# Flake lye vs. pelletized lye



## Rosesgoats (Apr 22, 2011)

Has anyone had any problems with flake lye versus pelletized? I was using the Red Crown pelletized stuff and it worked great. Now I have some flake lye from Brambleberry and my soap isn't turning out so nice. I am using the same recipe and haven't changed anything but the lye. My soap is coming out soft and greasy. There's a slick of brown/black grease in the bottom of my mold. Perhaps the flake lye isn't dissolving? Should I add more lye to my recipe? Or less milk? My recipe is:

3 lbs shortening
17 oz extra light olive oil
12 oz safflower oil
8 oz canola oil
3 lbs goat milk 
12 oz lye

Any suggestions?


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Usually the "flake" lye is potassium hydroxide...used for making liquid soap, but I see on their website that they say that it's the sodium hydroxide in flake form...are you measuring your lye by weight? I ran that through a calculator...I got around the same amount of lye (actually, at a 5% superfat, it showed 11 oz of lye, but I may have used different versions of some of the oils than what you actually have), but it called for MUCH less liquid (2 lbs instead of 3), and that recipe will give you a rather soft soap anyway.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Lye comes in all forms including liquid and I purchase beads. It isn't manufactured for us small soapers, each form is manufactured for specific industries.

Your recipe is all oils, most shortening is simply hydrogenated soybean oil. It's the problem with having a recipe like this, is the recipe made for soybean oil shortening, or one with lard in it? Also having more than 3 times as much goatmilk as you do lye, it is going to be very soft, very slow to cure, very hard to get out of the mold quickly.

I am always skeptical of recipes printed like yours, please make sure you put all recipes no matter where they come from through a lye calculator like thesage.com then print them out.


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## Guest (Jun 22, 2011)

jUst like Vicki says, put your recipe thru a calculator.. and make sure you have measured and weighed right.. make sure you bring your soap to full trace.. and the right kind of lye.. Do not use any lye that is not 100 percent lye.. some of them have other added chemicals..
Barb


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## Rosesgoats (Apr 22, 2011)

Does it make a difference what type of liquid you use? Would the fat in milk throw off the lye calculator? The lye calculator I used said that the oils and lye amounts were okay but the liquid should be 28 oz and not 48. I will try my next batch with 2 lbs of milk and not 3 lbs and see how it comes out. 

I have never had any problems with this recipe until I started the stupid flake lye. Next time I am getting the pelletized stuff.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

The milk will not throw off your lye calculations enough IF everything else is calculated correctly.


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## Rosesgoats (Apr 22, 2011)

I will also look at the ingredients on my shortening. The recipe just says "all vegetable shortening" but doesn't give a type. I have been buying shortening from a different store this year and never thought to look at what it's actually made from. 

Does anyone have a good goat milk soap recipe using lard? I have a source of good pig lard and wouldn't mind using that.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Just go up to the top stickies and use the walmart recipe. It is the best basic fool proof recipe, then branch out from there. If you put the recipe into thesage.com you can then eaisly resize the recipe to make 1 pound of soap or the 7 pounds the recipe calls for. Vicki


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

I LOVE THE WALMART RECIPE! I have tweaked it a tad, fiddling with the superfat a little. IT IS AWESOME! As long as everything is measure correctly, it is a great bar of soap.

Question Rose: Using that recipe you posted, there are no hard oils and no coconut. Does it lather? If so, what is your usual cure time? I just can't see it lathering well.


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## Rosesgoats (Apr 22, 2011)

My recipe doesn't lather much but it works well for cleaning. I add 1/2 oz of white sugar to help with the lathering. The bars last forever and I have lots of people who really like how they work and feel, so I don't want to stray too far from my original recipe. I will try fiddling with the amount of milk to see if I can firm up the bars a little and get rid of some of my overheating problems. 

I am totally opposed to coconut oil or cocoa butter or palm oil. I would have to special order it in order to get it and I don't want to do that. I like my recipe because it only uses oils that I can get at the grocery (well, the safflower oil can be a bear to find around here but luckily a new grocery opened 45 minutes away and they stock it). 

Thanks for the suggestions. I am going to keep experimenting and see if I can't get my recipe to cooperate better.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

You can usually get coconut oil in the baking section with the other oils at Walmart. But ultimately, if you ever get to the point where you are seriously selling soap, it will be MUCH less expensive to order oils in bulk than to buy them a bit at a time at the grocery store.


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