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Stearic Acid is a fatty acid that is saponified when used with your base oils - it has no relevance to or affect on pH like citric acid (which is not a fatty acid). I have never had luck with adding stearic acid up front (I have only tried small amounts because I find it can be very drying) in...

There are all kinds of melt and pour bases, some are true "soap" and some are detergents. Don't judge the quality of one base based on another. To each his own. If someone wants to consider using M & P cheating, so be it. The methods and outcome can be so different I don't understand the...

Nope - even 100% coconut oil soap will turn out pale golden yellow.

I wanted to try it because I really, really like salt bars and how soft and silky they leave my skin and wanted to try to recreate that in a liquid soap.

I have just recently done this. I used 10% sea salt (10% of my oil amount) that I dissolved in the water first, then added my lye to that. It turns white at this point. I then proceeded as normal. Makes a really nice liquid soap. It is a bit hazy when diluted to a very concentrated level...

Yes DeeAnna - I was able to easily thicken 2 soaps (One was 100% olive oil the other was 50% olive oil, 30% coconut oil and the rest other soft oils) with very small amounts of a 20% sodium citrate solution. The 100% coconut oil soap did not thicken at all. There was also no change in pH like...

Every formulation will be different and every time you make the same formulation - that too will be different. There are far too many variables with LS to expect exact consistency from formula to formula or batch to batch. Your paste does not have to go through each and every stage that is...

What temperature is the soap that your are pouring for the second layer and does that match the manufacturers directions for layering?

You can find HPMC at The Herbarie:http://www.theherbarie.com/Hydroxypropyl-Methycellulose-HPMC.html I thought Lotioncrafters used to sell it, but don't see it on their site anymore.

While this relates to food, I find that the use of the word "natural" in both food and bath and body products are comparable. http://www.upworthy.com/how-we-are-fooling-ourselves-into-eating-all-natural-foods?c=tkp1

Another product you can use to thicken some liquid soaps (not sure which oils work best yet) is Olivem 300 (http://www.lotioncrafter.com/olivem-300.html). I used it at just 3% in my glycerin method liquid 100% olive oils soap and it turned it to a clear gel - a bit too thick for me, but now I...

You can call anything you want "natural" but it is just a marketing term with no legal definition as for how it can be used in many industries. Personally, when I see the word used for marketing purposes, it just raises a red flag that the company is trying to pull something over on the...

People (including myself) successfully make liquid soap with mixed KOH and NaOH all the time and it creates a wonderful soap - not a goopy mess at all. One of the oldest books I have on soapmaking actually has only one recipe for liquid soap and it uses mixed lyes. Since you have not tried it...

Not sure how this went from talking about thickening liquid soap to "being against borax" - but oh well. Considering borax is a banned ingredient in the EU, I do not use it as my products are sold all over the over the world. We all can choose our thickeners of choice based on what works for us...

Actually it probably did not seize. Liquid soap paste can get so stiff that it is impossible to stir - and this phase can come on very, very fast depending on the formulation. Adding some distilled water is fine, but don't worry about how stiff the paste got - it sounds like it will turn out...

You can also speed trace by adding some previous paste from a liquid soap paste created earlier.

Either way you go, you might want to start with a smaller batch. Those formulas will create quite a bit of finished soap..... and if you find you don't care for it, well thats a lot of soap to deal with. Whenever I create a new formulation or use a new technique, I always stick with about 20...

Kyra - there could be other reasons that your soap is a bit cloudy too - oils used, superfat amount, etc.

Kyra - I would leave it for now and let it sequester for a bit, then reevaluate it.

You have to use a clear melt and pour base so that the colors stay transparent.