Teach Soap

I used to use Sodium lactate in my CP soaps and if memory serves correct I used The Sage lye calculator and used their recommended amount of SL.

I'm wanting to start using SL in some of my soaps. What is the best % to use per pound of oils?

I use about 1.5% added to my cooled off lye water.

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

soapbuddy,

Thanks.

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

I've been hesitant to use it as it's not vegan but I want to use what I have left and I'd love to have a harder bar of soap. I'll just label it as non vegan and try a few types with SL and see how it goes. I made one about a year ago with SL and loved how easy my soap slid out of the mold.

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

Where did you hear it is non vegan?

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

mella,

I've done quite a bit of searching online and there are so many opinions on the subject. Some Vegan sites say it's not vegan and others say that it is so I'm not sure. I asked my supplier where I bought it from if it contained milk and was told that it did. I've also heard you can buy a vegan type of SL as well. I'm incredibly confused on the subject but since I make mostly vegan soaps (I sell some goat milk ones that vegans don't seem to mind) I have to be on the safe side.

Let me see if I can find the links that I found earlier:

http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic ... that-milk/

http://www.veganpeace.com/ingredients/ingredients.htm#S

http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/show ... vers-candy (more to do with life savers but a discussion on sodium lactate)

http://www.dunmorehousehotel.ie/lerat/h ... um-lactate

So it sounds like it's vegan and I'm going to check with my supplier again as she didn't seem so sure herself.

Thank you for the links. I thought it was milk based too, so I never advertised it as vegan.

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

When I made one SL soap last year I warned vegans about it as well but the links seem to suggest otherwise. I want to make sure it's vegan because I'd love to use it in all my soaps.

I looked into it SL a bit last fall, not from a vegan standpoint because I was using it in non-gelled goat milk soap at the time, but here's an article about it.

http://www.sodium-lactate.com/

excerpt:
"Sodium lactate is produced by the natural fermentation of the sugars from corn or beets. These sugars are fermented with lactic acid starter culture, similar to those used for cheese or yogurt production. The fermented solution is mixed with caustic soda (same used in pretzel and bagel manufacturing to coat the outside) to form sodium lactate in the same fashion soy milk is mixed with Calcium Sulfate to form tofu."

So the next question in my mind is: Is lactic acid starter culture vegan?

I always thought it is vegan also because I thought Lactic acid is one of the Alpha Hydroxy Acid family?!

See Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHA) section:

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Shieh Design Studio
https://www.facebook.com/ShiehDesignStudio
http://soapandrestless.blogspot.com

Thanks soapchick. Yes I'm confused also as if it is sugar from vegetables how can it not be vegan. One of my mentors is vegan and uses this in her soaps! Go figure. I appreciate the links also!

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

"Yes I'm confused also as if it is sugar from vegetables how can it not be vegan."

Because if the lactic acid starter culture that's used to ferment the vegetable sugars isn't vegan, (one strain is made from whey, whey comes from cheese) then Sodium Lactate isn't vegan. The vegans seem as confused as we non-vegans are. They may just be looking at whether SL is made from dairy or vegetables, not knowing about the fermentation process. I'm still looking into this because I'd like to know too.

Repeating:

"I looked into it SL a bit last fall, not from a vegan standpoint because I was using it in non-gelled goat milk soap at the time, but here's an article about it.
http://www.sodium-lactate.com/

excerpt:
"Sodium lactate is produced by the natural fermentation of the sugars from corn or beets.These sugars are fermented with lactic acid starter culture, similar to those used for cheese or yogurt production. The fermented solution is mixed with caustic soda (same used in pretzel and bagel manufacturing to coat the outside) to form sodium lactate in the same fashion soy milk is mixed with Calcium Sulfate to form tofu."

So the next question in my mind is: Is lactic acid starter culture vegan?

I think the confusion with sodium lactate is it SOUNDS like it has milk in it. The thing is, "back in the day" they called anything with a milk-like appearance lactate....not necessarily "made from milk". At a certain point there was a distinction made (I dunno when...I wasn't there....lol) but the scientific name stuck.