# Help please!



## corrine025 (Feb 20, 2014)

I am making my first liquid soap, or at least trying to.  It has been cooking for 3 hours.  I used a lye calculator and used

6oz water
3oz KOH
15.9oz oils

I did use plam kernal oil flakes as one of my oils so would my water ever really test clear?  how do I test this soap?


----------



## 100%Natural (Feb 20, 2014)

Before I can really check your recipe for correct amounts I need more information about which oils you used and how much of each of those oils.

Depending on which oils you used your soap may never test clear.  Testing clear is something some soapers feel is a must.  Testing clear simply means that all of the fats in the oils have been saponified and this is quite often due to an excess of KOH.  

In order to test your LS you either need a PH meter or use some Phenolphthalein drops.  Testing clear does not mean your soap is a low PH.


----------



## Susie (Feb 20, 2014)

What 100% Natural said.  To test pH, you need a meter or Phenolphthalein.
We need to know the whole recipe to know if that is the correct amount of KOH to the oils used.  

However, just general info:  To test liquid soap, you take 1oz soap paste out and mix with 2 oz very hot or boiling water.  Mix until it is completely dissolved.  Then see if you can read through the resultant liquid.  That will check for unsaponified oils.


----------



## lady-of-4 (Feb 20, 2014)

Pretty much what everyone says.  Get some phenol-p drops and test that way.  Light pink is ok,  since soap is alkaline to begin with,  but bright fuchsia is not good. Use borax or citric acid in your dilution water to neutralize.


----------



## corrine025 (Feb 21, 2014)

Ok thanks guys


----------



## corrine025 (Feb 21, 2014)

How do I determine how much citric acid to add?


----------



## lady-of-4 (Feb 21, 2014)

Run your batch through the Summer Bee Meadow calculator online.  It will tell you what you need. But,  my opinion,  you need no more than an ounce by weight


----------



## FGOriold (Feb 21, 2014)

You cannot calculate how much citric acid you will need until you know the PH of your diluted soap.  If find that 5g/50 ounces paste will reduce the Ph about .5


----------



## lady-of-4 (Feb 21, 2014)

FGOriold,  how are you getting that low of a pH for soap when it's natrually alkaline at around 9?  5 is acidic. 
And yes you can adjust the pH without know exactly what it is.  Most calculations I know of are based on the size of batch,  not exact pH.  Catherine Failor,  Summer Bee, and even the Soap Maker 3 program,  all base the amount of neutralizer needed,  by batch size. Not pH number.


----------



## corrine025 (Feb 21, 2014)

Im gonna do one more liquid soap batch after this one and try something different but I think I like cold process soap making ALOT better lol


----------



## FGOriold (Feb 21, 2014)

lady-of-4 said:


> FGOriold,  how are you getting that low of a pH for soap when it's natrually alkaline at around 9?  5 is acidic.
> And yes you can adjust the pH without know exactly what it is.  Most calculations I know of are based on the size of batch,  not exact pH.  Catherine Failor,  Summer Bee, and even the Soap Maker 3 program,  all base the amount of neutralizer needed,  by batch size. Not pH number.



.5 not 5 -  It reduces it by .5 so if my soap starts out at a ph of 9.7, that amount will reduce it to 9.2.  Sorry if that was not made clear.  I personally would never use citric acid without knowing the exact PH number no matter what the calculators indicate.


----------

