# Help Something is Wrong My Liquid Soap?



## BettyW (Nov 7, 2020)

I just made the Liquid Soap using the same Hog Wash formula that Zany posted.

My soap is really slimmy. I have made liquid soap several times so this wasn't my first rodeo (different formula).

Is it possible that my container of Spectrum brand palm kernel oil was too old making it slimmy? The oil really stunks when I opened it but not so bad after cooking it. This oil was stored in basement for a few years.

Please help.


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## Zany_in_CO (Nov 7, 2020)

BettyW said:


> My soap is really slimmy. I have made liquid soap several times so this wasn't my first rodeo (different formula).


YIKES! I'm so sorry to hear this.  Did you use PKO or PKO flakes? Was the lard home-rendered or purchased at the grocery store? Since there are so many different ways of making LS, I really can't be much help without seeing the recipe, including how it was processed.


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## BettyW (Nov 8, 2020)

I used .....

Morrell Snow Cap Lard
Spectrum Organic Palm Kernel Oil (just found date - 2013 - yikes. Stored in cool basement)
Dual Lye 60/40 (you used single lye).
Distilled Water

I melted oils in crock pot. Then added dual lyes. Stick blended it. Let rest 24 hrs. Did a zap test. 

Melted oil/lye mixture. Diluted with distilled water. Cooled & poured into jug to store.  Next day I shook jug and found it was a giant blob. It was slimmy when pouring into crock pot.

This was to be used in foaming bottle.


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## BettyW (Nov 8, 2020)

Is it possibly the dual Lye mixture?


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## Zany_in_CO (Nov 8, 2020)

BettyW said:


> Is it possibly the dual Lye mixture?


For me, it is! LOL 60/40 sounds more like a cream soap.... So sorry, I don't know anything about making cream soap.
If you want to make Hog Wash, see PDF attached.


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## BettyW (Nov 8, 2020)

Thank you. I will give that a try


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## BettyW (Nov 15, 2020)

Zany_in_CO said:


> For me, it is! LOL 60/40 sounds more like a cream soap.... So sorry, I don't know anything about making cream soap.
> If you want to make Hog Wash, see PDF attached.



There is borax in the Hog Wash recipe
you posted?  
If I run it thru Soap Calculator - what superfat should I use?


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## Zany_in_CO (Nov 15, 2020)

BettyW said:


> There is borax in the Hog Wash recipe you posted?


Yes. Early on I added a water softener, either Borax or Liquid Calgon, to my dilution water. It seemed to speed up dilution. Totally optional.



BettyW said:


> If I run it thru Soap Calculator - what superfat should I use?


If you download the PDF attached in Post #5 you will see that I use:
21 oz. distilled water (*3 X KOH*)
7 oz. KOH (*0% SF*)

HTH


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## BettyW (Nov 15, 2020)

Thank you


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## Zany_in_CO (Dec 11, 2020)

BettyW said:


> Is it possible that my container of Spectrum brand palm kernel oil was too old making it slimmy? The oil really stunks when I opened it but not so bad after cooking it. This oil was stored in basement for a few years.





BettyW said:


> Spectrum Organic Palm Kernel Oil (just found date - 2013 - yikes. Stored in cool basement)
> Dual Lye 60/40 (you used single lye)


Spectrum Organic Palm Kernel Oil - I'm familiar with Spectrum Palm Oil. Just Googled it. There doesn't seem to be a PKO in that brand.


BettyW said:


> I melted oils in crock pot. Then added dual lyes. Stick blended it. Let rest 24 hrs. Did a zap test.
> Melted oil/lye mixture. Diluted with distilled water. Cooled & poured into jug to store.  Next day I shook jug and found it was a giant blob. It was slimmy when pouring into crock pot.


So, you stick blended it but didn't bring it to hard trace?


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## earlene (Dec 30, 2020)

*BettyW*, the Spectrum Brand vegetable shortening is not PKO, it's palm oil.  So you used the wrong setting in your calculator.  Therefore your amount of lye is too high.

Have you zap tested the paste?  With the calculations you have and using Palm rather than PKO, your paste should have a NEGATIVE SF of -13% and not 0 %.  That is if all measurements were accurate and both of your lyes are actually the purity indicated in the calculator.

I have no idea if this has anything to do with the sliminess, but it certainly makes the soap unusable for your skin until you remedy the batch by adding more oil to compensate for the miscalculation.

However, it's such a small batch, it's probably not worth salvaging.

When I used Spectrum Brand shortening (100% 'organic' palm oil as listed on the company website and on the label) I used the Palm Oil setting in my calculator, NOT the PKO setting.  It makes a huge difference in the amount of lye needed, as is evidenced by your soap recipe.

Just plug all the numbers in again using palm instead of PKO and see what you get for how much lye you should have used, then compare that to a simple change of making your SF -13.  It will show you how much lye you actually used, which is how I reverse engineered your recipe to find the actual SF of your soap.


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## BettyW (Dec 30, 2020)

earlene said:


> *BettyW*, the Spectrum Brand vegetable shortening is not PKO, it's palm oil.  So you used the wrong setting in your calculator.  Therefore your amount of lye is too high.
> 
> Have you zap tested the paste?  With the calculations you have and using Palm rather than PKO, your paste should have a NEGATIVE SF of -13% and not 0 %.  That is if all measurements were accurate and both of your lyes are actually the purity indicated in the calculator.
> 
> ...



How did you determine -13 superfat?


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## earlene (Dec 30, 2020)

BettyW said:


> How did you determine -13 superfat?


Plug the numbers in that you had, but use the correct palm oil (not PKO).
Look at the result.  You get a different amount for both lyes.

Then I just changed the superfat setting until the result for the amount of lye you actually used matched the superfat setting.  I started with -5, then -8, then -10 and worked my way up until -13 was the SF that resulted in calculations you ended up with.

You can also reverse engineer the actual lye concentration or other factors within a recipe in the same way by changing those numbers.  But in this case, I was looking for what your actual Super Fat result was with the actual oil you used and the actual lye you weighed out.

I asked if you had zap tested your soap paste.  Here's how to do a zap test, in case you would like to check if it really  is lye heavy as I suggest the numbers indicate:  How To Properly/Safely Conduct The Zap/Tongue Test

Just as a reminder:  The purity of your lye may or may not be what Soapee or any other calculator defaults to, so that can also change your results.  But I won't go into lye purity.  If you want to know more about that, DeeAnna has some great reference material and tutorials on how to determine lye purity on her classicbells site.

NaOH or KOH purity check | Soapy Stuff  (includes a link to her video tutorial)





						Dual lye recipe | Soapy Stuff
					

Classic Bells restores antique sleigh bells and manufactures bell home decor. Wholesale. Retail.




					classicbells.com


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## BettyW (Dec 30, 2020)

Yes I did zap test on tongue.


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