Dual Lye Castile Soap?

[Clarice]

Hi - I was poking around the forum this AM and I came across folks talking about dual lye for bar soap. I had thought dual lye was for "softer" soaps and did not know it could be used for bar. In particular, I was intrigued by @earlene 's comments in the post (see below) regarding dual-lye producing a Castile soap that cures in half the time as an NaOH Castile.

My question is this: Can I take any Castile recipe I have (@Zany_in_CO No-Slime-Castile for example) and using the formulas provided in the thread below, make it with the Dual Lye method?

Thank you!

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/dual-lye-soap-what-is-this-amazing-concept.62022/ see post #2 from @earlene

 

[earlene]

Well, it's the KOH that is for liquid soap, so I can see how you tend to think of dual lye for softer soaps. I think DeeAnna did some experimenting with varying percentages of KOH in a dual lye context, and I believe it was from her that I adopted the 95/5 ratio. Although I do think that that ration recommendation has been around longer ago than when I started reading here at SMF, so I doubt it originates with DeeAnna. I may be mis-remembering if it was DeeAnna who experimented with different ratios of KOH, of course; it has been known to happen.

As for can you use any Castile recipe and try the Dual Lye method? Of course you can! But what is your goal? Is your goal to create a harder soap sooner? If you already are using salt as a hardener, will dual lye make it even harder? I don't know, as I have not tried it, and don't recall reading about this idea, although of course, someone probably has addressed it in the past. I really do believe there is nothing new under the sun, but I could be wrong about that, too.

But, yes, you can make any bar soap recipe with the dual lye method if you so desire.

 

[DeeAnna]

Nope, I'm not the inventor of this idea. Just the latest person to revitalize the concept for others to try. KOH doesn't add hardness. As KOH goes above 10%, the soap will become softer. At 5%, I don't see any increase in softness, but it helps to increase lather in high oleic soaps or high palmitic-stearic soaps. IMO, using 5% KOH is an alternative to using more bubbly fat such as coconut oil or adding sugars

 

[cmzaha]

I use dual lye in all my soaps now and it has certainly helped lather at 5%, especially in my vegan soap which is high in palm. It seems to take less water to kick up the lather