Freezing water for lye

[lanchingmaa]

Does anyone freeze their water and then add the lye to ice cubes? I seem to be having amazing results with my fresh goats milk CP soaps when I do this because the lye and fats are so close in temperature and I seem to make soap in the time it takes to make a quick meal.

I want to make a 100% olive oil soap for my son and was thinking of making ice cubes or using some of the icicles on my house.

 

[CaliChan]

Does anyone freeze their water and then add the lye to ice cubes?

I did that with my last two batches, except with coffee and goats milk cubes, it turned out waaaay better and i got everything done a great deal faster

 

[DWinMadison]

Does anyone freeze their water and then add the lye to ice cubes? I seem to be having amazing results with my fresh goats milk CP soaps when I do this because the lye and fats are so close in temperature and I seem to make soap in the time it takes to make a quick meal.

I want to make a 100% olive oil soap for my son and was thinking of making ice cubes or using some of the icicles on my house.

I thought about it but decided it might react like adding water to lye which we all know is apostasy. Nice to know it works.

 

[JennH]

I thought about it but decided it might react like adding water to lye which we all know is apostasy. Nice to know it works.

I did my first cconut milk soap tonight and did it with 1/3 cold coconut milk and 2/3 frozen cubes. I felt a little better having SOME liquid to start the lye in. I was worried about the same thing.

 

[SoapAddict415]

How do you know how many ice cubes to use? Or do you measure & freeze your liquid into cubes first?

 

[pinkadink]

Hello! I use ice cubes for my lye water mostly to slow down trace.

As for how to mix it with lye. I weigh the ice cubes first and fill in the last 100-200 ml or so (depending on the size of your batch, mine is normally 2 pounds) with cold water. Then add the lye little by little.

Don't stress myself out about the temperature since I live in a tropical country and even coconut oil stays liquid at what is considered room temp here. I find that letting the lye cool, sometimes with an ice bath, gives me enough time to add my colors and fragrance. I pour at a light to medium trace cause I like a smooth top.

 

[CaliChan]

How do you know how many ice cubes to use? Or do you measure & freeze your liquid into cubes first?

my goats milk stayed decently soft after it froze (only froze 24 hours), so i weighed it when i was ready and when it said i had to much i just cut the ice cube in halves till it read the right weight

 

[Maythorn]

I just do very cold water because when too cold and icy the lye requires more stirring and dissolving. I never do the frozen milk thing because I found you can dissolve your lye in the amount of water corresponding to the amount of canned goat milk you are using and because it's concentrated it's an all-milk for the liquid batch. I just throw the milk in with the slighly warmed oils and stick blend. Then add lye water.

 

[lanchingmaa]

I measure in weight for my calculations. 8oz water is by weight so if frozen or thawed is the same deal.

 

[VanessaP]

I made a 5lb batch yesterday, and for 450g of water, I had 350g in ice and 100g in water. It didn't take me any longer to stir it and get it dissolved than when I use no ice. Keep in mind that your lye concentration strength will also determine how fast or slow it cools off. My 40% solution takes a lot longer to cool down than my 33%. Most goat's milk soapers prefer using fresh GM, and as such, that is why they freeze it I have done the split method for evaporated GM, but because I don't care for the color of the soap with the evap GM, I will use milk powder or just use water.

 

[Maythorn]

I never noticed a color difference between canned and it coming in a quart that you don't add water to. I don't often do all milk though. I prefer half milk as the liquid because I like to be ale to color soaps.