Teach Soap

Hi all. I want to use Canned Coconut Milk in a batch of soap. The ingredients listed on the can are coconut milk and guar gum. That's it. Should I use this as my "water" or should I dissolve my lye in my water as usual and add this at trace? I haven't done anything like this at all yet hence the question. Thanks.

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Haven

i'd use the minimum amount of water to dissolve the lye, and add the coconut milk seperately. i like to add everything to the oils before i add the lye water.

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http://www.magichandsworkshop.com
http://www.magichands.etsy.com
http://www.magichandsworkshop.blogspot.com

This probably sounds stupid but I really don't know what you mean. Here is the recipe I would like to add the coconut milk to. It's for a 36oz batch...

Olive oil 27% 9.72oz
Coconut Oil 22.5% 8.1oz
Palm Oil 22.5% 8.1oz
Apricot Kernel Oil 9% 3.24oz
Avocado Oil 9% 3.24oz
Castor Oil 5% 1.8oz
Shea Butter 5% 1.8oz

Water 9oz
Lye 4.8oz (8% Superfat)

How would I adjust this to add the coconut milk? Thanks for your help. I have made this recipe before and it is wonderful. Just wanted to try something new.

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Haven

I'd use 5 oz water to dissolve the lye. It won't always dissolve completely if you use less water than the weight of the lye, so I just rounded up.

Go ahead and get your oils melted and cooled and whatnot, and add the extra liquid amount - 4 oz, in this case, because you started with 9oz but already used 5oz as water. Add that 4oz of coconut milk to your oils and have the stickblender running when you add the cooled lye water.

I like to add it to the oils because otherwise, you're starting with a very concentrated lye solution, and if the fragrance is tricky, it could give it a chance to sieze before you get the rest of the liquid in there.

The other thing to be aware of is that this will increase your effective superfat, because coconut milk does have some fat content - you're fairly high at 8%, so you might want to adjust just a percent or two, say maybe 6% superfat to start with. You can certainly go higher, but higher superfat percentages can increase your chances of DOS, so keep it in mind.

Let me know if I still wasn't clear.

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http://www.magichandsworkshop.com
http://www.magichands.etsy.com
http://www.magichandsworkshop.blogspot.com

Thank you so much! That was perfectly clear. I will adjust for a lower superfat. Now, if I can just get to feeling better so I can make the soap. Can you help me with that? LOL! Thanks again.

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Haven

Be aware that guar gum could accelerate trace.

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

Thank you. Good news is the fo doesn't. I was afraid that it would but the other good news is I am used to that. So I will make sure to work quick!

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Haven

I have been freezing my coconut milk just like goatsmilk and not diluting it with a water-lye concentation and it has worked great. Last weekend, I actually did room temp coconut milk and while I got cottage cheese in the lye solution, it smoothed out with the stick and it may be the most fantastic soap I have ever made.

So I think canned coconut is the bomb and you can use it any which way with no issues. And I have had zero DOS with full coconut without any water both in CPOP and in CP. But I may be unique because of the weather here, the alignment of the stars etc. Ha ha!

Lisa

I've been doing my Coconut Milk soap with 100% substitution for the water and dissolving the lye directly into the coconut milk. The milk solids saponify somewhat and the mixture gets very thick. The final soap is lovely though.

You do need to watch temperatures when doing this though (see blog posts about it here http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/search?q=coconut) or you can end up with a bit of a soap volcano.

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

Wow! That soap went to town!

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

Goodness. I certainly don't want that to happen. I am not sure I would have been excited, more horrified...LOL! I haven't tried my coconut milk yet but since I just got my order from Brambleberry in this morning (and the sample of Cinnamon Sugar smells divine, by the way) and it has the scent that I need, I will be doing a batch tomorrow. Thank you everyone for all of your help and advice.

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Haven

I finally got around to making this soap this evening and I wanted to say Thank you so much for everyone's help! I would have been totally surprised at how fast it reached trace and how hot the soap got while still in the bowl! It was weird!! I made a 20 oz batch. I did a 6% superfat, dissolved my lye in 3 oz water and then added the remaining 2 oz of liquid (the coconut milk) to my cooled oils. Then added my fo's to my oils (since I know they don't accelerate trace, I felt safe doing this). Then, I poured in my lye water and wow, it went fast! Literally like 2 minutes with the stick blender, it was at light trace, then a few minutes more, thick. I poured into the mold and into the fridge it went. I have not not gelled before so we will see how that works out but I didn't want it to overheat. Anyway, again, thank you so much for all of the advice and I will let you know how the final product turns out.

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Haven

Well, so far so good. I must say that I am glad I put it in the fridge or I might have had a soap volcano. Even with putting it in the fridge immediately after pouring into the mold, it still partially gelled. I left it in the fridge for 24 hours. I did not expect gel at all. Oh well. I am just hoping that the dark circle in the middle will eventually spread out. Now, just to wait until it cures. Oh, the anticipation is killing me!

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Haven

I bought a can of cocnut milk a couple weeks ago for soaping, and this thread is inspiring me to finally use it!!
One question---does any of the fragrance of the coconut make it thru? and I've read that coconut milk makes a whiter soap--is that rtue in your experience?

Thanks!
Susan

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www.foresthillsoaps.com
www.adonaiequestrian.com

The fragrance for me didn't come through Susan. If you don't gel and use the lightest in color oils and butters, you should get pretty close to a white bar.

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