Accidentally used Magnesium chloride

[spurky]

Hey there. I am new to liquid soap making. I normally make lovely hot process olive oil soap bars. But I wanted to try working on a liquid soap. I haven't been successful yet for some reason this is alluding me and I can't figure it out.

So today I thought I would try again. But today is been my biggest oops. I for some reason had my magnesium chloride flakes in the shelf I normally hold my lye containers. So instead of putting in 114g of KOH with 80 g distilled water solution in oils I put 114 grams of magnesium chloride (80g of glycerine too added directly to the oils). It just wasn't going to trace. But once I realized what I did, put in the 80g water with 114g KOH and it went to trace very quickly. But my question is should I just trash or is this salvageable? I read in one thread that it will just produce soap scrum. It is only 500g of oils. But I feel so silly getting my buckets mixed up.

 

[AliOop]

114g of KOH with 80 g distilled water solution

For future, you need at least as much water (by weight) as the KOH, or it will not dissolve properly. You can also dissolve it in glycerin, but that requires added heat, and requires extra safety precautions.

Because you used 34g more of KOH than liquid, I'd be quite concerned that not all of the KOH was properly dissolved, leaving you with a lye-heavy paste. It might be possible to dilute it and then neutralize the excess KOH with some citric acid, but we are beyond the scope of my knowledge and abilities here. Perhaps @DeeAnna could help here.

 

[spurky]

For future, you need at least as much water (by weight) as the KOH, or it will not dissolve properly. You can also dissolve it in glycerin, but that requires added heat, and requires extra safety precautions.

Because you used 34g more of KOH than liquid, I'd be quite concerned that not all of the KOH was properly dissolved, leaving you with a lye-heavy paste. It might be possible to dilute it and then neutralize the excess KOH with some citric acid, but we are beyond the scope of my knowledge and abilities here. Perhaps @DeeAnna could help here.

Thanks for that I will try the next time not halving the water instead just adding the same weight of glycerin for lye and just adding the full 160g of water.

 

[AliOop]

If you have 114g of KOH, you can dissolve that in 114g of water. That will be faster and much easier than trying to dissolve it in glycerin.

 

[DeeAnna]

It's not salvageable. Honest. Don't make matters worse by adding KOH. Just soak it up in kitty litter or other absorbent material and discard in the household trash.

Also I'm not quite sure what you're trying to accomplish with the glycerin. As Ali advised, dissolve KOH in water. Then add glycerin. Not the other way around.

And water needs to be at least equal in weight to the alkali, not less.

Not sure where you're getting your information... I'm a little concerned that you're basing decisions based on unreliable info

 

[spurky]

It's not salvageable. Honest. Don't make matters worse by adding KOH. Just soak it up in kitty litter or other absorbent material and discard in the household trash.

Also I'm not quite sure what you're trying to accomplish with the glycerin. As Ali advised, dissolve KOH in water. Then add glycerin. Not the other way around.

And water needs to be at least equal in weight to the alkali, not less.

Not sure where you're getting your information... I'm a little concerned that you're basing decisions based on unreliable info

Thanks, I ended up just tossing it. Thanks for the confirmation I have always dissolved lye with water as I am not keen on the heating of the glycerin method. And I will make sure to have the water at least equal.
Thanks.