# LS help needed



## coffeetime (Aug 19, 2016)

I messed up! I was diluting my GLS tonight (I should not do this stuff at 3am!) and instead of using 3% SL, I somehow used 15%! I knew the mount looked too large, but I was using a calculator, so I thought it must be right. Arg. 

Has anyone used this much SL in GLS before? Any idea what it will do? It's still diluting right now. It looks cloudy but I just stick blended some chunks so it's hopefully just air bubbles.


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## Susie (Aug 19, 2016)

I have no idea what that will do.  I probably would not have diluted that, then I would have mixed 1/4 of that paste with a new batch to provide the SL to it.  I had to stop doing soapy things in the middle of the night for just this very reason, so don't feel alone.  I hope IrishLass or DeeAnna see this soon.


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## IrishLass (Aug 19, 2016)

Yikes- that's a lot of SL! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how one looks at it  ) I've never used anywhere near that much to be able to say what it might end up doing.......but as my Irish grandma was always fond of saying.... "Opportunity corner!" Thanks to your accidental experiment, we can now find out! (tee hee)

How much soap paste did you dilute? 

If that ever happened to me, this is probably how I would go about trying to fix it: First, out of the sake of curiosity, I would most likely weigh out a portion to set aside for observation, just to see what it ends up doing. And then with the rest of it, I would enlist the help of my math wiz of a hubby to try and figure out how much extra paste and dilution ingredients I would need to add to it in order to make it so that it contained only 3% SL.

At least that's what I would do. Hopefully DeeAnna will chime in soon so we can see what she would do.


IrishLass


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## Susie (Aug 19, 2016)

We need a spotlight like they used for Batman to call DeeAnna!   What shape should it be?  Bubbles?


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## coffeetime (Aug 21, 2016)

Thanks for responding ladies. I had to set the pot aside because I had two days of shows to attend. The soap is about half diluted (needs a bit more heat), but it has gone perfectly clear which surprises me. It was about 2kg of paste, so that's a lot of additional paste to make to bring the whole works down to 3%SL. 

I'm going to finish diluting it and see what the resulting soap feels like. I'm thinking I may have to add a preservative to the batch since I added so much SL. It will be just for home use, of course, so maybe I can just store it in the fridge.


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## Susie (Aug 21, 2016)

I don't sell, so I would just put it in my fridge, also.


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## topofmurrayhill (Aug 21, 2016)

coffeetime said:


> I'm going to finish diluting it and see what the resulting soap feels like. I'm thinking I may have to add a preservative to the batch since I added so much SL. It will be just for home use, of course, so maybe I can just store it in the fridge.



I think it's a good idea to finish diluting at least part of it. SL is a humectant, so maybe you'll like the result. Please let us know. You actually did something accidentally that I was going to try on purpose. 

Also sodium lactate IS a preservative, so you don't need one just because of adding more SL than you intended. It should at the least do no harm with respect to microbiological stability.


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## Susie (Aug 21, 2016)

I would put any really large diluted batch in the fridge just to be on the safe side, especially now I seem to be giving the stuff away to more "non-immediate family" folks.  You just never know how long they will keep it, so telling them to store it in the fridge also helps emphasize to them that there are no preservatives.


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## coffeetime (Aug 24, 2016)

So...it diluted beautifully, perfectly clear. Lather is more than typical. Leaves a slightly tacky feel when I washed my hands but that went away quickly. So basically, it seems fine.


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## coffeetime (Aug 24, 2016)

topofmurrayhill said:


> I think it's a good idea to finish diluting at least part of it. SL is a humectant, so maybe you'll like the result. Please let us know. You actually did something accidentally that I was going to try on purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> Also sodium lactate IS a preservative, so you don't need one just because of adding more SL than you intended. It should at the least do no harm with respect to microbiological stability.




Do you have any links to articles on SL having a preservative action in LS?


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## topofmurrayhill (Aug 25, 2016)

coffeetime said:


> Do you have any links to articles on SL having a preservative action in LS?



I wouldn't know where to start. Google "sodium lactate preservative" and you'll find a ton of info. The usual context is food. Exactly what it does in LS I don't know, but I don't imagine it will do any harm.


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## coffeetime (Aug 26, 2016)

I guess SL isn't a preservative in and of itself, TOMH, it just boosts the action of your chosen preservative. https://www.newdirectionsaromatics.ca/products/preservatives/sodium-lactate-preservative.html


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## topofmurrayhill (Aug 26, 2016)

coffeetime said:


> I guess SL isn't a preservative in and of itself, TOMH, it just boosts the action of your chosen preservative. https://www.newdirectionsaromatics.ca/products/preservatives/sodium-lactate-preservative.html



SL is a preservative, but I have no opinion about how it could be used as such in LS, B&B or cosmetics, or whether it could be used. That is not its normal application, and there are more appropriate and proven products.

Some people believe that a preservative should generally be added to liquid soap. To those people, I am not recommending sodium lactate. There are, again, products appropriate to that application.

Many folks, such as myself, don't feel that a preservative is needed in liquid soap under typical circumstances. It was suggested that adding a large amount of SL to the soap might necessitate the use of a preservative. I was pointing out that didn't seem likely.

The use of SL as a humectant in B&B products is a known application though. A prominent member here uses it for that purpose in liquid soap. A somewhat lower amount, I assume.


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