An Odd Thing Happened to My Soap Paste...

Susie · May 17, 2016

An odd thing happened to my soap paste while it was stored in air tight tubs in the pantry. It is requiring much less water to dilute than before. EVER before. It is 13 months (+ or - a couple of weeks) old, and other than a few hours in a cooler while being moved to a different state, it has been in a heated/cooled house.

This is almost the last 16 oz tub of dish/laundry 100% CO 0% superfat. It normally requires 1:2.5 dilution ratio. To that end, I added 32 oz (weighed) to the broken up paste, and it diluted so fast, I have added another 8 oz of paste slowly over time. It is still diluting really fast, and no lumps remain. I will update when I figure out how much extra paste it takes.

So, chemists and other brilliant folks here, what gives? Rarely does a soap surprise me this far out from the original date it was made.

ETA: It took 27.2 oz of soap paste to 32 oz water. Color me confused. I replaced the batteries in the scale this morning, well before the liquid soap dilution.

I checked the weight of the paste before beginning dilution. I don't know why, I just do. Even though I am the one that made them and labelled them with weight and dilution instructions. And, of course, I weighed out the water.

IrishLass · May 17, 2016

Interesting! Was this a glycerin-method LS or a water-based one? I ask because my GLS version of 100% CO with a 0% s/f needs very little water indeed to dilute - 74% paste to only 26% water. It dilutes out to the same syrupy-thick consistency of Dawn Ultra.....at least when my paste is fairly fresh. I still have a bit 100% CO paste in my fridge that's over a year old. Maybe I should try diluting it to see what happens.

IrishLass

Susie · May 17, 2016

This was straight water 100% KOH/CO soap. It was made on 4-14-15. I was trying to use oils up before moving to Texas.

DeeAnna · May 18, 2016

I don't have any grand thoughts about this, Susie, but I'll ponder on it.

Susie · May 18, 2016

If I had not weighed the tub before removing paste, I would have guessed that it had absorbed enough moisture to change the dilution ratio. But I did weigh it. And it was exactly 16 oz heavier than the empty tub I used to tare the scale with.

I ended up adding the remainder of the second tub (4.8 oz) to the mix with an additional 4 oz of water. I turned the crock pot off last night right after the addition of the extra paste and water. It was completely diluted with no lumps or skin this morning. I got a total of 65.3 oz of finished soap, plus some spillage in the transfer.

This makes 32 oz of paste + 36 oz water = 65.3 oz of soap + spillage (probably less than 3 oz). The good news is that it lathers fine, and in every other aspect performs exactly like the previous batch that is in the bottle I am using right now.

DeeAnna · May 18, 2016

Here's a thought, Susie --

You thought you should do a dilution of 1 part soap to 2.5 parts water. What if the ratio was reversed and you should have diluted at 1 part water to 2.5 parts soap? If so, that is awfully close to IL's dilution ratio for her CO soap. Ats 74% soap paste, she is using a dilution ratio of 1 part water to 2.8 parts soap.

As far as your actual dilution rate, it was 1.2 parts water to 1 part soap. That I can't quite explain.

Susie · May 18, 2016

This is a labelled batch. I don't recall ever using a glycerin recipe to make dish/laundry soap. I will check my recipes this morning if I have time before work. Otherwise, it will be this evening. And this is thin, like 100% CO soap.