lye %

[luxurious bubbles]

If you have some time would you talk to me about what percentage of lye you usually use in your recipes and why? I know this is a broad question but any input would be great!

 

[carebear]

do you mean to ask how concentrated our lye solutions are?

I soap between 33% and 45%, depending on the formula for my soaps and my FOs and such.

Most typically 35-37%, with 40-45% for 100% lard or olive oil soaps.

 

[donniej]

I use 99%+ pure lye.

As for how much lye you need, it depends on what oils you're using. To determin that you need to look up a saponification table... like this one...

http://www.millersoap.com/soapdesign.html#SAP Tables

 

[artisan soaps]

..

 

[luxurious bubbles]

Yes, lye concentration is what I meant.

So if you do a high concentration of lye does the calc figure out how much water you will need to discount?

 

[carebear]

typically a higher lye concentration will result in a faster trace.

 

[artisan soaps]

..

 

[luxurious bubbles]

typically a higher lye concentration will result in a faster trace.

Thanks, I thought so ..


There's no discounting except for the lye discount when you want to superfat to get a milder bar ..

But yes, soapcalc will work out how much water/liquid you need according to what % you tell it .. Have a play with it and see what happens when you change the numbers

Thanks for the response! I love how willing you guys are to help.

I'm wondering if I will see any difference in the soaps I have done thus far. I've soaped only two batches. One with 33 as the lye concentration and the other with 26.8804 (which I believe is what soapcalc sets as standard). Hmmm, what else should I try.

This really is addictive.

 

[carebear]

soap calc sets its standard not on a lye solution concentration but on water as a % of oils or something silly like that.

 

[soapbuddy]

I use 33 to 38% depending on ingredients and scents used. For Castille, I use a 40% lye solution.

 

[xyxoxy]

I soap with a 33% lye solution because the math is easier for me.
Basically it means measuring exactly twice as much liquid as NaOH crystals.

It is also better than the soapcalc default which uses more liquid. I say it is better because the less liquid you use, the less liquid there is to evaporate during the curing process.

But of course you have to balance that with other issues like the possibility of accelerated trace, temperature, and other aspects of your process that may require more time. 33% seems to be a good balancing point for me.

 

[misty]

so xyxoxy, now I'm curious, it you use a 33% lye solution, what no. do you put in for the "water as % of oils". Would you reduce that as well or leave it blank. I've always just left the default 38% for that & just
adjusted my lye concentration amt. to 33%......etc.

misty

 

[artisan soaps]

..

 

[xyxoxy]

Not xyxoxy, but you can just ignore it altogether when using the other option:

Exactly...
The other thing you can do instead is to set the water : Lye ratio to "2:1". This is just slightly more precise since we know from Mrs. Grimm's math class that 33% is not an exact third... there is always that remainder no matter how far you carry it out. But either method works fine.

Once you calculate and view your recipe you will notice that the "water as % of oils" field has been recalculated for you to something around 29% - depending on your superfat %.

 

[luxurious bubbles]

This all makes so much more since to me now .

 

[misty]

thanks artisan & xyxoxy, appreciate your help.....

 

[MikeInPdx]

I'm a little late to the game, but I've been using a 50% lye solution of late. I usually make mostly bastile/castile and it speeds things up nicely.