Where to find lye in Canada?

[nettles]

Hi all! I am STILL having trouble with my soaps getting dry, hard, crumbly patches that crack easily, or sometimes not so hard, but still dry and cracky, mixed in with normal soap. I wish I could just have a nice, consistent batch. It is not temp., or too much lye, or under-stirring, or over-stirring, or a certain EO, etc. I've altered every variable I could think of, tried different recipes too. Now I want to try a different brand of lye. But I had trouble finding this brand in the first place. I buy it at Home Hardware. has anybody else used the Home Hardware brand of lye? Found it OK? Do any of my Canadian forum buddies know of another brand I could try, and where to get it? This problem is seriously undermining my fun and confidence. Until I can figure this out, there is no point in playing with different molds and other fun stuff. Help! :!: :!: :!:

 

[AshleyR]

I don't think it is your lye - I use the same stuff you do and never have any problems.

Sorry, I don't know where else you can get it since I always buy mine at Home Hardware locally.

Are you running your recipes through soapcalc.com or another soap calculator? Maybe your lye amounts are off a bit.

 

[surf girl]

I use HH lye with no problems.

Do you have problems with every single batch? Have you tried a very basic recipe, say 75% OO, 25% CO, lye solution 33%, no additives (no fragrance, no colour, nada)?

 

[Guest]

There is a soap supply store in Calgary .HTH

Kitn

 

[nettles]

Thanks, guys. Now I'm thinking that maybe it is one of my other ingredients. Palm oil is at the top of my suspect list. Yes, it has been every single batch, with varying degrees. I'm going to try that Olive oil/coconut oil recipe. Before I got more involved in soapmaking, I used to have better luck. Then, my main recipe was Olice oil/coconut oil/Crisco. No palm oil. And then, because I wanted to market my soaps as all natural, I started having second thoughts about the Crisco. Crisco is not exactly an all natural product. Also, I had a customer with lots of allergies, and she needed to know exactly WHAT vegetable oils were in my soap. Speaking of Crisco, I had read somewhere that it was predominantly soy oil. Does anybody know about that? If I were to go back to using vegetable shortening, wouldn't I need to know exactly what it was to calculate the lye? It seems like I had read something about that on the forum before. I don't think I am the first one to wonder.

 

[Lindy]

I use the Home Hardware brand too and I buy it in bulk - I love it! You can buy Lye from Voyageur Soaps http://www.voyageursoapandcandle.com/store/details.asp?prodid=62190&cat=39&path=3,39 which I have used as well. It's less expensive than Home Hardware but I find it finer and more likely to clump. I also find it doesn't always mix up completely although I have no idea why???? At any rate Voyageur is a great supplier and I can recommend them highly to you.

Cheers
Lindy