Newbie questions

[Ratikal]

Hello everyone,

I'm taking the plunge into soap making. I made my first mini batch on Sunday and it looks like they're curing pretty well. A few cracks and curves, but the soap feels (as in soft touch) and smells nice! I had a few questions about the process.

1. I know you don't want to mix lye and water in a glass/pyrex container (I use Plastic #5 which is apparently safe). However, does that only mean for that step? Can you pour the lye water into a glass/pyrex container with oils in it? I see Brambleberry on YouTube do this.
2. Can you mix Lye water ahead of time? I've heard you can create a mixture ahead of time, but how does that account into measuring how much you put into the oils?
3. Is there a way to "prepare" your batch ahead of time? For example, let's say I made a soap mixture of my oils and lye combined and then just let it sit aside. Could I then say, take a chunk out, melt it, and pour in dyes/fragrances later?

Thank you again for all the resources here. Now that I've actually done it, it makes me want to dive in even more and try different things. It's not so scary anymore.

 

[Blufuz]

Congrats on your first soap!

To answer your questions:

1. I know you don't want to mix lye and water in a glass/pyrex container (I use Plastic #5 which is apparently safe). However, does that only mean for that step? Can you pour the lye water into a glass/pyrex container with oils in it? I see Brambleberry on YouTube do this.

You can do everything in Pyrex, the problem is it risks breaking; if lye water breaks it can be really dangerous; if a mixture of half-saponified oils and lye breaks, it’s messy but less dangerous (but still be careful!). The advantage is you can see the whole mixture, which helps especially when dealing with colors and additives that might not mix easily. Some people are militantly opposed to using glass, others accept the risk

2. Can you mix Lye water ahead of time? I've heard you can create a mixture ahead of time, but how does that account into measuring how much you put into the oils?

Yes. The thing that matters the most is the ratio of sodium hydroxide to oils; since lye water also weighs in water, you have to just keep track of the lye-water ratio. Some lye calculators let you input such a ratio instead of grams of NaOH. Or you just figure it out for yourself. So if you have a 1:2 ratio, you’ll know that you have 1/3 the weight of lye water actually corresponds to your NaOH.

3. Is there a way to "prepare" your batch ahead of time? For example, let's say I made a soap mixture of my oils and lye combined and then just let it sit aside. Could I then say, take a chunk out, melt it, and pour in dyes/fragrances later?

I haven’t done it yet, but it’s a thing. Sometimes a batch goes wrong, so it gets “rebatched”, sometimes you use pieces of a previous soap as decorative elements to a new one, and other times you just create your own melt-and-pour base.

I’m relatively new to this, but I think that should answer your starter questions