How can you say if a steam distillation is finished in the lab? Solution Collect some of the distillate, the stuff that comes over, in a small test tube. Examine the sample. If you see two layers, or the solution is cloudy, you’re not done. Your product is still coming over. Keep distilling and keep adding hot water to generate more steam. If you don’t see any layers, don’t assume you’re done. If the sample is slightly soluble in the water, the two layers or cloudiness might not show up. Add some salt to the solution you’ve collected in the test tube, shake the tube to dissolve the salt, and if you’re lucky, more of your product may be squeezed out of the aqueous layer, forming a separate layer. If that happens, keep steam distilling until the product does not come out when you treat a test solution with salt. .