# First liquid soap attempt



## Rusti (Sep 3, 2016)

Well, my first attempt at liquid soap paste is covered on the counter. I got it to a thick trace before my stick blender decided that smoking seemed like a good idea at the time. I guess we'll see what it looks like in the morning!


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## Susie (Sep 4, 2016)

Yay!!!

You don't have to get to paste with liquid soap.  Just get it to full emulsion, put a lid on it, and walk away.  Easiest soap that way.  Also, if you use glycerin or some grated bar soap, it gets to trace (paste) much faster.  When you dilute this batch, save a half ounce out as paste to jump start the trace on the next batch.  It saves time and stickblenders.


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## Rusti (Sep 4, 2016)

I did actually use glycerin, so it took about 10-15 minutes to trace, but I think my stick blender may be contemplating retirement, so it wouldn't hurt to get a back up to have in the house in the event my original one decides to go through with it.

I had non-zapping paste in a couple of hours. I still like the CP bar soap, but this process was far less involved. Fewer dishes!

ETA: I've been reading so I was prepared and at the same time not prepared for all the noise the KOH made compared to the relatively silent NaOH. I made my mother come listen.


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## IrishLass (Sep 4, 2016)

Congratulations on your first batch of liquid soap!

Re: your stickblender. You don't even need to use a stick-blender at all to reach emulsion stage. A whisk works perfectly fine. 



Susie said:


> Yay!!!
> 
> When you dilute this batch, save a half ounce out as paste to jump start the trace on the next batch.


 
Kinda sounds like the sourdough of the soap world. lol


IrishLass


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## Arimara (Sep 4, 2016)

Congrats! I hope it comes out well for you. I remember the very first batch of liquid soap I made. It was the most labor-intensive soap I made. Soon after, I learned I put way too much effort into it and that an easier method was available. Since then, I make liquid soap at night so that the next morning, I can dilute the bugger after my morning doings.


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## Rusti (Sep 6, 2016)

OK, so, small issue - my diluted soap is quite cloudy. I haven't attempted a second time yet. Both the soap with the FO and the soap without never really cleared up. It's lovely and honey colored, but not crystal clear. It's 80% OO and 20% CO with 2 of the 3 parts water replaced by glycerin that was added to my oil and the KOH dissolved into water at 1:1.

Diluted at 1 part paste, 1 part water. I diluted by heating it in canning jars submerged halfway up in simmering water and occasionally mixing at it with a little battery powered whisk (I only diluted like 2 ounces each jar) for about an hour. Too long?

Thoughts?

ETA: photo of my paste


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## Susie (Sep 6, 2016)

Just let it sit a while.  Sometimes my liquid soap can take a couple of days for all the air bubbles to come to the top to pop.

That's some lovely paste there!


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## Rusti (Sep 6, 2016)

Susie said:


> Just let it sit a while.  Sometimes my liquid soap can take a couple of days for all the air bubbles to come to the top to pop.
> 
> That's some lovely paste there!



Well, I diluted Sunday morning and it was still cloudy this morning, which was why I wondered if I'd flubbed someplace.


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## Arimara (Sep 6, 2016)

If it didn't zap, it's fine. what's the superfat?


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## Susie (Sep 6, 2016)

As long as your superfat is 3% or less, your recipe should be crystal clear.  Just give it a day or so.  Can you post a pic of the diluted soap?


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## Rusti (Sep 6, 2016)

Arimara said:


> If it didn't zap, it's fine. what's the superfat?





Susie said:


> As long as your superfat is 3% or less, your recipe should be crystal clear.  Just give it a day or so.  Can you post a pic of the diluted soap?



Superfat is 3%, and no, it doesn't zap. I'll post a pic of the soap when I get home from work. I meant to get one before I left the house this morning, but it slipped my mind. I was too busy talking to the cat.


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## MaryWaldman (Sep 6, 2016)

I'm inspired by your post and want to try liquid soap next. Would you list your recipe or the link to it? Also what FO did you use? My goal is a lovely honey colored liquid soap like yours.


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## Rusti (Sep 6, 2016)

MaryWaldman said:


> I'm inspired by your post and want to try liquid soap next. Would you list your recipe or the link to it? Also what FO did you use? My goal is a lovely honey colored liquid soap like yours.



