Salt not dissolving in lye solution

[navigator9]

"Has anyone tried to divide the water in half, dissolve the lye in half of the water and the salt in the other half, separately. Then mix the two waters together? ..."

You can only make a brine that is about 26% by weight of salt at room temperature. You can make a lye solution up to about 50% NaOH. If you split the water in half, you might not be able to dissolve as much salt as you might want. On the other hand, I don't think there would be a problem with getting the lye dissolved with this method -- people take this approach when making milk soap, for example.

For those who use seawater for this type of soap, keep in mind that the average salt content of seawater is only 3.5%. That's way, way below the saturation limit -- quite different than those who want a 25% brine.

I'm starting to get lost in the math. Never my strong suit. Wikianswers says that "100 grams pure water can hold about 38 grams of sodium chloride. " So here were my calculations for tomorrow's batch. My recipe uses 340 g of water, 135g of lye, and 85g of salt. From what I've read, I should be able to dissolve 135g of lye in an equal weight of water. So that would leave me with 205g of water left over to dissolve 85g of salt, and I could hopefully get 76g (and a bit) of salt to dissolve. Do you see any glaring problems with my calculations? I really want to make this recipe with the full amount of salt. If I didn't have to go in to work today, I'd try it now, but I don't want to rush. Besides, my individual molds are full. Now, I'm going to be thinking about this all day at work! Another reason why I can't wait to retire.....more time to soap!

 

[Nevada]

Keep it simple and use 32% water as a % of oil weight
and 25% salt as a % water weight

Read the last comment on the video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5xZkbfz-b8

 

[DeeAnna]

"...100 grams pure water can hold about 38 grams of sodium chloride..."

This is just another way of saying the same thing I did. This approach focuses on the ingredients you start with -- 100 g water and 38 g salt. My way is more like a chemist's way of stating things -- focusing on what you end up with, which is a brine that contains about 26% salt. Either way will get you to the same answer. Here's the math that relates the two...

38 g salt
----------------------------
(100 g water + 38 g salt)

... or 38/138 = 0.275. Stated as a percentage, that's a 27.5% brine solution. Close enough to my 26%. It's not a super precise issue.

"...I could hopefully get 76g (and a bit) of salt to dissolve..."

Looks fine to me.

 

[Spice]

I went back and watched the soaping 101 video and she did indeed add the salt after the lye. She also said to sit it aside until the salt fully dissolved which took about 30 minutes.
I still would never do lye first, its so much easier and faster to add the salt first.

where can I find that video?

 

[Obsidian]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5xZkbfz-b8[/ame]

 

[navigator9]

Thank you all so much for your help! Last night when I got home from work, I unmolded the soaps. They came out of the molds cleanly, and feel like ungelled bars, still a bit softish, and zappy. I filled one Crystal Lite container, and was able to cut those round bars with no problem.I used a fragrance oil that seemed to discolor to an orangey color, but now they've become the color of heavy cream. Here's a sampling of that batch, below.

This morning I made the second batch, with divided water. I was able to get much more salt to dissolve. The lye water was still cloudy and had some particles in it, but I filtered both the salt and the lye solution, so I feel comfortable with those. I've read many comments about how quickly the batch moves with brine bars. Neither of mine did at all. Maybe because I soap really cool? Don't know, but I'm anxiously awaiting being able to try these out. Next time I may be brave enough to try a swirl. Again, thanks so much to all of you for your help!!!

 

[Obsidian]

Looks really nice, I especially like the swirl bar on the left. I've never had salt accelerate trace for me, not even when making regular salt bars and using 100% salt.

 

[navigator9]

The second batch is out of the mold. The only negative for me so far about the brine bars is that being made in the individual molds, they didn't gel, and I'm used to the instant gratification of gelled soap and now I have to W...A...I...T to use these! This is reminding me why I love gelled soap so much! The second batch came out of the molds easily also, and the FO I used discolored again to a beautiful cream color. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can detect any difference in the bars that I was able to dissolve more salt. Now I'm going to do my impression of someone waiting patiently. (You know I'll be zap testing those babies every 5 minutes! lol) Again, all your help was much appreciated.

 

[Obsidian]

I made my first brine soap yesterday and managed to get zapped pretty badly being impatient. Tip of my tongue is still a bit tender this morning.
I'm super paranoid that the lather will be greatly reduced, can't wait until I can try a test wash. If these are like regular salt bars, the initial lather won't be impressive but will get better with time.

 

[navigator9]

I made my first brine soap yesterday and managed to get zapped pretty badly being impatient. Tip of my tongue is still a bit tender this morning.
I'm super paranoid that the lather will be greatly reduced, can't wait until I can try a test wash. If these are like regular salt bars, the initial lather won't be impressive but will get better with time.

Glad to hear I'm not the only impatient one. I was worried about the lather too, so I used 35% coconut, and I'm worried about it being drying, but like anything else new, I guess it will take some trial and error til we get to where we want. Good luck, and keep your tongue off that soap! lol

 

[seven]

i got stung too. took it out of the mold after 24 hours, soap was still a bit wet, but i thought what the heck. after another 24 hours, it didn't zap anymore but still not as hard as my regular soaps. i did use quite a lot of water for this one (2.5:1), as per instructions in the candle and soap website.

 

[Bubli]

I haven't used pink Himalayan salt in soap, but this may help, I have used it for years as my sinus rinse and mouth rinse. I noticed early on that no matter how hard I tried there is always a bit of rosy colored debree that settles to the bottom. I even tried dissolving it in boiled water. No use. And some of this debre was good sized little chunks so when I took some out to check it, it was tasteless (not salty) hard as glass and to bite down on it, it shattered like glass. So I always just assumed it was some type of mineral or sand bits maybe. Now I dissolve my salt in a separate container, let it settle, then pour the solution into my nete pot or cup. Sounds gross but the one time I failed to do this, I was blowing pink sandy bits out my nose the rest if the day Reason I use this in my nete pot rather the salt that is sold for it is because it contains no anti caking agents and has not been bleached or baked and supposedly contains tons if trace minerals that are beneficial. I have severe allergies, and used to get colds and sinus infection all the time. Now it's a rare occasion for me to get sick.

 

[Nevada]

Technical Data Sheets for both the Sherpa Pink and Black Hawaiian salts

http://k.b5z.net/i/u/2182313/f/Tech Data Sheets/Tech_Data_Sheet_-gourmet_salt_-_sherpa_himalayan.pdf

http://k.b5z.net/i/u/2182313/f/Tech...met_salt_-_black_hawaiian_lava_sea_salt-2.pdf