Another soaping disaster

[Tall Blonde]

So, I was making my beer shampoo bar. Now, the beer had been in the fridge for a couple of weeks, so it was cold. I poured the lye in. How do you keep the lye from solidifying at the bottom of the pitcher? This is why I never have any luck with milk soaps. I pour the lye in and it freezes in the bottom of the pitcher. Do I then have to sit around and wait for several hours for the lye water to completely liquefy? Then, it wouldn't come together, it separated and no amount of mixing would help. So I put it on the burner. It was finally looking better. Poured in my honey. Volcano. Honey burnt. Separated again. Finally, I quit. So, the mess is still in the pot in the garage, and I'll see how it looks tomorrow. I don't have much hope for it though. I hate the waste of money in supplies that represents!!! AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!

[Angel91805]

:awww: Awww....I just hate it when nothing seems to go right. <hugs>

What I do when mixing lye into cold liquids (icy, at times)......I'll just pour in a little lye....then stir stir stir...until that seems to have disolved, then pour in a little bit more....stir stir stir....repeat ad nauseum. Takes more time, but it helps and I've only had one instance w/ chunks that didn't dissolve completely.

Maybe tomorrow will be better now that the soap fairies have been fed....

Donna

[TAS]

When I use beer or wine in a batch of CP I do the following:

1. take the beer or wine to just boiling point then cool it off. this kills the head (if you know what I mean)

2. After it is cooled I take it and freeze it in ice trays.

3. You want to keep the beer and lye cool as you mix your lye into the beer. Get at a larger container, like one of those plastic bins that fit into your sink, put in plain H2O ice cubes and water in it.

4. Then I take about 2/3's of the frozen beer cubes and put them into the container that I will be mixing my lye into. These frozen beer cubes need to get slushy. You can zap them on defrost but don't melt them down, just get them soft.

5. Then put your slushy beer container into the ice water bath. The ice water will help keep it cool. Work over your sink just in case it misbehaves.

6. Then I add the lye to the slushy beer - maybe a 1/4 of the lye - to the slushy cubes and stir gently until the lye is dissolved. Once that portion of the lye is dissolved I add a beer cube or two and then add more lye. Just keep stirring until you have incorporated all the lye and it is dissolved. The lye-liquid will probably still be too hot to soap with immediately but it will cool down. Just remember to stir it and check temps while you are waiting for it to arrive at the temp. you desire.

HTH

TAS

[Carrie]

You put your honey in the lye water? I've only used it twice but I added some of the water to the honey to thin it down then added to my oils right after the lye water.

[Tall Blonde]

You put your honey in the lye water? I've only used it twice but I added some of the water to the honey to thin it down then added to my oils right after the lye water.

I usually add my honey at thin trace.

I was thinking of the ice cube thing for milk soap. Is that how you get it to work? Clearly this process is an all day thing. I'll have to try again later this week. Thanks for all the advice!

[jbren]

I was thinking of the ice cube thing for milk soap. Is that how you get it to work? Clearly this process is an all day thing. I'll have to try again later this week. Thanks for all the advice!

Not all day, but longer than what I normally do.

With my fresh milk, and I use it as 100% of my liquid, I measure it and put it in the freezer in my plastic lye mixing cup. Every once in a while, I stir it around, scrape down the sides with a fork.

In about 30 minutes, I have a cup of milk slush, almost to the frozen point, but not. That's when I add my lye, gradually, stirring thoroughly after each addition.

It's pretty time consuming for someone who ordinarily uses a pre-mixed lye solution, but it's what I have found to work for me.

[thecandlespastore]

Wish I had read this 2 days ago. Went to make some beer soap and my beer/lye mixture volcanoed on me. Thank goodness I was working in the sink.