Teach Soap

I’m trying to prevent soda ash and while I’m reading old posts I’m thinking of more questions

I’ve only ever used brambleberry lye cal that gives the stated amounts but I’ve been looking at the sage cal that gives range of amounts. Can I use the lowest amount of water and use the 5% lye ratio?
Which would help prevent the ash using the lowest value of water or lye?

Thanks Monica

I do a 7-8% superfat as anything below that my skin finds drying. The Sage Lye Calc is the one I use as it gives you a variance on water. Personally, I would not do a severe water discount. Try a 10% water discount.

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

Thanks for that Soapbuddy,
I always spritz my soap with rubbing alcohol as I’ve seen online it can help prevent soda ash but that’s not worked for me. Can anyone explain how to do a water discount ?
Am I right that The super fat is the. % lye ?

So how do I calculate the 10% water discount? That’s seems like such a dumb question ! Is it as simple as finding 10% of the water or milk etc then subtract it ?
Is there a simpler way ? Does it tell you what it is on the sage calc? Is that why the sage gives a range in the amount of liquid you can use?

Thanks Monica

I'll give you a hypothetical example.

16 ozs. of olive oil
4-6 ozs. of water
2 ozs. lye for a 7% superfat


I would do a middle amount of water. In this case, instead of using 6 ozs. of water, you would use 5 ozs. of water.
The less lye you use, the more the soap is superfatted. Superfat is also called a lye discount.

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

Great ,
I’m better using the sage lye cal as it gives the range of liquid where as brambleberry doesn’t.
I’m keen to give this a try.
Thanks soapbuddy x

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

There is an experiment on ghosting soap in which 2 different amounts of water are used in the same loaf of soap. It is a woman from South Africa who posted it (Auntie Clara somebody or 'nother) but I find it very interesting that in her second article (and not the FIRST) on this subject you can easily gather that the only parts of the loaf that got soda ash were the parts with MORE water and not less. The parts of her design that did not get ash were the parts with LESS water.
She does not stick her neck out and say this but she clearly says which parts of her design had more water. She did not want to ruffle any feathers here.

Living in the south with a lot of humidity, I myself use much less water and never get ash. The only time I have gotten ash was when I used a lot of water my first couple of loaves.
This woman backs this theory up by her beautifully designed soap and good pictures.

I've tried this ghosting and I think I used the same amounts of water (probably less but I don't remember). It didn't work out very well for me and it was a definite headache.
I think I will stick to what I know. Very good article though.

Hmm, to add to that, I typically use 1-1.5 (mostly 1.1) X lye amount. Since starting this I haven't looked back and is actually easier and more predictable for me. I just use the percentages of hard oils to control the amount of time that I have to work with it.
Using the above example, the amount of water I would use would be 2 - 2.1 oz of water which would allow for more oil. Some Olive oil is hard enough to saponify anyway and takes long enough to cure.
You do not want to go any lower then a 50/50 ratio. You will not have sufficient water to carry the lye. A 50/50 ratio is pushing it any way and you need to use grams with an accurate scale but it is actually easier to control hard oils then guessing how much water do I need to add to keep this thing from hardening too fast.