# Have I burnt my soap?



## Fatima (Jun 8, 2018)

Hey,so my liquid soap recipe is: 

Olive oil: 45%
Coconut Oil: 25%
Castor Oil: 25%
Almond Oil: 5%
KOH: 103 grams 

I am having issues with cooking the soap, or at least I think I have burnt my soap. I have posted the pictures of the whole process here. So I have been reading up online and most of the recipes call for using a crock pot, I am however opting to use the stove. In this article http://www.islandartisansupply.ca/liquid/ the person used a double broiler do you think I can achieve better results using this method? that is if I have burnt my soap


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## shunt2011 (Jun 8, 2018)

Yes, it looks like you burned it.  How long did you cook it?   There is a great thread here you really need to read.   Double boiler would be much better than straight on the stove top.   Let me find the thread.

I'd say yes, you've burned it.  It should not be that color. How long did you cook it?   Also, you may want to read this thread before going forward for some excellent instruction on how to make LS.    Using a double boiler would be much better than cooking straight on stovetop if you don' have access to a crockpot.   Here's a great thread for LS.

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/my-creamy-cocoa-shea-gls-tutorial.57974/


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## DeeAnna (Jun 8, 2018)

Everything looked fine until your last picture. And then I agree the soap looks burned at that point.

You don't have to cook soap for hours and hours, but if cooking for a long time is your preference, then I would definitely look at using a double boiler, crock pot, or the oven for better results. 

I would also keep the pot covered as much as possible while cooking to minimize water evaporation, no matter what heat source you use. You may have evaporated a lot of the water out of the soap, and that may also have contributed to the scorching. 

I have cooked soap directly on a stovetop burner, but only for about 30 minutes, if that long. Every batch of soap has been saponified by that time -- there's really no need to cook longer. And many of us don't cook liquid soap at all -- we use a cold process method instead.


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## Fatima (Jun 9, 2018)

shunt2011 said:


> Yes, it looks like you burned it.  How long did you cook it?   There is a great thread here you really need to read.   Double boiler would be much better than straight on the stove top.   Let me find the thread.[/QUO



Ah! I cooked it for 7 hours, but it was on really low. Basically, I referenced two recipes and one said to cook in crock pot on low for 7 hours and the other said cook on high for 3 hours. Once I realised cooking on stove will make a huge difference.... it was too late :/



shunt2011 said:


> I'd say yes, you've burned it.  It should not be that color. How long did you cook it?   Also, you may want to read this thread before going forward for some excellent instruction on how to make LS.    Using a double boiler would be much better than cooking straight on stovetop if you don' have access to a crockpot.   Here's a great thread for LS.
> 
> https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/my-creamy-cocoa-shea-gls-tutorial.57974/


oh that is a well written recipe.. If I am reading it correctly, the person just cooks it for only 10-12 minutes and let it rest. Hmm this is completely new to me because all the other recipes are about cooking the living hell off the soap (well not to the point I did) but if her/his method works it would really save some gas. 

Is this method working due to the glycerin added or is it just the natural progression of the reaction ?



DeeAnna said:


> Everything looked fine until your last picture. And then I agree the soap looks burned at that point.
> 
> You don't have to cook soap for hours and hours, but if cooking for a long time is your preference, then I would definitely look at using a double boiler, crock pot, or the oven for better results.
> 
> ...



I feel like this is one of the things I did wrong, my previous batch turned out perfectly fine because the lid fit snugly and yes I cooked it for 30 minutes and it worked perfectly. But this time around, I was just struggling and constantly mixing to stop it from burning. Maybe the steam from the covering helped the whole process


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## DeeAnna (Jun 9, 2018)

Fatima said:


> ...Is this method working due to the glycerin added or is it just the natural progression of the reaction ?



The glycerin helps get saponification started faster and at lower temperatures. But after the saponification reaction gets going, no extra heat is honestly necessary, with or without glycerin.

When I make liquid soap paste and do not use glycerin, I put everything in my soap pot and warm the contents to no more than about 180 degrees F (80 C). I often use the stove burner (gently!) to do this. While the batter is heating, I stick blend for maybe 5 seconds and I do this every few minutes or so. I will occasionally hand stir the batter between those moments of stick blending. Once the batter comes to trace (takes anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, I'd guess), I will not cook or stick blend or fiddle any more. The lid goes on, the burner goes off, and I walk away.

I can't imagine cooking soap for 3 hours, much less 7 whole entire hours. Ugh!!!!


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