Preparing the lye water solution for soap making ahead of time, has been a big timesaver for me. Usually, I prefer for the lye water solution to be at room temperature, so being able to make it ahead of time and let it come to room temperature on its own works well for that.
I tried master batching the lye water solution a few years ago; however, I found it confusing. Once I paid close attention to the math behind making a 50-50 lye water solution and then adding the extra water once ready to make the soap, I could understand it, but having to do the calculations every time I wanted to make the soap, seemed more of a hassle than it was worth. So I decided to try multi batching instead and that actually work very well for me for a long time.
I like to create the recipes for the soaps that I will be making, or that I feel inspired to make ahead of time. I use www.soapmakingfriend.com as a lye calculator, which allows me to save the recipes under my profile, and later I can modify them or print them when I’m ready. So when I am ready to prepare the lye water solution for all the future soap projects, I just print the recipes, get my PPE (personal protective equipment) ready, and mix one after the other, writing on the containers the names of the soaps.
However, sometimes I also get recipes ready for “spur of the moment” soaps, and for those cases I have a generic recipe based, on the size of the mold I usually use. (2 lb mold, 1 lb mold, etc).
These are the supplies I use when I multi batch: (Some of these are affiliate links):
- Distilled water
- Nitrile gloves
- Facial Shield (I use either a facial shield or the goggles below) or :
- Safety Goggles
- Respirator
- Stainless steel spoons (the kind used for drinks)
- Plastic containers with a secured lid
- Silicone Spatulas / scraper
- Scale or
- Larger capacity scale
- Thermometer (optional)
If you prefer to master batch though…
Late last year I read this forum post though, which has a link to this article: https://classicbells.com/soap/masterbatch.asp and I decided to give masterbatching another attempt, this time I simplified it by avoiding a 50/50 lye water solution, and instead I used the lye water concentration I prefer in the final soap (40% lye to water concentration), and that has actually been easier and faster. This process is called “Ready to use masterbatch” in the link shared above. You should check it out!
Soaps by Glenda 