Water “Discounting”

[TheGecko]

My boss’s Dad and brother own two convenience stores and I was asked if I could supply soap to their stores. I told them I would do a little research and let them know on Monday.

I already know that I have a quality soap, but I don’t have a stockpile of it as I haven’t made any this year and I’ve been making sure that family and close friends have a supply.

I know that the recommended minimum cure time is 4 weeks...6 is better; I’ve been doing 8.

Obviously I need to speed up my cure time and I believe I can do that with a ‘water discount’, but I don’t want a lye heavy soap. I know that I can increase my SuperFat a bit to make sure I use up all the Lye in the soap. And because my garage was so cold this Fall/Winter and thus affecting my cure time, I went with a 35% Lye Solution. I had planned to go back to my usually 30% now that my garage is staying above 50F.

So any suggestions that anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated. It should be noted that I won’t be making any ‘fancy’ soaps...single color, lightly scented. Thank you.

 

[cmzaha]

I really think you already know you cannot speed up cure time and 4 weeks is the bare min for a quality soap. You cannot shorten cure time with less liquid, soap needs time to form it's crystalline structure inside, become milder and build better lather which takes time. A "Water Discount" has nothing to do with a lye heavy soap and really a higher superfat is not needed to prevent a lye heavy soap. I can make soap with 0 superfat and it is not lye heavy with the proper weighing of ingredients. Do the customers justice and properly cure your soap before putting them up for sale.

 

[TheGecko]

I really think you already know you cannot speed up cure time and 4 weeks is the bare min for a quality soap. You cannot shorten cure time with less liquid, soap needs time to form it's crystalline structure inside, become milder and build better lather which takes time. A "Water Discount" has nothing to do with a lye heavy soap and really a higher superfat is not needed to prevent a lye heavy soap. I can make soap with 0 superfat and it is not lye heavy with the proper weighing of ingredients. Do the customers justice and properly cure your soap before putting them up for sale.

Thank you for confirming what I thought, but I want to make sure since there are so many things one hears about. I’ll just with 6 weeks. Thank you.

 

[DeeAnna]

Many people who talk about "full water" assume that means a lye concentration of about 28% or a water:lye ratio of about 2.6.

By using a 33% lye concentration (water:lye ratio of about 2.0), you are already using a "water discount" compared with a "full water" 28% lye concentration. If you want to use even less water, use a higher lye concentration -- go to 35%, 40%, or whatever.