lye

Hi! I have gotten lucky early in my soap making career and had nothing but great batches. Recently, I was trying to avoid over-mixing because I did not want the trace to become too-thick and harden before I was able to pour into all molds. This led to me pouring a mixture that seemed...

Hey Soapmakers, I was wondering whether you are using lye of analytical or technical grade. Myself have never tried the technical grade one, but I consider switching to that, as it is way cheaper. What are you experiences?

I want to write text on my soap and water soluble paper would not give my soap the aesthetic I am looking for (because the paper is too obvious). I was thinking about using chocolate transfer paper. I am not concerned about the cocoa butter in the transfer sheet, but the "ink" is made of FDA...

I did a search, but can't find this as a recent topic. I am wondering where you get your best deal on smaller amounts of lye. I have always just bought whatever 2 pound containers were the least expensive from Amazon, because I just make soap for our family and to give as gifts. Our family has...

Hi and thanks in advance. I've been wanting to make soap for ages, but always found it daunting. I'm going for it now and have some questions. I appreciate any and all answers! Thanks. Will my solid oils like coconut or babassu oil weigh the same hard vs. melted? How do you all measure the...

I have a question about steeping dried herbs in the lye water in soap making... I been making cold-process soap for several years. In order to infuse herbs into my soap at times when I don't want the ground herb directly in the bar (like a shampoo bar), I would usually make a hot-water infusion...

Just made my first batch of soap and made the mistake of pouring water on lye, as I poured it I used an immersion blender and backed away when I saw the smoke and let it rest for a while before I went back in and stirred some more, it didn’t spill out of the bowl luckily. I continued the rest of...

Hi Everyone! I recently decided I wanted to try making soap. Today was my first day trying it. I watched videos and read articles trying to prepare myself to use the lye and of course I still messed up. I decided to use an older pan to mix my water and lye and turns out it was aluminum. Right...

Hey everyone - I have a bit of a dilemma. I recently purchased a 5-gallon stainless steel milk can with a stainless steel spout from Shenandoah Homestead Supply with the intent of using it as a small lye tank. This is definitely an off-label use, their customers are dairy farmers. My concern is...

Hello all, Wondering about a simple lard-lye soap. I have been experimenting with orange essential oil, but have just run out. It's little pricey, so I began hunting for a cheap source. I found a multitude of domestic products. Has anyone used orange cleaning oil? Many different brands and...

I just opened my supplies cabinet after a week, and realized I had left the lid off my tub of lye. I have had rainy weather so the air moisture is up, too. As a result, it looks as if at least some of my lye has deliquesced, that is to say, absobed enough moisture from the air to dissolve in it...

Hi guys, i have some questions about lye and masterbatching in regards to soap embeds ☻ I always use lye at a 2:1 ratio for a 32oz batch of soap using soap calc and adjusting the lye ratio and then getting my oil values etc. not sure why do this but I believe it was the ratio used in my first...

Hi! Basically I want your perspective on which OO you use in your soap and how it works best for you. Ive been using cold pressed olive oil in most of my recipes and the quality of soaps is great, the only problem is it’s a bit too expensive imo. Ive also tried pomace which is cost friendly but...

Earlier this week, I created a modified version of a recipe I've already made before. A lard/OO/CO76/Castor (%: 50/30/15/5). I include a photo of my printed recipe with notes, because it illustrates the glaring mistake I made that I didn't see until just now. My oil percentages (amounts) are ALL...

Hello all. My last batch of soap turned into a disaster and I was hoping to understand, learn and move on from it. Please do forgive for such basic questions, I have only just started recently. I used 468 grams coconut oil, 150 almond oil (sweet), 124 grams lye and 234 grams water after using...

I have done some research on making dog shampoo using CP method, it indicates to add lemon juice, I have read that the Lemon Juice can neutralize the Lye. The first batch I did I added the LJ at the end of saponification, but it appears to have come out of the soap box very wet, can I reduce...

Hello! This is my first post on this forum. I had gotten into soap making a while ago but then I had to stop because of the time constraint and limited space. I kept all the butters/oils and the lye. I know it’s been at least a year since I ordered all the ingredients that I kept. Are the...

Hello! I’ve just gotten into soap and made my second batch just a minute ago. I heard a tiny lye bead land on the floor, which panicked me a bit because I have a small puppy at home who has a tendency to taste everything he finds. I hoovered the kitchen and surrounding areas two or three times...

I've put a layer of melt and pour inside my cp soap twice and both times it made the cp part dry and crumbly. I know melt and pour can pull moisture out of the air so I'm wondering can it pull moisture out if the cp soap too? Do I need to use less lye in my recipe if I plan to do a melt and pour...

Hi I don’t know if I’m posting this in the right place, but I was making my soap but I accidentally got the quantity wrong for my water and mixed it with my sodium hydroxide. I realised as I was mixing it it felt like there wasn’t enough water so I made another lye solution with the correct...