[cdluck]

@Pharma Thank you for the explanation - that’s the sanity check I needed! 🙂

[cdluck]

Belassi said:

Considering lauric acid is the dominant fatty acid in coconut oil, is sodium laurate not a sufficient substitute as a gellant?
Why are you asking us, considering that you have just conducted a chemistry experiment that answered your question? As far as this is concerned you now know a lot more than I do about it.

Haha, duly noted - I asked because I wasn’t sure if I managed to screw things up by not attempting to saponify the coconut oil before adding the glycerol to it first, thereby causing what @Pharma said about just having a pot of lauric acid and glycerol.

I tried searching for differences in sodium laurate and sodium stearate, but couldn’t find very much. People seem to make solid soap out of both, but stearate is the one found in deodorants, and I couldn’t tell why.

@Pharma - Thanks for the response! So if lauric acid and glycerol are in the same pot, adding sodium hydroxide won’t saponify that acid? Is that lye still just floating around in the liquid at this point?

Thanks again everyone, I appreciate the feedback!

[cdluck]

Hi @letsalcido!

Thanks for the reply! Considering lauric acid is the dominant fatty acid in coconut oil, is sodium laurate not a sufficient substitute as a gellant? Or does the lauric acid become something else entirely in the presence of glycerin?