Marissa Uhler
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- Sep 22, 2023
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I have a question about steeping dried herbs in the lye water in soap making...
I been making cold-process soap for several years. In order to infuse herbs into my soap at times when I don't want the ground herb directly in the bar (like a shampoo bar), I would usually make a hot-water infusion (boiling water poured over the herbs), steep until cool, then strain and use it as my lye water.
But recently, I started experimenting with skipping that first step, and instead, simply mixing my lye with plain distilled water, and then immediately after the lye has dissolved (while still hot) adding the dried herbs directly to the lye water, and letting it steep there until cooled.
It seems like this shouldn't be much different than steeping the herbs in plain hot water (without lye) first...
QUESTION: I am wondering if anyone else uses this method? If not, why? Does anyone know if steeping the herbs directly in the lye water would have any negative effects on the extraction of the beneficial constituents (possibly due to the pH level)?
Thanks in advance!
I been making cold-process soap for several years. In order to infuse herbs into my soap at times when I don't want the ground herb directly in the bar (like a shampoo bar), I would usually make a hot-water infusion (boiling water poured over the herbs), steep until cool, then strain and use it as my lye water.
But recently, I started experimenting with skipping that first step, and instead, simply mixing my lye with plain distilled water, and then immediately after the lye has dissolved (while still hot) adding the dried herbs directly to the lye water, and letting it steep there until cooled.
It seems like this shouldn't be much different than steeping the herbs in plain hot water (without lye) first...
QUESTION: I am wondering if anyone else uses this method? If not, why? Does anyone know if steeping the herbs directly in the lye water would have any negative effects on the extraction of the beneficial constituents (possibly due to the pH level)?
Thanks in advance!