What if I use lye solution?

[alexandrelngls]

Hi! Salut ! (I'm french)
I'm using 30% lye solution for my soap, so I'm checking "Masterbatch lye", ok I get it.
But what is "Amount of Liquid in recipe"? Could you explain me the uses of each?

Liquid: Lye Ratio
% Lye concentration
% Liquid as a percent of oils

Because as my lye solution already contains water, am I supposed to add more water?
Only option "% Lye Concentration" give me "Liquid Required : 0g"
Others tells me to add or subtract water... I'd like to just have to mix my oils with my 30% lye solution, if I need to add water it's okay, but I need to be sure

Thanks!

 

[Yooper]

I'm confused on what you are doing and asking. Do you typically masterbatch the lye? That is, have a container of premixed lye and water solution at a certain percentage that you use for all batches? If you do, that's a masterbatched lye set up.

If you don't, it's not a masterbatched lye and you don't check that.

 

[alexandrelngls]

I know I have to use "masterbatch lye"... You don't reply to anything, I think to be clear on my requests?
I want to know what is:

Liquid: Lye Ratio
% Lye concentration
% Liquid as a percent of oils

Because depending on what I choose, it gives me differents water quantity.

 

[Yooper]

First, you fill in your "masterbatch concentration":


And you may not need additional liquid, like above.

I use 2:1 for my concentration, so you don't need more liquid.

When you masterbatch, your lye/liquid is already set for you. Set it for the concentration you have, and you won't need to use the other two options.

If for some reason you need to add more water, say, 2.5:1, then you can use that option.

 

[Yooper]

You say you are using 30% concentration solution- can I ask why you are using that amount? Is it already masterbatched to that concentration? Usually when you masterbatch the lye, it's in a ratio like 2:1. If you're using 30%, that's ok but you'll have to do the math to figure out the masterbatch ratio.

A 30% solution would be 2.3 parts water to 1 part lye. So fill that out in the masterbatch part: