Factoring in Coconut Milk Fat into Calculation?

[bodhisoma]

I'm going to make a coconut milk oatmeal CP soap in an hour or two, was wondering if I needed to factor in the fat content of the coconut milk.

Because the oil will be 100% rice bran oil, I'll be using 2x the liquid for the lye as opposed to the normal 3x I used in my first batch, the coconut milk will be taking the places of the water in the lye/liquid solution.

Thanks much in advance!

 

[IrishLass]

Nope- you don't need to factor in the milk fat.

IrishLass

 

[bodhisoma]

Thanks all!

I would like to suggest, for posterity's sake, that the admonition to handle lye carefully and with gloves -- even after trace has been achieved -- is well-considered and sagely advice.

Because lye under a fingernail HURTS.

I'm not speaking from experience, of course, just sayin'... :shock:

 

[bodhisoma]

I had lye under my nail and it was painful as hell, I can't even imagine it in my eye. I would have freaked right out too, I'm a photographer...

I was a little worried about the lye scalding the coconut milk so I made my liquid for the lye solution 1/3d water, 2/3rd coconut milk. I added the lye gradually to the 1/3rd portion of water, let it react a bit, got the temps down to 150F-ish, then added in the coconut milk. Seems to have worked.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[judymoody]

I thought I'd share my experience using 100% coconut milk as my liquid in a recent batch of soap. It is for a swap involving supposed lather boosting additives - everybody is using the same base recipe of 50% OO, 25% PO, and 25% CO, full water, and 8% SF.

Just for your information, my batch size was 720 grams of oils. The canned coconut milk I used (Thai Kitchen) has 14 grams of fat per 79 grams of milk. So for my recipe size, this amounted to an extra 56 grams of coconut fat and a corresponding water discount of 29% water WRT oils (or a 30.5% lye concentration). Running these numbers through soap calc, the extra fat in the canned coconut milk effectively increased the SF to 16% SF, or double the control.

So no, you don't have to calculate the fat in your coconut milk. But it can make a meaningful difference in the SF and effectively results in a water discount.

 

[13dolls]

So does that mean that the fat in milk is different chemically to the fat in oil, and it won't saponify? (Hope it is not too late to join this discussion)

 

[Fragola]

It's the same fat and it will saponify.

We are just lazy and don't calculate it

However you can feel free to calculate your milk fat and enter it into the calculator.

Also, some people will alter their superfat slightly when adding milks - for example somebody may use 18% SF with coconut oil and milk and 20% SF with coconut oil and water.

In the end, you change the numbers to get a soap that feels good on your skin and don't change the skin to fit the numbers

 

[13dolls]

Thanks for that.

I want to get into making milk soaps, because of the excellent skin friendly qualities of raw milk. I've made a few batches with cow's milk, and it's quite tricky I find. I freeze the milk and add the NaOH little by little, having the container in an ice bath to try to keep the temp down so the colour can stay as light as possible. But the cool temps mean I have to spend a long time crunching the NaOH crystals with my spoon (paint stirrer) to get them to dissolve. Then I got the white flecks in the soap (stearic? I also used palm oil in that batch) and read here that I need to soap hotter. So, next time after I've got the sodium hydroxide all dissolved, I'll heat it up to 43 or so in a hot water bath, and the same with the oils, and hopefully won't get the white flecks. I found all this out on this forum, GREAT FORUM!! So informative!!

Also, I was looking on the internet at other people who make milk soaps, and this one person claimed that "Every Bar contained 50% milk" Surely they don't mean 50% milk, 50% oil? I would have thought the soap would not harden up with so much milk. :?:

 

[Fragola]

Yes, I really hate dissolving the lye into milk. I'd rather use cheese, egg, cream, powder or whatever ...

Maybe with milk powder you could get up to 50%, but that's more in theory than in practice. I think mean that they use a 50% lye/50% milk solution.

 

[Dragonkaz]

I make 50/50 soap ... that's 50% water and 50% milk (cream, yoghurt etc).

I love making it this way, as it means you can mix the lye with water to begin with ... being careful due to the low amount of water. Then when it's cooled to room temperature, I add it to room temperature oils and butters and stick blend. When it's reached a light trace (still nice and fluid), I add the milk, yogurt, cream etc and stir in. The milk, yogurt, cream etc is also at room temperature.

If I want to add swirls this is when I remove some batter and colour. Also now is the time to add the FO/EO if you wish.

Compared to the freezing, mix, mix, mix, mix, mix, then possible overheating issues ... this is way more simple and the soap feels amazing.

I have heard of people reducing the water to under 50% ... like 40/60 ... and I think I will try the 40/60 one day, it will mean having to be very careful with the lye mixture, as it will heat up more and sometimes it becomes quite thick and yuck looking with the 50/50, but when it does that, I mix it more.

There's also the option of using powdered milk and adding less water to rehydrate the powder, and using the 'left out' liquid to mix with the lye.

 

[IrishLass]

Also, I was looking on the internet at other people who make milk soaps, and this one person claimed that "Every Bar contained 50% milk" Surely they don't mean 50% milk, 50% oil? I would have thought the soap would not harden up with so much milk. :?:

Usually when people say their soap contains 50% milk or 100% milk or 30% milk, or whatever, they are most likely referring to the liquid amount of their soap formula (i.e. the part that is usually made up of water). At least that is what I mean when I say my soap contains 50% milk or 100% milk, etc.. When I say that, what I am really meaning is that 50% or 100% of my liquid amount is made up of milk, as opposed to water.

IrishLass