videos and reading as much as I can from her site. It's all very helpful. I'm currently working with Olive Pomace, Coconut, Grapeseed and Sustainable Palm Oil...I also add a smidge of Sodium lactate. I'd like to work out how to add Sweet Almond and maybe Shea Butter

 

[TheGecko]

Yes, I've been watching the Brambleberry videos and reading as much as I can from her site. It's all very helpful. I'm currently working with Olive Pomace, Coconut, Grapeseed and Sustainable Palm Oil...I also add a smidge of Sodium lactate. I'd like to work out how to add Sweet Almond and maybe Shea Butter

I started with OO Pomace because it was cheaper than the regular OO, but the downside is that it traces quicker. Which is okay unless you need longer time to do fancy layers and swirls and then you either want to divide out your oils/lye and wait to mix each layer or do simple designs. If you have a Costco nearly, check out their prices on OO, Coconut Oil and Avocado Oil...oh my. The AO alone is a HUGE savings.

I started with BB's base recipe of approximately 41% Olive Oil, 27% each Coconut and Palm Oil and 5% Castor Oil. I left the Castor Oil alone and started playing around with the Coconut and Palm Oil and at various times used Sweet Almond Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, Cherry Kernel Oil, Cocoa Butter and Shea Butter. I finally settled on a recipe for my Regular Soap with 35% Olive Oil, 20% each Coconut and Palm Oil, 10% each Cocoa and Shea Butter and 5% Castor Oil, and I add 1 tea each Sodium Lactate and Kaolin Clay PPO. My recipe for GMS is 41% Olive Oil, 21% each Coconut and Palm Oil, 12% Shea Butter and 5% Castor Oil, and I add 1 tea each Sodium Lactate and Kaolin Clay PPO.

I originally had 5% each of Cocoa and Shea Butters, but was told that outside of Castor Oil, less than 10% of any oils/butters really doesn't add to the soap. I went ahead and increased to 10%, but I'm still researching the whole 'benefit' thing because how much whatever survives.

 

[Bekabat]

I started with OO Pomace because it was cheaper than the regular OO, but the downside is that it traces quicker. Which is okay unless you need longer time to do fancy layers and swirls and then you either want to divide out your oils/lye and wait to mix each layer or do simple designs. If you have a Costco nearly, check out their prices on OO, Coconut Oil and Avocado Oil...oh my. The AO alone is a HUGE savings.

I started with BB's base recipe of approximately 41% Olive Oil, 27% each Coconut and Palm Oil and 5% Castor Oil. I left the Castor Oil alone and started playing around with the Coconut and Palm Oil and at various times used Sweet Almond Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, Cherry Kernel Oil, Cocoa Butter and Shea Butter. I finally settled on a recipe for my Regular Soap with 35% Olive Oil, 20% each Coconut and Palm Oil, 10% each Cocoa and Shea Butter and 5% Castor Oil, and I add 1 tea each Sodium Lactate and Kaolin Clay PPO. My recipe for GMS is 41% Olive Oil, 21% each Coconut and Palm Oil, 12% Shea Butter and 5% Castor Oil, and I add 1 tea each Sodium Lactate and Kaolin Clay PPO.

I originally had 5% each of Cocoa and Shea Butters, but was told that outside of Castor Oil, less than 10% of any oils/butters really doesn't add to the soap. I went ahead and increased to 10%, but I'm still researching the whole 'benefit' thing because how much whatever survives.

So lovely of you to share your recipe! It's been so hot here lately that I haven't had the motivation to do any soap but as I'm trying to do it fortnightly, I've now fallen behind a week and need to pick up my game! I noticed you're in Oregon...I'm in Perth, Western Australia and we've had some super hot days...
I was just keen to ask you about your recipe for GMS... Could I leave out Castor Oil and just have 95% oils? Or should I look at replacing with something/increase one of the other oils? Sweet Almond Oil maybe?
Thanks ... again

 

[shunt2011]

So lovely of you to share your recipe! It's been so hot here lately that I haven't had the motivation to do any soap but as I'm trying to do it fortnightly, I've now fallen behind a week and need to pick up my game! I noticed you're in Oregon...I'm in Perth, Western Australia and we've had some super hot days...
I was just keen to ask you about your recipe for GMS... Could I leave out Castor Oil and just have 95% oils? Or should I look at replacing with something/increase one of the other oils? Sweet Almond Oil maybe?
Thanks ... again

Your recipe must always add up to 100%. You must run it through a soap/lye calculator so that you can adjust the lye mixture accordingly for whatever oil you substitute it with. You can substitute any oil for another as long as it's run though the calculator.

I mostly make all milk soaps with the exception of a couple with aloe juice or beer. I prefer the split method that ways it saves time and makes an awesome soap just the same. I mix the lye with an equal amount of distilled water. Add the difference in milk fortified with some powdered milk.

Works a charm. However, I gel all my soaps.

 

[TheGecko]

I was just keen to ask you about your recipe for GMS... Could I leave out Castor Oil and just have 95% oils? Or should I look at replacing with something/increase one of the other oils? Sweet Almond Oil maybe?

