Olive oil liquid soap-need help!!

Claudsoap · Feb 3, 2017

I made olive oil liquid soap for the first time.
I added the water to the paste to dilute, brought to a boil and let it sit over night.
In the morning the paste had not melted. I re heated it and let it sit again.
This time when I checked it, the paste had absorbed ALL the water and tripled in size!! I couldnt believe my eyes! Its a BIG blob of paste.

What did I do wrong? How do you think I can fix it?

Susie · Feb 3, 2017

Without having the amounts of anything, I think the only thing you can do is break up the paste and add more water. It is much easier to troubleshoot if you give us the whole recipe in weights.

Claudsoap · Feb 3, 2017

24 oz olive oil
5 oz potassium hydroxide
15.1 oz distilled water

DeeAnna · Feb 3, 2017

There's a sweet spot for liquid soap recipes where there's just enough oleic acid in the soap to make a nicely thick but pourable product with a reasonable amount of dilution. Too much or too little oleic acid and there are problems.

You're on the extremely high oleic end of the spectrum. You'll need to follow Susie's advice. Or consider making a separate low-oleic soap and mixing the two until the mixture has the right amount of oleic acid to make a nice soap with a reasonable amount of dilution.

Too much oleic acid in the recipe: The soap will tend to form a very thick, stringy or goopy gel or even a solid Jello-type gel with reasonable amounts of dilution. The soap will thin out only when you add a LOT of water. The problem with that is the soap can get too diluted to work well. This is the problem you have.

Too little oleic acid in the recipe: The soap tends to be watery thin with even a small amount of dilution. You may have to use a separate thickener to get the right consistency or you can use the thin soap in a foamer dispenser. We're talking about this here: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?p=631500

Susie · Feb 3, 2017

^What DeeAnna said.

I somewhat understand the allure of "100% Olive Oil" or "Castile" type liquid soaps, it just does not make good soap, IMHO. You need some CO and Castor Oil in there for bubbles.

Don't thrown this paste out, though. Hold on to it for a bit.

I want you to go try the recipe in post #8 of this thread:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=46114

Both Coconut Oil and Castor Oil are available at Walmart if you are in the US. Coconut Oil is on the aisle with the baking products, and Castor Oil is by the pharmacy in the laxative section.

Once you have made that soap, and tried it, let us know here, and I will help you fix the paste you currently have.

I want you to know what awesome soap we can turn it into before we do it.

Claudsoap · Feb 3, 2017

Thank you for the feedback, it's much appreciated. I'll keep you posted.

shunt2011 · Feb 21, 2017

Wren said:
To begin making my liquid soap, I weighed and poured my Olive Oil into the crock pot. I turned the crock pot on and waited for the oil to heat. My desired temperature is around 160° F. This temperature does not need to be precise. This took about 10 minutes to heat the oil to 157° F. As this is close enough, I weighed the Potassium Hydroxide and then added it to my water. I’ve made three other batches of liquid soap, so this time the boiling sound did not bother me. Once the Potassium Hydroxide solution was completely mixed, I added it to the oil in the crock pot. Don’t forget to pour in a slow and steady stream to help prevent splashing oil or clumping of the ingredients.

They are asking about dilution what does this have to do to assist with the OP's question?

Olive oil liquid soap-need help!!

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