Re: Question for Marisol

[Guest guest]

Maggie,

The amount of lye I used depends on the amount of olive oil I use in a batch in

conjunction with the others oils in my batch. For example, if I were to want to

try this recipe [i just made it up for show off the top of my head and ran it

through the calculator, because I don't have my tried recipes here at hand, I'm

at work now. : ) and the recipe I've made in the past have been mostly 100%

olive oil, but I'm trying out newer recipes with less or no OO substituting oils

like Rice Bran [which I just got with Katy great secret Santa Gift], Soy and

Corn... yes, Corn. Believe me, it's wonderful and inexpensive.]

Fat Amount

(oz wt) % in

recipe Coconut Oil30 27.27 Olive Oil40 36.36 Palm

Oil30 27.27 Shea Butter10 9.09 Total Weight110

I want to superfat at a 7% discount, for this recipe.

Lye Table (NaOH) %

excess fat Lye Amount

(oz wt) 0 16.48 1 16.31 2 16.15 3

15.98 4 15.82 5 15.65 6 15.49 7 15.32 8 15.16 9 14.99 10 14.83

So I would use 15.32 oz. lye, but that's only for this recipe. The liquid

portion would be between 28 to 41 fluid ounces of liquid, according to

MMS. I use the middle of these two numbers, which would be 34.5 oz of liquids. A

middle number gives a good amount of lye solution to fully incorporate all your

oils and hers, especially oatmeal.

I run every recipe I use through a lye calculator. THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST!

I use MMS's calculator at http://www.thesage.com. But there are a lot of others

out there that are also free.

This is the only way you can assure yourself that you are using the proper

amount of lye, by using a calculator. So, you see every recipe is different.

I'll run your recipe through the calculator. I'll get back to you in a minute.

Let me go find your original post.

Note: Oils and liquids and lye are measured in ounces. If I wanted to makes

pounds, the oils, liquids and lye also have to be in pound weight.

Marisol in Brooklyn

Maggie <bundaflicka@...> wrote:

Could you please tell me how much lye you use for how much olive oil in your

castile soap? I would very much appreciate it! It would be nice to be able to

pick up everything I need for soapmaking from the grocery store.

Cheers,

Maggie

Maggie , Shepherd

Central New York, USA

www.maggiesfarminc.com