Coconut Milk Woes

[eugenia]

I made a batch with a can of coconut milk, subbed the milk for part of my lye water. The lye water with the coconut milk kept separating, with a hard surface. Kept breaking it up and used the SB before adding to the oils.

After I posted this disaster pic on the Dish I was told that the reason the lye water was getting solid was that the lye was saponifying the fats in the coconut milk. I ended up with this ugly soap. The white areas are from the saponified coconut milk. The advice I was given was to subtract the amount of coconut milk from my water, add the reduced water to the lye, add my coconut milk to my oils, then soap. Thought I might save someone a problem. I dread rebatching all this. It's eight pounds of good soap that mostly looks like crap.

[CareBear]

Eugenia, that happened to me the first time I soaped with half-and -half. The next time my lye-milk sol'n solidified into a gel again but I just SB'd the blazes out of the solution before putting it into my oils - SB'd till it was smooth and liquidy and then had to do it again before adding it to the oils - and it worked just fine.

[eugenia]

Eugenia, that happened to me the first time I soaped with half-and -half. The next time my lye-milk sol'n solidified into a gel again but I just SB'd the blazes out of the solution before putting it into my oils - SB'd till it was smooth and liquidy and then had to do it again before adding it to the oils - and it worked just fine.

I did SB the crap out of it first. No go.

[Soapmaker Man]

Eugenia, that is what I do too. I use a 50% lye solution. I use aloe vera juice to make my lye solution. When I make soap, I just SB, lightly until mixed really good, the 50% solution into my fats and oils. Then I add my cold goat milk and/or coconut milk (no guar gum added) to that mixture and stir by hand for a minute then SB until light trace. I like my 50% lye solution and oils and fats to be RT, and the milks to be very cold. I have a lot of play time and really light GM soaps, especially since I've started using fresh GM! LOVE IT!

Paul....

[CareBear]

I did SB the crap out of it first. No go.

Well... crap, that's no help then! And I thought I might get to teach the teacher! LOL

[eugenia]

Eugenia, that is what I do too. I use a 50% lye solution.

OMG Paul, you are a very brave man!

I've made many batches of soap, but only a few with milk (all disastrous on the first go round due to the FO) but have never used a lye solution over 33%. It was like pulling teeth to get me to take my first water discount, LOL.

e

[Meridith]

E - did you attempt a blind swirl on this soap too? It kind of looks like it? :undecided But does it smell good??

Fresh GM is the way to go. There is nothing like it.

[eugenia]

E - did you attempt a blind swirl on this soap too? It kind of looks like it? :undecided But does it smell good??

Yes I did. The back row is how they are supposed to look. They smell fine.

As for the goat's milk, I market my soaps as "no animal products"; it's a selling point around me. I personally have nothing against milk or lard. The vegans won't even use anything with honey or silk. Limiting, but it's my gimmick.

e

[mystical_angel1219]

Thank you for sharing, e.

I love coconut milk and coconut fragrance. It is a must do, if I can find a FO that doesn't have a tantrum and sticks in CP. I watch these experiments very closely on the soaping boards. It seems like something that might take a whole lotta of work to get a successful batch.

[Soapmaker Man]

OMG Paul, you are a very brave man!

I've made many batches of soap, but only a few with milk (all disastrous on the first go round due to the FO) but have never used a lye solution over 33%. It was like pulling teeth to get me to take my first water discount, LOL.

e

NO, no. My lye solution is less than 50%! I start with a 50% lye solution, then add my fresh GM to the base to reduce the total lye solution strength to about 32%. Let me explain better. Lets say my recipe calls for 4.35 ounces of lye. I add 8.70 ounces of my premixed lye solution to my RT oils and fats. I SB for a few bursts to mix well. Now lets say that my recipe calls for a total of 10.5 ounces of liquids. I take 10.5 minus the 4.35 ounces of aloe vera juice that was in my premix. So I add 6.15 ounces of cold goat milk to the base soap batter, thus reducing the strength of the lye solution to the 32% I want in my recipe. This keeps my GM from turning that terrible orangish tan and smelling foul because the lye has burned the sugars in the goat milk.

Hope this is clearer now! Sometimes I make it worse, but I hope I explained it well.

Paul....

[eugenia]

NO, no. My lye solution is less than 50%! I start with a 50% lye solution, then add my fresh GM to the base to reduce the total lye solution strength to about 32%. Let me explain better. Lets say my recipe calls for 4.35 ounces of lye. I add 8.70 ounces of my premixed lye solution to my RT oils and fats. I SB for a few bursts to mix well. Now lets say that my recipe calls for a total of 10.5 ounces of liquids. I take 10.5 minus the 4.35 ounces of aloe vera juice that was in my premix. So I add 6.15 ounces of cold goat milk to the base soap batter, thus reducing the strength of the lye solution to the 32% I want in my recipe. This keeps my GM from turning that terrible orangish tan and smelling foul because the lye has burned the sugars in the goat milk.

