100% Coconut VERY HIGH PH

[haidsta]

Hi there,

I made a 100% coconut liquid soap for dish washing. Cooked to paste, translucent and very clear when diluted. At the end of the cook I diluted a little and tested it with a PH strip, it was sitting around 9. I diluted the lot and now the PH strips are showing the PH is up around 13-14!! What can I do? I've left it for a week and no change. All I can think is that my scales stuffed up and I've got a lye heavy soap. It's for washing dishes and cleaning but I still don't what it too high as my hands will be in it.

I compared it to the last batch I made with the same recipe and the PH strips show a 9 for that one.

Can I fix this? Or do I donate my 8 litres to hubby for degreaser

 

[Saponomancer]

Does it zap? As long as it doesn't zap its fine, those strips actually can't tell you if its lye heavy.

 

[haidsta]

Given that it's diluted I wasn't sure Zap would be reliable but I did try and no didn't get any zap

 

[Susie]

In the future, zap test the paste. Those pH strips are completely unreliable when soap is involved.

 

[haidsta]

Yes that’s what I normally do. PH test strips were a recent purchase and I’m discovering that all they are good for is making me second guess myself! Thanks for the input.

 

[LaureLive]

Hello , maybe you might use much koh this time but , you can dissolve (%1-2 of soap paste )citric acid in water then slowly you can add this acidic water into soap in paste and mix until you get the ph of 10 or 9 ... Good works

 

[DeeAnna]

Citric acid is touchy to work with and it is very easy to add too much. Many people have made this mistake and their first post here on SMF is about how to fix an over-neutralized soap.

Far better to just make the soap so it is slightly superfatted -- then no neutralization is required.

 

[LaureLive]

Superfat can increase cloudy in liquid soap base and to get the right range of ph with super fat is weak acid so it will need much more super fat , but adding (%1 of Soap base ) citric acid solution fix these without turning cloudy trust me I have tired a lot , and like citric acid I also use natural milk acid like lactic acid which is remarkable ingredient for dead skin cells but it has disadvantages of turning liquid soap into cloudy,, so I prefer usuing lactic acid in my Naoh soaps which is much more useful than citric acid