Hello

teamlentz · Jun 13, 2009

Hello,
I am from south Louisiana near Baton Rouge. David.
Recently we vacationed in Branson, Mo. and bought some wonderful soap at a local shop. This gave us the desire to try to make our own soap. I set everything up for the first batch, we made honeysuckle (almost) castile soap. I really don't have a grasp yet on the soap making, but the batch is setting up I think okay and smells good.
In a few days it will be my daugther's turn and she wants mango castile soap.
I have an important question. Really a lot of questions, but I'll just ask one for now. I bought Lye that is in cyrstal form and want to know the strength of NaOH. What is the strength of Lye? I work at a chemical plant on the Mississippi river and I use ~45,000 lbs of 50% NaOH per day. I want to bring some of this home, but MUST dilute it to a weaker strenghth before driving home with it in my car or having it in my house. NaOH is very very dangerous to the skin and mainly to the eyes.
Later I would like to make some soap for me, a manly smelling soap. I have a rosemary bush at home so maybe could get that good pine smell in a soap.
Glad I found this forum, I hope to learn a lot, get some ideas from the experts and maybe make some high quality soap for Christmas gifts later this year.
Thanks.

heartsong · Jun 13, 2009

x

hi there, and welcome!

i was one of those girls that didn't pay much attention during science class, so i can't help you with your lye question.

perhaps these people can answer your question: www.red-devil-lye.com they are one of the many places we buy lye thru.

your soap sounds lovely! for many of us soaping is a delight-and a hobby that's getting out of control!

it's great when you can find a hobby that your family shares in, too.

nice to have you all!

Guest · Jun 13, 2009

Hi Welcome to the forum, it is great to have you here.

Kitn

IanT · Jul 3, 2009

Hey did you ever get your question answered?? Im curious to know??... I would want to say that we buy 100% lye and then dissolve it into our solutions but Ive got no idea... you might want to try reposting this question in the general forum or the cp forum...youll get muuuuch more answers as those are usually the venues our members use to ask questions!

teamlentz · Jul 4, 2009

Thank you for the replies, I will also post in the other forum. The reason I was asking the question, is because I can't find anymore lye at my local stores. I might just order it on the internet.

Today, I used my wife's soap to try it out. It is honeysuckle scented with a nice yellow color. We made it from about 80% olive oil and 20% coconut oil. Very nice. Latters a lot and smells good, so I'll call our first batch a great sucess. :lol:

IanT · Jul 5, 2009

teamlentz said:
Thank you for the replies, I will also post in the other forum. The reason I was asking the question, is because I can't find anymore lye at my local stores. I might just order it on the internet.

Today, I used my wife's soap to try it out. It is honeysuckle scented with a nice yellow color. We made it from about 80% olive oil and 20% coconut oil. Very nice. Latters a lot and smells good, so I'll call our first batch a great sucess.

good stuff ! congrats!!!

you probably cant find it at local stores because its a major ingredient used in synthesizing crystal meth.
:shock: