Bar soap into liquid soap

[Jamie Bell]

I made a really nice homemade bar soap and I tried a recipe for store brought soap which is 1oz of soap to 1 cup of boiling water when I tried to do this with my soap 2/3 of it melted the rest of it turned to gel. Why did this happen? And how do I fix it?

 

[amd]

I made a really nice homemade bar soap and I tried a recipe for store brought soap which is 1oz of soap to 1 cup of boiling water when I tried to do this with my soap 2/3 of it melted the rest of it turned to gel. Why did this happen? And how do I fix it?

You can't turn bar soap into liquid soap. Bar soap is made with NaOH, liquid soap with KOH. The reason this works for store soaps is that many (or most) contain detergents.

 

[shunt2011]

I second what amd said. Bar soap into liquid soap makes a snotty type consistency and just doesn't work. Need to make liquid soap with KOH.

 

[DeeAnna]

I'm with the others. A soap made with NaOH cannot be turned into a "liquid soap" with a consistent, pourable texture. NaOH soap wants to organize itself into some kind of solid-ish consistency anywhere from a bar soap form to a non-pourable gel. The change from a pourable liquid to a solid consistency might take a month or it might take a day, but it will eventually happen. So there is no way to "fix" this, except to make a true liquid soap using potassium hydroxide (KOH), not sodium hydroxide (NaOH).

Here's an interesting thread exploring the idea of making NaOH "liquid soap" -- https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/liquid-soap-with-naoh.52597/

 

[gloopygloop]

I agree as have been there and done that, what is liquid one day turns into a thick lard like cream/paste and this process continues and continues and continues despite keep adding water, it just never stops re solidifying.

 

[Dean]

Yep. I made soap snot too b4 realizing bar to liquid cant...or shan't be done.