You could leave it out, but you would need to adjust the other oils to bring it up to 100% and of course, run it through SoapCalc. You could leave it out, but why would you? IMHO, Castor Oil in an integral part of soap making and the major two-punch of moisturizer and oodles of lather, makes it well worth the 5%. Quite frankly, I'm not experienced enough to tell you if there is any other oil or butter that brings as much to the soap party at 5% that Castor Oil does.

Sweet Almond Oil is nice...it was one of the oils I tried before I found Cocoa and Shea Butters and I used it at 10%. The nice about soap making, is that you can experiment with different oils/butters and even if it's not exactly what you want, you still have soap.

One thing I didn't mention above was my Lye Concentration. It was late Spring when I started soaping...outside temps were high 60sF and my garage about 10 degrees warmer; I mention this because while I soap in the house, I put my soap in the garage to saponify and cure. I used a 30% Lye Concentration and after covering my mold with a bit of plastic wrap, I set my soap on a towel with another towel over it and all way well in my world. Even when the temps climbed into the 90sF outside, 100+ in the garage, all was still well...until I made my first batch of GMS. It was not pretty. It was too hot in the garage and I ended up with soap that I had to toss.

My next GMS batches turned out beautifully. 1) In addition to freezing my goat milk, I used an ice bath with some salt and added the lye in small amounts, making sure I kept the temperature of the solution under 75F. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes to mix your solution, but the results are worth it and you can be doing other things as you wait for it to cool back down before adding each bit. 2) I make sure my oils/butter is under 80F before I had my GM Lye Solution. It's probably just my imagination, but I seem to get a much creamier bar of soap (I don't color my GMS) when it's that cool. 3) I refrigerated my soap; uncovered. Again, probably just my imagination, but I seem to get a much creamier and harder bar of soap buy allowing any heat to escape freely. It should be noted, that my doing this, I am not gelling my GMS, but that's okay. I then remove the soap after 24 hours, unmold it and then cover lightly with a clean cotton towel before cutting at room temp.

It's winter here in Oregon...much cooler temps and lots of rain and damp so I've had to make some adjustments. One was to increase my Lye Concentration to 35% as I was having to leave my soaps in the molds for an extra couple of days and then wait another couple of days before trying to cut. While the colder temps mean I don't have to refrigerate my GMS (the entire garage is one big refrigerator), my regular soap isn't gelling properly. My last batch of Chocolate Espresso is going to be for home use only...while the partial gel left some cool designs in the 'coffee' portion of the soap, I got massive glycerin rivers because of the TD I used in the 'whip cream' portion and it doesn't look 'cool' at all...it just looks dirty. Totally my fault as I forgot to turn on the oven to do an 'oven process'.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...You could leave it [castor] out, but why would you? IMHO, Castor Oil in an integral part of soap making and the major two-punch of moisturizer and oodles of lather,..."

Interesting that you should find castor to be mandatory, @TheGecko. I used it for a few years, stopped using it, tried it again, and stopped again and have no plans to try it again. I definitely did not see any great amazing-ness in my soap that I could attribute to the use of castor.

Great example of "to each their own."

 

[amd]

Other recipes I read, call for the lye to be made into a solution with water first. What is the difference between these two options please? I was keen to try a different recipe I found but I'm not sure what the effect would be using lye water. Will it change curing or unmolding times or is it just personal preference?

For me the difference is just how much fiddling you like to do and your level of comfort. For me, I don't like fiddly, and using frozen anything to make lye solution is darn fiddly. The exchange for that is that my soaps aren't 100% milk by using the split method (dissolving lye in water and adding remainder milk to oils) and I'm ok with that. Honestly I can't tell the difference between 100% GM soap and one that only has 50% GM. And the plus side is that there is not as much risk to overheating and scorching - yes you still have to watch for these things but it seems less likely to happen. (In my experience, but I also soap at cool temps so that helps too.)

 

[earlene]

To build on/add to amd's response & to respond to the first part of your last question, no it won't make a difference in cure time or unmolding time. It's all about a more efficient way of making the soap. I agree with amd that the ice method is really quite fiddly. It takes a whole lot more time and effort for very little return in my opinion.

I'm new here so apologies for a lot of the possibly very basic questions....

I've started making Goat's Milk Soap and I am going with a recipe that uses the lye directly onto the frozen cubes of goat's milk which is working beautifully. Other recipes I read, call for the lye to be made into a solution with water first. What is the difference between these two options please? I was keen to try a different recipe I found but I'm not sure what the effect would be using lye water. Will it change curing or unmolding times or is it just personal preference?

Thanks in advance

For me the difference is just how much fiddling you like to do and your level of comfort. For me, I don't like fiddly, and using frozen anything to make lye solution is darn fiddly. The exchange for that is that my soaps aren't 100% milk by using the split method (dissolving lye in water and adding remainder milk to oils) and I'm ok with that. Honestly I can't tell the difference between 100% GM soap and one that only has 50% GM. And the plus side is that there is not as much risk to overheating and scorching - yes you still have to watch for these things but it seems less likely to happen. (In my experience, but I also soap at cool temps so that helps too.)