Hello,
I am a new soaper and have 20 recipes under my belt including success with goat milk, oatmeal, honey and other somewhat problematic additives. So naturally it is time for me to really start experimenting
I was wondering if anyone could explain where the lye to liquid ratio comes from. I know the amount of lye is dependent upon the amount of oils but where does the liquid measurement from? I always use a lye calculator and the range for the amount of liquid is provided. I have read that the lower amount of liquid will lead to faster trace and curing. But what if I were to use an even lower amount than what is suggested?
Is the liquid just for the purpose of dissolving the lye and slowing trace?
Once the lye is dissolved and cooled somewhat, can chilled milk be added? Once lye is dissolved the threat of the volcano effect should be eliminated correct? If not, what about adding the milk after lye was added to oils? I gave it a try anyway...
I was not sure..... so I tried something new with milk. This is my first coconut milk bar, I was going to freeze the milk but it was taking too long so I decided to dissolve 7.41 oz of lye in 5 oz of water (calc said use 12-19 oz fluid). Since it was small amout of liquid it cooled much quicker, I was going to then add my chilled 14 oz of milk but was not sure if there would be a strange reaction. I wanted the liquid to cool enough to reduce scorching my milk. Instead of adding milk to lye mix, I added the lye mix to oil both were at 100 degrees, gave it a few hand wisks, warmed milk to 80 and added to the mix, gave a few more hand wisks, added EO gave it a real quick whiz as it was tracing fast.
So essentially, I added the required measurment of liquid but just at different intervals. I have read other recipes in where this was done but the water ratio was higher than the milk ratio added to oils.
I did all this to prevent the milk from scorching, in addition I used silicone molds and did not wrap...I even refrigerated one mold to see if there was a difference but all my molds went through the gel phase..the one ine the refrigerator went through partial gel...what other methods ae there to prevent milk soap from gelling? Or does it not matter? My goat milk sopas always gelled and I never noticed a bad odor from scorching...
Anyhoo, just curious about the liquid measurement...
Thanks for any advice