What temperature should lye water be?

by Anonymous

What temperature should my lye solution be when I mix it into my oils? And how does the temperature of lye water affect the saponification process of the soap? can it be added too cool or too hot? Thanks


Answer:

For instructions on soap making, visit my pages describing the Cold Process and Room Temperature methods.

Both use different lye temperatures and each works equally well.

The wrong temperature of the lye can have adverse effects. Too low and the soap may take forever to trace or could sieze quickly (this depends on the oils used in the recipe). To low temperatures can cause steaking and grainy textures. Too high of temperatures can also cause siezing and grainy textrures.

For cold process soap making, I like to use around 90 degrees and it works well for me. With the room temperature method, the lye is quite hot but because you are using it to melt the hard oils, I believe it cools down the lye to an acceptable level.

Cathy

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starstarstarstarstar 		Easy room temp method
by: Anonymous

I've been making soap for several months now and after fiddling around with heating the oil and temperature gauging, found the simplest solution in the world - based on the method finally come across on this site.

I guess it depends on the oils used but my basic recipe now is 50% non-fractionated coconut oil, 25% herb-infused canola oil and 25% Pomace olive oil. The oils are already at room temperature so don't need heating to dissolve. I simply mix up my lye, let it cool briefly and then slowly add it to the combined oils. mixing by hand and then a few short bursts with the immersion blender while adding essential oil. Incredibly simple, perfect soap every time!
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starstarstarstarstar 		Temperature units
by: Anonymous

The mentioned temperatures eg. 90 degrees, 110 degrees, 100 degrees. Is it in Fahrenheit or Celsius?

Answer:

Fahrenheit is the temperature unit being referred to.
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starstarstarstarstar 		cool lye and and buttermilk
by: Anonymous

in an attempt to gussy it up a bit, I added lye straight to frozen buttermilk in place of water. The lye mixture only reaches about 70 degrees. I add this to my oil which is about the same temp. The mixture traces just fine. I used pure coconut oil and superfatted 20%. My soap is very soft and wants to crack when I cut the loaf. I am not sure if this is from superfatting so high or the low temp of my mixture. Any advice would be awesome
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starstarstarstarstar 		Temperature of Lye
by: Angie

When I added the lye to the water, the temp only got up to about 75 degrees so I had to cool my oils down to around that temp as well. What can I do when to lye mixture doesn't reach the 100-110 degree temp that everyone says is an ideal temp? Can or should lye be heated up to that temp? ( Oh by the way, today was my very first attempt at soap making)
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		slower tracing soap.
by: diane

When you have a large amount of olive oil in your recipe you will have a slower rate of trace. Also if your temps are lower this can cause it to be at a slower trace. When you use a stick blender it will force the lye water into the oil faster than if you hand stirred it. Just a few of the things that learning about can help you with your soaping adventure.
I usually use between 100 to 110 and this seems to work for most oils.
Keep on Soaping!!
Diane
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starstarstarstarstar 		Hum.....
by: Anonymous

Ok. I poured a batch of soap, mainly consisting of olive oil. I added honey and oatmeal also. I know that honey creates a lot more heat during process. So I figured I would allow my lye water to cool down to around 75 or 80 degrees before mixing in with oils. The oils were also around that temp. After pouring into mold I did not insulate it. The next morning the soap is really really soft. A day has went by and it's still really really soft. So I was not sure if that was because the lye was added to cool or if it was something else I did wrong. Maybe I didn't let it reach full trace. Who knows. Thank you

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