Teach Soap

I haven't started making cold process soap, but I'm thinking about it. Can you use use any liquid as a substitute for water in any recipe?

You can use aloe or milk or sub some juice.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I made up a batch of soap with aloe liquid instead of water, and I absolutely love it! Of course, that adds to the total cost of materials, but I think it was completely worth it.

As you get a little more experienced you can also use coffee, beer and wine. I also use aloe in my "spa" bar. I use goats milk.... almost every batch.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

So far I've only used water and cooled down tea and powdered oat milk with water as liquids. Didn't know you can use red wine etc! Going to try that in the future! And the aloe as well.

I usually use a 38% water percentage but have heard you can go down to 33%, to "speed up" water dissipation rate. What would you suggest?

Thank you!

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http://soapsensations.co.za/

I have used both guinness and merlot in my cold process soaps.You must first boil them down to remove alcohol and chill for use. Merlot puts a really red/brown color and Guiness is a light tan/brown. Realize that lye is going to change the color of almost any organic liquids you use. I have also used frozen goats milk....which worked as well. Just remember that when you use boiled down alcohol or milks there is a chance of super heating the batter in the mold....same with honey. Sugar increases the temp. I just barely insulate mine and have not had a problem...or maybe just lucky!!!

I have also used cooled tea and coffee. Had no issues with them...they worked just like water.

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"The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it."
~Neil deGrasse Tyson

And if at all possible, when I add the lye to either flat beer or cold coffee, I will do so outside on the deck or in the garage. The smell is not very nice, but it does not stay in the soap.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

thank you for your help it is greatly appreciated

You can use coffee in soap, but the coffee scent won't come through. I make a coffee/tea tree gardener's soap, and I just through ground coffee into the lye water. The grounds do give the soap a very light coffee scent, and add a nice scrubbing effect. It's also good for deodorizing the hands if you'ved chopped garlic or onions.

ok, i got some lye and i attempted to make goat milk soap. i know it is advanced. my water amount was 15.6 oz and my goat milk was 12 oz. so i premade the lye mixture with water --3.77 oz and the rest was goat milk. when i got ready to mix the lye and the oils i found that the lye mixture was solidified. so i added some goat milk to it about 1 oz and it dispersed. when i went to separate the soap and i added the clay and fo to two of the four. i found when i poured it into the mold it separated? there was a mass and a lot of oil. so i took all the soap and remixed it with the stick blender and it looked well mixed. i poured it into another mold and it hardened and looks like soap. i did the taste zap test and it didnt zap, but it didnt really taste like soap either. should i keep it or through it out?

thank you for any answers or just for reading

ginger

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

sorry i didnt specify. the total liquids was 15.6 and i used 3.6 h20 and 12 goats milk plus what i used to rehydrate the solidfied lye mixture. the lye had some liquid in it, but it was mostly crystal like. i added the 12 oz of goat milk to the oils and then added the lye and mixed until trace. it was pretty thick or so it seemed to me. i made sure it was like pudding before i separated it. i thought that if i waited until then and added to my premade colorants and fo then it would work.

breakdown:


coconut oil 12 oz
hemp seed oil 2 oz
palm oil 12.15 oz
rice bran oil 12.3 oz
safflower oil 2 oz
lye 5.58 oz
h20 15.2 oz
yields 62 oz

superfat 5% apricot/jojoba 1 tablespoon each 1/2 tsp colorant mixed into each, then the scent 0.5 oz each # got 15 oz of soap base

1. rhassoul clay goat milk
2. rhassoul clay goat milk woodland elves
5. rose clay goat milk
6. rose clay goat milk lychee red tea

Do you have an accurate scale that weighs 12.15 ozs? For that size batch, you would need 10-15 ozs. of liquid (water or milk). You have over 29% of coconut oil, which could make the batch drying. I don't go above 20% myself. I normally superfat at 7-8%. There is no need to add any superfat separately. Lye at trace is still very active and it will take whatever it wants. There is no guarantee that those extra oils will end up as your superfat. Add those oils right into a lye calc and calculate for all of them. I would use minimum water required to dissolve the lye, then add the rest as milk. If the lye mixture had crystals in it, it was too cold. Some of the milk started to saponify. That's why the mixture became thick. Do not use teaspoon or tablespoons for your oils. This is not an accurate method for soapmaking. Depending on your colorant, you can make a slurry of either water or a little bit of glycerin.

Since this is a small batch, I would convert it to grams. The smaller the batch, the harder it is to separate into 4 little batches.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.