Ugh, I knew my batch felt off while I was making it - turns out the water I dissolved my lye in was 3.28 oz short. The recipe is still superfatted 5%, and all of my other amounts were fine, even the amount of lye crystals, I just dissolved the lye crystals in 8 oz water instead of 11.28 oz water. Do I need to throw the batch out? Thanks for any help!
Unintentional water reduction
- Thread starter Jennie V
- Start date
Help Support Soapmaking Forum:
Hi @Jennie V - it depends on the weight of your lye. Lye needs at least an equal amount of water to dissolve. Any additional water beyond that is not technically necessary, although it does make your batter more fluid to have a bit more water.
So assuming you used no more than 8 oz of lye, your soap will be fine.
So assuming you used no more than 8 oz of lye, your soap will be fine.
OMG @AliOop, thank you so much for the quick response! It was 5 oz of lye crystals dissolved in 8 oz of water (with some sodium lactate added at the end). What happened is that I have never re-written my bigger batch recipe out so I glanced down at the water amount for my smaller batch, but followed all of the other ingredient amounts for my bigger batch sooooooo carefully. Sigh. I will be so happy not to have to throw it all out! Thank you!
5 oz NaOH in 8 oz water = 38% lye concentration. The water in the sodium lactate (usually a 60% solution of S.L. in water) will drop that a little bit more, depending on how much S.L. solution you used. It's fine.
Thank you @deanna! Whew, what a relief.
I know to one hundredth of an ounce how much I need to make soap for two of my molds, yet I still print out the recipe when making from scratch.
I Master Batch now and even though I know how much I need for my main mold, I always double-check...and then I triple check before mixing the Lye Solution in just to make sure.
