Heat transfer and sodium lactate.

[Noreen Moore]

Good morning forum readers. Today on a whim I tried heat transfer method using aloe vera gel/drink.
I put my kaolin clay in the liquid oils. Then I wasn't sure where or what to add sodium lactate to. So I added that to the liquid oils. As my lye and aloe mix was already in the hard fats.
Does this work? I guess that is my question!
(I still had to put my hot lye hard fats bowl in a pot of boiling water to aid the melting of the Kokum butter. Must research that stuffs melting temp! )

 

[shunt2011]

That should be fine. As long as it gets mixed we’ll.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I mix my sodium Lactate with my lye water after it cools to under 125°. If I use liquid of any kind, I subtract it from the water total. I also mix some of my powders with my cooled lye water, depending on what the powders are.

 

[Noreen Moore]

Excited to see how this comes out. Used a bunch of navy blue colored shreds/chips and then picked out some multicolored shavings I busted up and mixed in well to try my 1st confetti soap with aloe vera water! 2 firsts! Confetti style and aloe vera water! Eeek! So excited!!!!
Wait! 3 firsts! I did heat transfer too!

 

[DeeAnna]

Sodium lactate solution as sold by most suppliers is 60% sodium lactate with the balance being water.

So if you reduce the amount of water you add to account for the water in the SL solution, you might want to do the extra math to calculate the actual water in the solution.

If a person assumes the whole amount of the SL solution is water, that's not any more accurate than the other extreme of ignoring the water in the SL.

 

[Noreen Moore]

@DeeAnna What I wouldn't give to have your expertise! Or to soap with you! Ever host a class in your home? Giggle! Would be worth the drive!!!

 

[DeeAnna]

Thanks @Noreen Moore! I honestly don't think I'm any better soap maker than anyone else. I truly don't. I just enjoy the math and chemistry side of soap making because I'm that kind of person. I also enjoy trying to explain this science-y stuff in everyday plain language (or as plain as I can manage) so others can learn too.

If the geeky explanations make me sound like I'm some kind of super-soaper, I'm not! I'm still intimidated by fancy design work, but I've gotten a lot better at swirls in past years thanks to the SMF Challenges. I really doubt I'd have tried some of these decorative techniques if it weren't for pushing myself to enter the Challenges.

And I am often surprised by the many tricks soap can play on people. For example, I have a video on my little Youtube channel that shows how I learned the hard way that thyme EO is an accelerant. I figure it's better that I embarrass myself so other people don't need to learn the hard way like I did.

 

[Saffron]

Oooooh! What's the name of your Youtube channel? *so excited*

 

[DeeAnna]

My channel isn't much to get too excited about -- I haven't done many videos. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT7reUGdjUY-hZP-y1hXvBQ/

 

[n6561echo]

Good morning forum readers. Today on a whim I tried heat transfer method using aloe vera gel/drink.
I put my kaolin clay in the liquid oils. Then I wasn't sure where or what to add sodium lactate to. So I added that to the liquid oils. As my lye and aloe mix was already in the hard fats.
Does this work? I guess that is my question!
(I still had to put my hot lye hard fats bowl in a pot of boiling water to aid the melting of the Kokum butter. Must research that stuffs melting temp! )

If you're talking about the powder form, the melting point is 161-165 C, or 322-324 F.

If you're talking about the liquid form, as Dee Anna mentioned, it's sold as a 60% solution, referred to as a syrup. The solubility of sodium lactate in water is greater than 1.5grams/ml, accounting for the syrupy quality of the liquid form. The most common recommendation is 1 tsp/ppo, but many soapers report using as little as 1/2tsp. Personally, I use about 3/4tsp.

 

[Noreen Moore]

I had no clue there was a powdered form! This is chunks and I looked it up. After not getting it to melt fully trying heat transfer.

 

[n6561echo]

I had no clue there was a powdered form! This is chunks and I looked it up. After not getting it to melt fully trying heat transfer.

Are you sure what you have is actually sodium lactate?? What was your source. All of the suppliers I researched, offered powder, but none offered
"chunks."

 

[Noreen Moore]

No that is in a jug. Yeah it looks like raw Shea butter but it is Kokum butter. Old boy got me 3 lbs! Hard stuff! Does not melt in my hand the way Shea butter does.

 

[n6561echo]

No that is in a jug. Yeah it looks like raw Shea butter but it is Kokum butter. Old boy got me 3 lbs! Hard stuff! Does not melt in my hand the way Shea butter does.

My advice, THROW IT OUT, and use the no fail liquid sodium lactate. No sense wasting time or treasure.

As a scientist, 1) We NEVER use anything than is not in a properly labeled container, supplied by a reputable vendor. 2) It would be interesting to
melt the material you have, and measure the temperature at which it melts. We could then try to match its' melting point with some likely suspects. Bramble Berry lists the melting point of their
shea, and kokum butters as 90F. Probably NOT either of these, if your material doesn't melt easily.

At least, if it starts melting before 300-320F, we can probably conclude that it's NOT sodium lactate.

 

[dibbles]

Noreen, I think there is some major confusion going on. When you are talking about ‘chunks’ and using the heat transfer method to melt I think you are referring to kokum butter. Is that correct?

The reference to a powdered version was to sodium lactate - is that how you understood it? It’s hard to tell if you were thinking there is a powdered version of kokum butter (which I’ve never heard of) given that I believe your SL is in liquid form.

I might be reading all of this and interpreting it all wrong. But I am confused here.

 

[maxine289]

I was confused, too. But I googled powdered sodium lactate and found it. Never knew there was such a thing. I've always used liquid and never knew it was a 60% solution. (The great things we learn on this forum!) Since SL is such a small amount of a recipe, I guess (hope?) the 40% water in the SL does not matter. My soap seems to be fine. Does anyone know, if we use the powdered form of SL, is it at the same rate of 1 tsp. per 1 lb. of oils? Or would it be 60% of a tsp.? And would it be added to the oils or liquid?

 

[gloopygloop]

I have used SL powder form lots and I use it 3% total weight of oils. We in Europe have to be more accurate because of the regulations and safety certificate, spoons of this and that are not really acceptable. I found the powder just fine to use and I dissolved it in my water before adding lye.

 

[maxine289]

Thanks, I'm going to check it out. Powder form may be a more economical choice from a shipping standpoint.

 

[cmzaha]

I also think there is confusion and the chunks being referred to were the Kokum butter. I have seen it in almost powder form when it gets older and has bloomed. SL does come in powder form, while I do not use it in my soap I was given a large amount of powdered and use it in lotions. Powdered SL can get hard if not kept in an airtight container.

 

[soapmaker]

Noreen, I think there is some major confusion going on. When you are talking about ‘chunks’ and using the heat transfer method to melt I think you are referring to kokum butter. Is that correct?

The reference to a powdered version was to sodium lactate - is that how you understood it? It’s hard to tell if you were thinking there is a powdered version of kokum butter (which I’ve never heard of) given that I believe your SL is in liquid form.

I might be reading all of this and interpreting it all wrong. But I am confused here.

I agree with @dibbles. You and the scientist are confusing subjects. I read that Noreen's kokum butter is in chunks and the SL comes in a jug as liquid. No need to throw out your chunks of kokum butter!