Water Discount

To date I have been using 38% water discount for all my cold process soap and have been satisfied with the results.

I do wonder though if there are advantages to using a lower percentage of water other than being able to remove soap from the mold sooner. Please comment.

Yes, lower % means that you can unmould faster than a higher %. But it will set up quicker, too - so if you want to play with colours and so on, or have a scent that causes issues, a lower % is not always a good idea.

The more water you use, the more your soap will shrink as it cures. FWIW I almost always use a 33% lye solution and can separate, color, swirl with most FOs just fine. You would probably want to use full water for one you know will be difficult.

By "38% water discount", do you mean 'water as % of oils", or 'water as % of lye? I ask, because there's a big difference between them, and it helps tremendously to clarify what which one we all mean when talking about water discounts.

For example, Osso uses a 33% "lye solution", which means that they discount their water based on their lye amount, as opposed to their oil amount. If Osso were to use a 33% amount of "water as per oils", the amount of water would be different than if it had been based on their lye amount.

Here is a great PDF that discusses water discounts and their advantages, as well as the difference between basing water amounts on lye or on oil and why it's helpful to specify which method we are using when it comes to talking about water discounts (and also why discounting water based on lye is a more accurate way to calculate water than basing it on oils):

PDF: http://rivercitysoaps.com/dwcp/dwcp.pdf


Thankfully, SoapCalc gives you 2 different ways to calculate water. I always bypass the 'Water as % of Oil' box and go right to their "Lye Concentration" box to figure in my water discount. Like Osso, I use a 33% lye solution (most times), and I never have any trouble separating soap out for coloring and swirling....as long as I'm not working with a very naughty FO, that is.


IrishLass