i got a yellow gooie substance after evaporating the zippo fluid, vaporized it, inhaled, and nothing. im going for a second try using hexane this time, and the same solution.

Since it was kind of thick I added more water, but know im afraid i have not been considering PH level on the solution and im starting to guess that could be a factor. what would be the perfect ph level on the mimosa/lye solution?

You don't even need to worry about a pH number, when it turns jet black, add a little bit more lye and it's enough. Go for more than less, because there's no point that's too much. Once, SWIM has gone just to the point of turning jet black, and after a little while, it turned back, I believe the tannic acid lowered the pH again.

It's a built in pH meter that you should take total advantage of.

Edit: 12-14 is the optimal range.

did you add tannic acid? or is it a resultant substance from mimosa decomposition? i never heard of it before

It should be from the decomposition and not added.

"'(T)annic acid' is a specific type of 'tannin' (plant polyphenol), the two terms are sometimes (incorrectly) used interchangeably."

good to know. thanks!

The np solvent you have used sounds like a poor solvent to crystalize from, you probaly will have better luck with hexane. Still you could remove the unwanted crap with activated charcoal, not to much otherwise goodies get soaked up. PH as much as you can go with NaOH, or at least 11+, once you get to 12 NaOH has hard time going further. (I guess dont go over board as to cut your costs, and to save reagents).

Hope you get the results your after.

11 and 12 are way too low, and lye will take a solution far past 12.
Are you doing an A/B or STB?
For an A/B it should be over 13, but like someone already said, just take it to slippy black and add 25 or so percent more lye.
An STB uses way more lye than required to get to even 14, so don't worry about the pH there, just use the right bark, lye, water ratio.
The zippo fuel could be your problem, hexane will be a pretty good choice, but it's so selective, it will leave some goods behing while pulling a nice clean product. You could try (carefully!) heating your solution and pulling with the hexane in order to make the goods more soluble.

I guess is STB since im having a mimosa/lye solution and aplying pools of solvent on it. i made pulls with hexane and heptane. both extractions have been sitting on the freezer of 8 hours and no crystals have formed . its about 75 ml each. maybe is too mucn solvent, i dont know if that really affects. on the remaning solvent free solution, i added 40 grams more of lye to each solution, more water, and new solvent ( hexane and heptane, each on different bottles). i'll see how those 2 come out, also i will evap the two different heptane and hexane extractions i have on the freezer ( if you guys dont have a better suggestion to do with those). if everything fails im going to try to heat the solution and then make pulls. i reaally apprecciate any good suggestions since im starting to get a little frustrated since i been following the steps carefully and got no spice yet. not a single drop ):.