Percentage of sodium hydroxide

[Nivisoaps]

How does the percentage of Naoh affects quality of a soap.. 38%or 40%.. what is the difference?

And I recently purchased some handmade soaps.. I didn't like them as they give a pungent smell .. is this normal?

 

[dianaabuela1]

I did my first batch, I think I calculate wrong the amount of lye water. Did trace but I checked today and looks really soft. Can I fix it? Or I need to give a longer time to cure? Can I add more lye solution to that batch?

 

[shunt2011]

How does the percentage of Naoh affects quality of a soap.. 38%or 40%.. what is the difference?

And I recently purchased some handmade soaps.. I didn't like them as they give a pungent smell .. is this normal?

What do you mean percentage of NAOH. Are you talking about lye concentration? If you’re running your recipe through the soap calculator the lye amount will not change unless adjusting the superfat. If it’s the lye concentration the only thing that will change is the amount of water/liquid needed.
The pungent smell, are you talking about the fragrance? You can make your soap with little to no fragrance.

@dianaabuela1 you May want to start a new thread so people can respond to your issue specifically. Has nothing to do with this thread. Welcome.
More info needed. Your recipe and processs.

 

[Nivisoaps]

What will be the difference in soap if I make a recipe with 38% lye concentration and another one with 40% concentration without changing the rest of contents.

 

[cmzaha]

What will be the difference in soap if I make a recipe with 38% lye concentration and another one with 40% concentration without changing the rest of contents.

The only difference is the liquid required.

 

[DeeAnna]

The NaOH (lye) weight does not change if you change the "water as % of oils" setting, lye concentration, or water:lye ratio. These settings only change the amount of water in the recipe.

The NaOH weight is determined by the kind of fats in your recipe, the weight of those fats, and the superfat (lye discount) setting you choose. If those three things stay the same, the NaOH weight stays the same too, no matter what you do to the settings for lye concentration or water:lye ratio or "water as % of oils".

It's easy to see this for yourself --

Set up a recipe say 1000 grams of coconut oil. Or any other blend of fats. It doesn't matter what the superfat setting is - ignore it.

Set the Water:Lye ratio to 3. Calculate the recipe. Write down the weights of NaOH and water.

Change ONLY the Water:Lye ratio to 2. Recalculate the recipe.

Compare the weights of NaOH and water for this version to the first.

Again, change only the water:lye ratio to 1 and compare.

What numbers are changing? What numbers are staying the same?
​

You can do the same test with "water as % of oils" and "lye concentration". See for yourself what happens when you change these settings.

 

[penelopejane]

What will be the difference in soap if I make a recipe with 38% lye concentration and another one with 40% concentration without changing the rest of contents.

Very little. If you make a soap with 28% lye concentration there will be a lot more water in the mix and it will take longer to firm up, longer to cure, longer to get hard and may warp.

Varying the amount of the lye concentration (less water) MAY speed up trace.