"...Do keep a 50/50 lye solute ... shelf life of 50/50 lye solute. ..."
Some geeky chemistry trivia for the day about solutes, solvents, and solutions:
Solute: The minor portion (or portions) of a solution. Even thought many solutes are liquids or solids, a solute may be a solid, liquid, or gas.
Solvent: The major portion of a solution. Even though many solvents are liquids, a solvent may be a solid, liquid, or gas.
Solution: A mixture of two or more ingredients. To qualify as a true "solution" the mixture must have two properties -- it must have a consistent chemical composition throughout (homogenous) and must be all one uniform solid, liquid, or gas (one phase).
Examples:
Mix sugar and water together to make sugar syrup. The water is the solvent, the sugar is the solute, and the syrup is the solution.
Add more and more sugar until excess sugar remains undissolved at the bottom of the container. The whole mess is no longer a solution because there are two phases present -- solid and liquid.
Mix oil and water together with a stick blender. The resulting emulsion may look like a solution, but it is not. There are two phases present -- a liquid oil phase and a liquid water phase. If you let the mixture stand long enough the two liquids will separate into two layers.
Add an emulsifier to the previous oil and water mixture. The resulting emulsion is still not a solution, because the liquid oil and liquid water still do not form a homogenous (consistent, uniform) mixture -- they remain as small separate droplets. The oil and water may not separate into layers due to the action of the chemical emulsifier, but the separate droplets are still visible under magnification.
