First attempt at liquid CP

[nadsnads]

I usually cook my liquid soap in the oven until it gels, but this time I decided to just CP it. The instructions were all TLDR until i found this one post on here that said to just mix it up and leave it, which is as simple as I had suspected.

The problem was that i let my oils cool down too much, and when it came time to stick blend it, i spent at least an hour trying to get the whole thing to emulsify, but the oil would always separate. It was already 1am and I was frantically looking up what others said about not being able to achieve trace. Most of the advice said to just leave the soap alone. I couldn't believe this would fix anything (when you make lotions, as soon as the lotion separates that's very bad news), but i had to go to bed at that point so I did.

There next day the soap had a layer of oil floating on top, so I mixed it, and below the surface i saw a paste was forming. I mixed it more and let it sit here. After an hour the whole mixture completely changed and became a translucent gel!! Woohoo! It's a soaping miracle

 

[AliOop]

Very nice!

Depending on what oils you use, LS can take a loooong time to trace. OO is usually the worst, and can absolutely burn up your stick-blender. To move things along a bit faster, I make my KOH solution 1:1 with water, and then add two parts glycerin instead of additional water. I also heat my oils to about 150ºF and pour in the KOH solution immediately after it is dissolved, so it's quite hot. The glycerin and the heat both speed up trace.

Once I reach trace, I cover and let it do its own thing. It's usually zap-free within a few hours. So much easier than babysitting the pot on the stove!

 

[nadsnads]

Very nice!

Depending on what oils you use, LS can take a loooong time to trace. OO is usually the worst, and can absolutely burn up your stick-blender. To move things along a bit faster, I make my KOH solution 1:1 with water, and then add two parts glycerin instead of additional water. I also heat my oils to about 150ºF and pour in the KOH solution immediately after it is dissolved, so it's quite hot. The glycerin and the heat both speed up trace.

Once I reach trace, I cover and let it do its own thing. It's usually zap-free within a few hours. So much easier than babysitting the pot on the stove!

Yep I had like 20% OO, 25% safflower, and 15% castor! But my Cuisinart stickblender held up like a champ, I'm very impressed.

Do you have to do anything special with the glycerine to dissolve it? I saw a tutorial that was adding the lye to the glycerine and boiling it on the stove to dissolve the lye and i said to myself Nooo way am I ever boiling lye like that that's just too scary for me.

I'm loving this method overall, I agree it's very nice not to have to babysit it!

 

[AliOop]

I'm not into heating my lye solution, either! Since the KOH is actually dissolved in distilled water only, nothing special needs to be done with the glycerin. You can mix it into the KOH solution or the oils, as you prefer.

 

[nadsnads]

I'll try that, thanks for explaining!