ulrurunaturals
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Great addition old hippie !
What's the deal with expectations in soaping
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amd
Right... but what was said was "...the water and the hydroxide that initially create the heat then are intoduced to react with the oils." so if the lye is allowed to cool, such as in the case with masterbatching as mentioned by Shunt, it still is not the heat creating the soap. Soap is a chemical process, simplified to acid + base = salt or oils + NaOH = soap. Liquids are merely the vehicle to combine the acids and the base. I like to think of liquids as being the + sign in the equation, not part of the equation itself.
He said it heated then introduced to react to the oils, it doesn't have to be heated to react. I replied to just the way it was stated and they way I understood it. Plus you can add lye to ice cubes and never get a heated reaction either. The heat of the lye/water has nothing to do with making soap.
OldHippie
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Yeah, me too. I think that we all know that it does not have to be heated to react.
What do you think melts the ice?
Saponification ("making soap") is a time/temperature reaction, the temperature of both the oils and the lye will make a difference in how long it takes to emulsify and reach trace.
A
amd
You're contradicting yourself in that statement. First you say saponification is a time/temperature reaction, then you end the statement by stating that the temperature will make a difference in emulsion and trace. Saponification is the chemical reaction of base + acid. Temperature is a by product of that chemical reaction. Sometimes we can influence this by adding an external influence of [more] heat.
Many people masterbatch the lye solution so it is ready to go when they are making soap. It's at room temperature when they use it, but initially heated up when it was mixed.
ulrurunaturals
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So how does one masterbatch. And what are the benefits of masterbatching.
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A
amd
The simplest way is to premix your full water amount with the lye that you need for soapmaking, and if you always use the same water % or ratio and the same oil recipe. For example using random numbers for easy math: if your regular soap batch uses 100g water and 25g lye, and you wanted to make enough solution to use for 4 batches, you would mix 400g water and 100g lye. Then when you make 1 batch of soap you would measure 125g of your solution (water amount + lye amount). Obviously you want to use your real numbers from your recipe, not the numbers I made up here.
The other way to do it, if you use different water % or ratios in different recipes or different oil recipes, is to mix a 1:1 solution of lye and water. I only do water to lye ratios, so if you use water %, I can't really help you but someone else will chime in and explain it to you. So like the example above using random made up numbers: If you wanted to make 4 batches of soap you would measure 100g water and 100g lye to get a 1:1 solution, also called a 50/50 solution. For making soap - for the first batch lets say you want to do a 2:1 ratio needing 25g lye and 50g water - you would measure 50g of the solution (25g lye needed for the recipe + 25g water) and add 25g water to get the correct amount for soap. Batch two you want to do a different oil recipe that needs 30g lye and a 3:1 ratio, so you would measure 60g of solution (30g lye + 30g water) and then add 60g water to get the total 90g water needed.
When I first started making soap, I used water %, and couldn't wrap my head around masterbatching. When I switched to water to lye ratio, and understood that lye needs an equal amount of water to dissolve, it started to click. I've been masterbatching successfully for 4 months now and will probably never go back! (Well, successfully except for one batch last week, which I have troubleshooted as a bad batch of lye - the bottle had a huge clump in it, so I suspect that moisture weakened the entire bottle. But this is slightly off topic...)
Lin19687
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I am so done reading this thread...................
@ulrurunaturals
There are two main exothermic (heat generating) chemical reactions in CP/HP soapmaking.
The first exothermic reaction is between the hydroxide and the water: Your lye gets hot.
The second exothermic reaction occurs when you add your lye to your fats: Your soap batter gets warm (or hot, depending on recipe and technique).
Shunt2011 (and others
) can use masterbatch/room temperature lye to make soap, because lye doesn't need to be hot for saponification to work.One of the reasons I like starting with cooler lye is because it slows down saponification a little (a useful understanding when creating soapy designs/art
).
Because they can be similar to looking at Rorschach Ink Blots. I love to see what I can find in a swirl and some of my customers also buy soaps for the color to display them. After several years of soaping I still get excited to cut my loaf and see what is inside. I do not have time anymore to play with special pours but I still love lots of pretty swirls
OldHippie
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Actually, I'm not. We're talking about two different sources of heat. In addition, I don't think that I like your tone. I'm frankly tired of your picayune responses. Seems like trolling to me.
Yes, in this case, the addition of heat is from the hot lye. Others understood the reference, too bad you couldn't.
@ulrurunaturals
There are two main exothermic (heat generating) chemical reactions in CP/HP soapmaking.
The first exothermic reaction is between the hydroxide and the water: Your lye gets hot.
The second exothermic reaction occurs when you add your lye to your fats: Your soap batter gets warm (or hot, depending on recipe and technique).
Shunt2011 (and others
I know that's right.
ulrurunaturals
Well-Known Member
Yes this makes more sense to me now. I've always known about the 2 reactions however not in the context of soaponification control in creating intentional soapy designs. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time out to help a "young" soaper understand more about this endless process we call soap making.@ulrurunaturals
There are two main exothermic (heat generating) chemical reactions in CP/HP soapmaking.
The first exothermic reaction is between the hydroxide and the water: Your lye gets hot.
The second exothermic reaction occurs when you add your lye to your fats: Your soap batter gets warm (or hot, depending on recipe and technique).
Shunt2011 (and others
One of the reasons I like starting with cooler lye is because it slows down saponification a little (a useful understanding when creating soapy designs/art
Chris_S
Well-Known Member
Because I am 100% jelious of how good other people's soaps are I see them and think I can't do anything that good yet but then I can try anyways and hope it looks good to me it's like a baby is never ugly to it's family even if it turned green and sweated yellow slime it would still be beautiful. Soap is my imagination going crazy trying to better my last attempt can't beat a bit of self competition. Plus I love the shiney shiney of mica it entertains me and sends me into a trace and to a world of awesome twin horned unicorns and pink sparkly single coloured rainbows.
ulrurunaturals
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True statement yes I can try at least and at least I can use it myself of no one else likes it. Yes it's my baby and I'm gonna keep it!
A
amd
I'm going to second that.
Amd does not troll and at the end of the day does it really matter. Soap can be made with hot or cold NaOH and it does heat on it's own during saponification
ulrurunaturals
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