Hope this is clearer now! Sometimes I make it worse, but I hope I explained it well.

Paul....

LOL, makes sense now!

[Kaybee23]

I think it would be wonderful chunked up or shreaded into a new batch of soap. I have not soaped coconut milk before, someone told me that the Guar Gum in it would screw up my batch. I really haven't researched it too much, but I would in the near future and try it out in a batch.

[Steph in tx]

"The advice I was given was to subtract the amount of coconut milk from my water, add the reduced water to the lye, add my coconut milk to my oils, then soap. Thought I might save someone a problem. '

Oh am I sooo glad that I kept reading this thread!! Cause I was like *faint* ! I couldn't make heads or tails of that!! I'm so sorry this didn't turn out the way you wanted it to E. Hopefully you can rebatch?? I am printing out Soapman's directions for future use....way in the FUTURE!!

[Meridith]

Yes I did. The back row is how they are supposed to look. They smell fine.

As for the goat's milk, I market my soaps as "no animal products"; it's a selling point around me. I personally have nothing against milk or lard. The vegans won't even use anything with honey or silk. Limiting, but it's my gimmick.

e

The best looking blind swirl I've seen was one I think Sara made. It was perfect. I can't seem to get the right amount of unscented soap to swirl back in to see a contrast. I just did another batch of Pink Sugar and its my best so far, but certainly nothing to be proud of either. At least with yours, you can tell what you were going for. And they smell good.

[Soapmaker Man]

WOOOHOOO! Someone actually understood something I tried to explain! Makes me feel all tingly inside! Thanks!

Paul....

[funnygirl]

LOL Paul! Im going over your method in my mind. Im doing GM soap too, but I am useing the canned evaporated. If I understand you correctly, I could do the following. Instead of mixing my water/GM in equal parts and then adding lye, I could add the water part to the lye, then after I add the lye water to my oils, put in the GM. For example. If I needed 4 oz. of lye and 12 oz. liquid, I could mix 4 oz. lye and 6 oz. water. Add that to my oils, then add the other 6 oz. GM directly to the oils? Just want to make sure before I do something silly. Also, when I use soapcalc, it has a default setting of the following: water as % of oils: 38, and super fat: 5%. Should I change the water to 33 instead of 38?

[Soapmaker Man]

LOL Paul! Im going over your method in my mind. Im doing GM soap too, but I am useing the canned evaporated. If I understand you correctly, I could do the following. Instead of mixing my water/GM in equal parts and then adding lye, I could add the water part to the lye, then after I add the lye water to my oils, put in the GM. For example. If I needed 4 oz. of lye and 12 oz. liquid, I could mix 4 oz. lye and 6 oz. water. Add that to my oils, then add the other 6 oz. GM directly to the oils? Just want to make sure before I do something silly. Also, when I use soapcalc, it has a default setting of the following: water as % of oils: 38, and super fat: 5%. Should I change the water to 33 instead of 38?

Absolutely 100% correct. I change the default there to 33 myself. When I calculate the recipe, it tells me how much liquid to use, and how much lye. If it calls for, like you say, 4 ounces of lye, take the 4 ounces of lye add that to 4 ounces of water, so you get a 50% lye solution. Now lets say that the recipe calls for 10 ounces of liquid, I take the 4 ounces off the 10, leaving 6 ounces to add to the soap batter. I would add 5 ounces of the caned Gm, and 1 more ounce of water to the soap base with the allready added and stirred in 50% solution. Add this very cold GM to the batter, slowly stirring it into the batter, and continue to SB until the level of trace you normally pour or swirl at. I started out freezing my GM, but have been doing it this way for 7 or 8 months now with great success. I like to use room temp oils and fats, as well as RT 50 lye solution. It gives a great result between that and using very cold gm stirred into the batter. Try it and please let me know how this method works for you!

Paul....

[jes432]

When you used the coconut milk did you freeze it to get it to a slushy state before mixing with lye? I gave coconut milk a try a few months ago and had no issues with it (did 3 batches). I replaced all of the water with coconut milk and it was fine. It does get hot quick and melt it, but didn't scorch it.

[Soapmaker Man]

When you used the coconut milk did you freeze it to get it to a slushy state before mixing with lye? I gave coconut milk a try a few months ago and had no issues with it (did 3 batches). I replaced all of the water with coconut milk and it was fine. It does get hot quick and melt it, but didn't scorch it.

Nope, when I use coconut milk, I mix it in advance with my goat milk, and store in the refrigerator. Like I mentioned, I use the RT premixed lye solution, stir it into my fats and oils until mixed well, then add the very cold GM and/or coconut milk to the batter, as the rest of my liquids, and SB until I reach the stage of trace I want. It never turns color or smells. HTH!

Paul....