lye

Hi guys, I made my 5th batch of soap today using a basic recipe of: 25% coconut 25% shea 40% olive 10% castor I decided to get a bit adventurous with this batch and swap half of the distilled water with pureed rice for my lye solution. I added 50g cocoa to my liquid oils and at the very last...

Alright so I wanted to ask about the temperature of lye and oils, do they need to be certain degrees of each other? Do they need to be within certain temperatures? I thought the requirements I had were for safety but from my last post it looks like it a matter of opinion? I do not know and would...

Im new to soap making and was trying some piping today only the soap was hardening too quickly and the piping bag split, I got half set soap all over my hands and it started burning and itching, the surface burning stopped after I washed it off but im left with burning in the edge of my thumb...

Hello again!! When I first started making soap a few years ago, I was buying my lye from texas natural supply. I bought ALOT! It took me about 2 years to get through it, and when I came back to their website to get more, it had gotten a bit "sketchy" so, I started to get it from nurture soap...

Let's say a recipe I'm using calls for 50g lye, and 100g liquid (50/50 milk and water). Because it heats up, I risk scorching the milk. As such, is it worthwhile combining the lye and water, and waiting for it to cool down before adding the milk? Or should I stick with the method of combining...

I designed the attached recipe using the SoapMaking Friend calculator. The "Recipe Properties" bar graph shows all green - everything looked good on paper. However, when I actually made the batch it went from liquid to a near-solid paste within a few seconds (literally) of adding the lye water...

Hi guys. :) I am new to this whole wonderful world of soap making. I wanted to try it for a while after watching so many videos of people making such lovely designs and thought I would give it a go as a creative outlet. I made my first ever batch with melt and pour soup base, lemon (I think...

DISCLAIMER: SMF is not responsible for any sale, trade, co-op, pre-buy, fast buy, garage sale, ad or other transactions between members. All parties enter into transactions at their own will/risk. Hi all - I have a 50 pound pail of lye (unopened, still sealed) that I am happy to give to any...

Is SoapCalc.net down for anyone else? Or is it just me? (2/29/20) It's killing me. I have so many ideas and formulas that I want to work through, but can't. Other calculators don't include all of the oils I've been experimenting with.

coconut oil fractionated 150gr, cacao butter 30 gr, olive oil 252gr, palm oil 150gr, castor oil 18gr, NAOH 92gr, water 228gr, FO 19gr, 1 ts salt, 2 ts ground used coffee fm nesspresso capsules. I dissolved the salt in water, than the lye, the oils and the lye solution was 45 degree celsius...

Hello all! My name is Emma and I have just recently started making cold process soap. I started as a way to cope with the stress of university and I have absolutely fallen in love with it! I am a newbie, so I have a few questions: Where can I find soap recipes? Or learn how to formulate my...

I assumed my lye was at least a couple percent impure, despite my buying it from a chemical shop and knowing that it didn't sit in a warehouse for a year. (Real estate is too expensive for warehousing chemicals around here.) I did all my soap calculations assuming there would be an implicit...

I was going to divide my liquid in half so that it was half water & half aloe liquid. Rather than halving it I ended up doubling it as I was interrupted in the process. I didn't catch the mistake until after I had added this lye solution to my oils! Wondering why it was SO runny I rethought...

Halp! I made a bigger batch of soap than usual and didn't account for the extra space needed in my mixing bowl. So when I poured the oils in and then began adding the lye solution, I ran out of room in the bowl. In an effort to save my soap, I poured some of the already mixed oil and lye into...

I found my last batch of deer tallow/lye soap to be far too grainy and brittle for my preferences. The soap works and it works GREAT. But it lacks ease of use when bars shatter when dropped. I took the last 262 grams of shards and ran them through the finest cheese grater I had, creating...

Hello, I’m a new soap maker, have studied up on it for years, and have made my first batch just last night, but since then, I’ve been scared that my house is a lye filled place and I’m going to go blind or die! I’ve washed my dishes with a separate sponge like I should and I cleaned my sink with...

Hi! Newbie. About a month in, here. Last weekend we made a 6 hour round trip to purchase a soapers supplies...it was a soapers heaven! Molds, butters, oils, natural colorant, pounds of lye, essential oils,FOs, micas! I mean stuff is in bulk!!! oh so many goodies that I had only dreamed of...

What temperature should I use when working with beeswax?

Hi all I am new to soapmaking and the forum and am freaking out! I assumed only the lye water mixture is dangerous. I used my figure to pick out calendula flowers that landed in the wrong spot - I washed my hands no burns luckily but then after I had finished I ate some chips - my question is...

I've been making soap a little more than a year and I've had a few accidents but, I wasn't burned. I had mixed the lye and oils in a batch and was working it to trace when I spilled about half the batch in my lap. At first, I thought my pants had saved me. I stripped them off and threw them n...