Can I add salt in my LS lye solution to thicken the soap?

[LidiaG]

Hi everyone
I'm making LS today, 85% OO, 10%CO, 5% Castor oil.
I thicken it with salt(sodium chloride) after it's made. I just find it hard to keep the results consistent. So I was wondering if it would have the same thickening effect if I add the salt to my lye solution. Not sure if the salt would react with the KoH or give me any problems . I use a slow cooker on warm.
If it doesn't react with the lye or cause any trouble doing the soapmaking, It would be great to calculate the % of salt in the recipe.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance

 

[natik]

Wanted to ask the same question. Just finished thickening my liquid soap and this idea popped in my head. I am sure someone on the forum already tried it. Any success? If not - I have to try it.

 

[LidiaG]

Wanted to ask the same question. Just finished thickening my liquid soap and this idea popped in my head. I am sure someone on the forum already tried it. Any success? If not - I have to try it.

Hi
Welcome to the forum!
I never got around to trying it yet. If you try it, please let me know how it goes

 

[BodyWasher]

How do you know how much salt to add? Hoping you share results

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I was ready about thickening liquid soap with salt just the other day. Here's a resource from @DeeAnna on her soapy stuff website:

https://classicbells.com/soap/liquidSoapDiluting.asp

 

[DeeAnna]

I don't know anyone who knows precisely how much salt (table salt, NaCl) to add to get exactly the right viscosity in their liquid soap. If a soap maker has to test their soap after dilution to know exactly how much salt to add, then I can't figure out why adding salt to the lye solution will work any better. You can't test the soap to know what the optimum is ... you basically have to guess.

If you do a "salt curve" on diluted liquid soap, you'll find there's only a narrow range of salt concentration that provides the maximum amount of thickening. Too little salt or too much salt isn't going to give you optimum results. The optimum varies from recipe to recipe and, in my experience, it can even vary from batch to batch for a given recipe. Short of having a crystal ball, I don't know how you can learn the optimum dosage before the soap is made.

On a related note, some soap makers use a blend of NaOH and KOH to make their liquid soap, claiming the NaOH provides thickening. There's valid chemistry to back up their claim -- it's the sodium that's doing the thickening and it doesn't matter much where the sodium comes from -- but there's no way to optimize the amount of sodium from a dual lye solution to get optimum thickening. That's why the dual lye idea works for some people but not for everyone.

edit: Nothing crazy or unsafe will happen if you include salt in the lye solution. I'd add the salt first then add the alkali, just as you do when including salt in the lye solution for making bar soap. So from a technical point of view, it's a do-able thing. Whether it gives you optimum results is what I'm questioning.

 

[natik]

Thanks, @DeeAnna , for explanation.
I did dual lye LS with 90%KOH 10%NaOH and it didn't make any difference in how thick it was. What I figured out is to dilute small batch of the soap with salt until it gets thick, then leave it for 2-3 days. Most of the time it will become a thick slimy jell. Then, I will add a small amount of this jell to the main batch and leave it alone for couple hours, the jell dilutes the main batch more gently and more predictably. If it is not thick enough - I will keep slowly adding jell until the main batch is of a desired consistency. It takes a day of two to dissolve the main batch, but it prevents overdiluting.

 

[DeeAnna]

...dilute small batch of the soap with salt until it gets thick ... add a small amount of this jell to the main batch ... keep slowly adding jell until the main batch is of a desired consistency...

You're basically doing a "salt curve". Good save!