Hot Process Failure - Used Liquid Lye

[dixiedragon]

For me, after the holidays is the time to make holiday soap. I am full of holiday ideas and inspiration, and the soap has a year to mature. I make quite a bit of fall, winter and Christmas soap in January.

 

[Seawolfe]

My local Ace hardware does still sell granulated lye as a drain cleaner so that's worth looking into if you have one close by.

This is what I use - there is an Ace within walking distance, its just too easy.

 

[galaxyMLP]

At my Ace, you have to ask for it at the counter. Its not on any shelves. They also give you a discount when you tell them that youre using it for soap. It goes from $8.99 for a 1 lb bottle to $3.50

 

[Arimara]

I'm late to the party, but I thought about using a liquid drain cleaner too when I first started out and had trouble finding solid lye. When I checked into the ingredients of the liquid product, however, I realized there was way more water and not enough lye in the mixture. It would have been really tough for me to make decent soap using this kind of product.

Now that I've been soaping for a few years and participated in the "lye heavy soap" thread a year or so back, I am pretty sure I could make soap with a liquid drain cleaner, but this is a challenge better suited for an intermediate or advanced soap maker, not a novice. And I'm not sure I'd do it anyway, even though I think it's do-able with the skills I now have. Commercial liquid drain cleaners are often not just water and lye. The risk of weird things in my soap is just not worth it.

I'm cringing at the though of getting the KOH values of the oils + figuring out how much lye is in a measured amount of liquid drainer if the drainer has 14% lye in it + having to make sure you have a superfat for this soap if it is not a laundry soap. I could totally do it but my mind hates the math (I'm lazy).

 

[DeeAnna]

Actually, I totally agree, Arimara. The thought of doing this makes me cringe too. Lots of room for making mistakes!

 

[Susie]

At my Ace, you have to ask for it at the counter. Its not on any shelves. They also give you a discount when you tell them that youre using it for soap. It goes from $8.99 for a 1 lb bottle to $3.50

That is very good information to have! Thanks!

 

[galaxyMLP]

That is very good information to have! Thanks!

Yep! And I usually bring them a few samples as a thank you the next time I go. A few of them know me now and vouch for me when I ask for the discount.