# Lye Won't Dissolve



## H Diamond Farms (Jun 3, 2011)

Any reason why my lye won't dissolve in GM? 
I put my GM in the freezer to get a little slushy, put it in the pot, and added the lye. 
It turned it an orange tinted yellow, but still has lye in it. Or what I think is lye I guess. 
It has little flakes in it. 
If I just filter it, will it still make soap, or should I just start over?


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## Guest (Oct 8, 2012)

Rachel it will still make soap, I take my stick blender to mine, but you have to be very very careful and not lift the stick blender out while still going...


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Are the flakes you are seeing actually lye or is it milk fat?


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## nappint (Jun 26, 2008)

What Cindy said. If the flakes are soft to the touch (gloved hand) and are floating then they're milk fat. If the flakes are on the bottom of the pot and are crunchy then they're lye.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

How much milk and how much lye are you trying to use?


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## H Diamond Farms (Jun 3, 2011)

The grains/flecks, whatever are on the bottom of the pot. Still crunchy.
I was using 7.9 oz of slushy GM and 3.35 oz of lye. I ended up going 50/50 and dissolving the lye in water then adding the gm later.
I just don't know why I can't get it to dissolve in GM when it dissolves just fine in water. Grrrr


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

The fats in the goat milk make it harder to dissolve the lye. You will probably need to stick blend your lye solution. I use 100% frozen GM cubes or lately have been using larger frozen amounts. Pour the lye over top of the frozen GM, wait a few minutes, and then with a spatula start very carefully turning the melting cubes. Once they are about 3/4 melted is when I start to stick blend....wearing gloves and glasses of course...I rarely if ever end up with a stinking orange pot of milk/lye. It stays fairly white. I use the spatula to gently scoop some of the mixture onto the sides of my mixing bowl to make sure I don't see grains of lye. You have to be very, very careful doing it this way, but before I started stick blending, using 100% goats milk, I was having an issue dissolving the lye. Avoiding the issue all together by using water, herb tea, beer, etc to dissolve your lye works well too. Anything fat-free will dissolve your lye much easier than milk.


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