Sodium lactate and yogurt

nframe · Nov 19, 2013

Hello everybody,

I am planning to make a yogurt soap this week and I have read that, during the chemical reaction that produces soap, the addition of yogurt will also produce sodium lactate. I normally add 2 teasp. sodium lactate ppo. I was wondering whether this will be too much because of the production of sodium lactate caused by the yogurt. What happens to the soap if one uses too much sodium lactate?

Hazel · Nov 20, 2013

I saw your post yesterday and hoped someone with more experience would answer it. Since no one has, I'll pass on some info which you might not have seen. IrishLass mentioned soap can get crumbly with too much sodium lactate. However, she mentioned she used 1 tablespoon ppo so I think you'd be all right with 2 teaspoons. Scroll down to post #25 and you'll see her comments about it. http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=26684&page=3

But I'm just guessing because I don't know how much SL yogurt would produce and I've never used yogurt in soap. I have made soap with eggnog and I used it for half of the liquid. I used SL at 3% ppo and it came out nice and creamy. It wasn't crumbly at all. However, I don't know if eggnog could be considered comparable to yogurt.

Good luck and please let me know how your soap turns out.

DeeAnna · Nov 20, 2013

"...yogurt only contains about 0.9% available acid after fermentation. Even if we assume that ALL the acid in yogurt is in the form of lactic acid (a common alpha hydroxy acid) that's still a very low concentration for an active exfoliant...."

Source: http://www.self.com/blogs/flash/2012/03/can-you-exfoliate-with-yogurt.html

"...the final lactic acid content [in the yogurt samples] ranges from 0.66 to 1.10% for all samples...."

Source: http://www.ijens.org/vol_12_i_01/124901-8585-ijbas-ijens.pdf

If you use, say, 400 g of yogurt in your soap, the yogurt would add roughly 2.5-4.5 grams of lactic acid to the soap batch. When the lactic acid reacts with the lye (NaOH), the soap would contain roughly 3-5.5 grams of sodium lactate as supplied by the yogurt.

Is that a significant amount? I have no idea, since y'all talk about adding sodium lactate by volume (tsp or TBL) rather than by weight. If you weigh out the dose of sodium lactate that you'd normally add to a soap recipe, you would have the information to decide whether the sodium lactate from the yogurt is a big deal or not. My guess is that it's not, but that's just a guess, since I don't have any sodium lactate on hand to weigh.

nframe · Nov 21, 2013

Thank you both. I took the plunge yesterday and made the soap. I will report later on what it is like.

Hazel · Nov 21, 2013

I used to mention it based on % to ppo. I mentioned it by the tablespoon this time because last time I mentioned it, I was criticized for not stating how many teaspoons or tablespoons I had used.

I just can't frickin' make anyone happy.

DeeAnna · Nov 21, 2013

I wasn't trying to point any fingers at anyone -- least of all at you, dear Hazel!

Just sayin' people in general often talk about additives in terms of tablespoons or teaspoons, not a weight measure. In this case, I wasn't able to be as much help with the math end of this question as I was wanting to be.

Tis no big deal. Really!

nframe · Nov 23, 2013

Update

Just to let you know that I have two batches with yogurt. I used 2 teasp. sodium lactate for 700g of oils and added 100g yogurt in each batch. Both have turned out fine. So, whatever sodium lactate was produced by the yogurt did not really have an adverse effect on the soap. Here are some pictures:

Hazel · Nov 24, 2013

@ nframe -

Those are wonderful especially the white and gold - it's so elegant looking. I'm glad it worked out well for you.

@ DeeAnna and everyone else -

I'm sorry. I was having a grumpy day and was already irritated by some issues. I should stay off the forum when I'm exasperated.

TVivian · Nov 24, 2013

Those turned out so nicely! Did you swirl the gold throughout the soap or did you mix it with the soap batter first? Really like them!

Lin · Nov 24, 2013

What is the gold stuff thats drizzled on top? Its gorgeous!

nframe · Nov 24, 2013

The gold stuff is a pigment called Gold Lustre. I sprinkled it on top of the batter as I was pouring it, mixed it then poured some more batter, then sprinkled more pigment, mixed it, etc. At the end, I mixed some more powder with a little bit of castor oil and swirled it on the top. The batter absorbed the castor oil.

Hazel · Nov 24, 2013

Thanks for sharing how you did it! It's really a gorgeous effect.

paillo · Nov 24, 2013

Gorgeous effect indeed, I love the white and gold. I wouldn't have guessed that a pigment would give such a lovely glittery effect!

Sodium lactate and yogurt

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