Can I get some insight, please?

[Kiti Williams]

I bought Potassium Hydroxide instead of Sodium Hydroxide and did not catch the mistake until I made a batch of CP shampoo bar batter. It riced and I was stumped at how to fix it.

Question, Can I re-melt the batch and mix in some of the correct lye? This has sat for a few days now.

 

[steffamarie]

No, but congratulations on making your first batch of liquid soap paste! You can dilute with distilled water and fill pumps with your happy accident.

To make bars, you'll need to make a whole new batch.

 

[Kiti Williams]

No, but congratulations on making your first batch of liquid soap paste! You can dilute with distilled water and fill pumps with your happy accident.

To make bars, you'll need to make a whole new batch.

Drat! Oh well, my youngest is a Millennial and likes liquid soaps! I guess liquid shampoo is a fix. How much water do you add to a 38.5 oz loaf?

 

[steffamarie]

Drat! Oh well, my youngest is a Millennial and likes liquid soaps! I guess liquid shampoo is a fix. How much water do you add to a 38.5 oz loaf?

Dilution of LS is a fine art lol. I used a special recipe with a known dilution rate and it worked beautifully. I can only give you some resources and tell you that other people will be far more experienced diluting LS than I am. Maybe start a thread on the liquid soap forum. Here are a couple links to get you started.

Modern Soapmaking

Oh, The Things We'll Make

 

[cmzaha]

Please keep in mind that many cannot use "Soap" based bars or LS for shampoo. True shampoo is synthetic with a lower ph. The ph of soap can cause severe damage to hair, especially long hair. Men's hair that is cut regularly or women's short hair that is cut regularly do no have as much issue.

You mention your soap riced, did you get it to a stable emulsion?. It did not really rice but most likely separated which can happen when making LS, but you still have to bring it to a good emulsion so it will become a soap paste.

 

[DeeAnna]

Also, if you calculated the recipe assuming you'd use NaOH, but used that same weight of KOH instead, your superfat is going to be incredibly high. You will have to add more KOH to get any kind of reasonable soap out of the deal. You need 1.403 grams of KOH to equal 1 gram of NaOH.

 

[Kiti Williams]

Dilution of LS is a fine art lol. I used a special recipe with a known dilution rate and it worked beautifully. I can only give you some resources and tell you that other people will be far more experienced diluting LS than I am. Maybe start a thread on the liquid soap forum. Here are a couple links to get you started.

Modern Soapmaking

Oh, The Things We'll Make

Thank you, this was very helpful!

 

[Kiti Williams]

Please keep in mind that many cannot use "Soap" based bars or LS for shampoo. True shampoo is synthetic with a lower ph. The ph of soap can cause severe damage to hair, especially long hair. Men's hair that is cut regularly or women's short hair that is cut regularly do no have as much issue.

You mention your soap riced, did you get it to a stable emulsion?. It did not really rice but most likely separated which can happen when making LS, but you still have to bring it to a good emulsion so it will become a soap paste.

I have not noticed any damage to my hair in the 10 months I have been using my shampoo bars, mine are made with avocado oil with a coconut/olive oil mix. I have found that my hair at the ends is silky and well hydrated. I do test all my products on myself - just to make sure they are not caustic or will mess up my hair.

I have a liquid soap paste, it looks just like the pictures of what others have gotten. Thank you for your help!

 

[Kiti Williams]

Also, if you calculated the recipe assuming you'd use NaOH, but used that same weight of KOH instead, your superfat is going to be incredibly high. You will have to add more KOH to get any kind of reasonable soap out of the deal. You need 1.403 grams of KOH to equal 1 gram of NaOH.

Good to know, I did not think there was a difference to the 2 lyes, so just went ahead and mixed up the batch. I will write down the formula so I can't lose it! Thank you for your help!