Sure. My recipe was 80% Olive Oil (400 grams), 20% Coconut oil (100 grams), Glycerin (er, 214 grams, it replaced 2 parts of my water added straight to the oils) and KOH (107 grams I think) and water (107 grams, I think) with the KOH diluted into the water and added while still hot to the oil. Please be sure to use a lye calculator when you formulate your own recipe - I can't be held to the amounts I listed here without my chicken scratch in front of me!

Susie has an awesome 'cold process' thread here: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49852 that I used as a guideline. She and IrishLass are both founts of information when it comes to liquid soap.


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## MaryWaldman (Sep 6, 2016)

I will run it through before I try, thanks.


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## Rusti (Sep 6, 2016)

Here's the unscented, diluted soap. Diluted Sunday morning, picture taken this evening.


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## Susie (Sep 6, 2016)

Hmmm.  That's curious.  That is definitely cloudy.  What kind of olive oil did you use?


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## Arimara (Sep 6, 2016)

Looks fine to me. How do you like it?


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## Rusti (Sep 6, 2016)

Susie said:


> Hmmm.  That's curious.  That is definitely cloudy.  What kind of olive oil did you use?



LOL, Kroger. Just plain ol' off the shelf oil.



Arimara said:


> Looks fine to me. How do you like it?



I like it fine, actually, just weird that it's cloudy.


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## Susie (Sep 7, 2016)

But is it EVOO, or just OO?  

I ask because I avoid any level of "virgin" OO to avoid cloudy soap.  Also any green OO.  That's why I switched to the Sam's OO.  It's yellow, and a very consistent product.  It is always the same.  The Great Value OO varies greatly from yellow to medium green throughout the year.  I don't shop at Kroger's often enough any longer (the closest Kroger's is 2 hours away) to know what their products are.


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## Rusti (Sep 7, 2016)

Ahh, that may be the issue then. I'm pretty sure, without having the label in front of me to read, that it's some level of 'extra virgin' I expect. It was what was on sale. I'll have to keep that in mind for the next batch. I'll just dilute the whole of this one and use it at the sink and foist part of it on my sister (as opposed to sharing with friends) and try again with a different olive oil.


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## lenarenee (Sep 7, 2016)

Isn't it possible that the purity level of the lye is an issue here - even with a 3% sf? The soap maybe more superfatted than expected.


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## Rusti (Sep 7, 2016)

lenarenee said:


> Isn't it possible that the purity level of the lye is an issue here - even with a 3% sf? The soap maybe more superfatted than expected.



I suppose that's possible. It's Crafter's Choice KOH from WSP, which I think is 89-90% (it's not on the bottle, I had to look up the MSDS), which is what I accounted for in the soaping calculator. Is it actually less than that?

ETA: Mm, looks like I may have misread, it's 86.5%, so this is not just possible, but also likely. I'll have to have another go with the Soapee calculator where I can adjust for that and also an non-EV olive oil.


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## Susie (Sep 7, 2016)

I was going to say to fix your KOH situation first, as that may cure the cloudiness, but there is only 7 g difference in what you put and what you need.


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## MaryWaldman (Sep 8, 2016)

Rusti said:


> My recipe was 80% Olive Oil (400 grams), 20% Coconut oil (100 grams), Glycerin (er, 214 grams, it replaced 2 parts of my water added straight to the oils) and KOH (107 grams I think) and water (107 grams, I think) with the KOH diluted into the water and added while still hot to the oil.



How many ounces of finished liquid soap would you estimate this formulation will make? I'm trying to scale a test batch. 

My guess... I think you got about 32 ounces/900 gr finished paste. At a dilution rate of 1 part paste: 0.75 parts water that would make 56 ounces/ 1,575 gr.


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## Susie (Sep 8, 2016)

If you run that through Soapee.com, you will see that the batch weight is 953.4 g.  Once you dilute that with 0.75 parts water, you end up with about 59 oz.  This is a good sized batch for a first timer.  Not too small to have trouble stick blending, not too large to end up with way too much paste.  

Don't forget that you can store undiluted paste in Ziploc bags.


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