Can I salvage this mess?

[emi]

Dear Soapers,
I made a huge mistake and used KOH instead of regular lye for my HP soap. It had been a year or so since I made any soap and completely confused needing KOH for liquid soap, not HP hard bar soap! So there I was, so confused as to why my batch was complete gel the next morning. I finally figured out my error after reading several forum posts. It's only a 500g recipe, but is there anything I can do to salvage this? Maybe turn it into liquid soap somehow? Heres my recipe.

Soy wax 20% 100g
Coconut oil 25% 125g
Avocado oil 20% 100g
Shea butter 10% 50g
HO Safflower oil 15% 75g
Castor oil 10% 50g

Lavender and tea tea oils 15g
KOH 105.53g
Water 190g (38% of oil weight)
Superfat 7%
Sat:unsat 52:48

 

[msunnerstood]

I think you can save it as a liquid soap but with the wax, it wont be "clear"

 

[cmzaha]

I would check the gel for zap and if it is zap free I would do 1 of 2 things. Dilute the paste and make Liquid Soap or if the gel if soft and pliable I would stuff it in small jars or tubes to carry some in my purse. You would just need to pinch off a small amount to use as a soap when carrying bar soap is inconvenient. As Misunnerstood mentioned, you LS will not be clear but it will not hurt it. With the high superfat you may get some separation but it really does not hurt anything either. Either siphon off the clear or mix lightly (shake lightly) before using.

 

[DeeAnna]

I'm with the others -- dilute it and enjoy. It may not be crystal clear. You might see some separation due to the higher superfat. It may be thinner than you might prefer, although I could be wrong, given how much palmitic and stearic is in this recipe -- it might just as easily turn out nicely thick. But I think it will be a nice soap to use. Let us know how it turns out -- pics please!

 

[emi]

Thank you! I don't mind at all if it's not clear. I already did a zap test before I put it in the mold, but I'll do it again just in case. I'll take your advise and dilute it. But I also love the suggestion from cmzaha to put it in a tube or small jar for portable use! I would've never thought of that! It is quite pliable, much like the texture of vaseline. I'll save some for that and dilute the rest. Thank you all for helping me save my batch!

I guess my only question now is should I put it back in my crockpot and heat it to dilute it, or can I just mix water directly into it at room temp and maybe let it sit a while?

 

[msunnerstood]

Thank you! I don't mind at all if it's not clear. I already did a zap test before I put it in the mold, but I'll do it again just in case. I'll take your advise and dilute it. But I also love the suggestion from cmzaha to put it in a tube or small jar for portable use! I would've never thought of that! It is quite pliable, much like the texture of vaseline. I'll save some for that and dilute the rest. Thank you all for helping me save my batch!

I guess my only question now is should I put it back in my crockpot and heat it to dilute it, or can I just mix water directly into it at room temp and maybe let it sit a while?

You can do either. I have read of people putting some in a mason jar with distilled tater and just giving it i gentle flip every now and then until it dissolves. I do mine on warm in a crock pot.

 

[emi]

Ok I'll do the Crock-Pot on warm. Thank you! I'll post results and pics!

 

[emi]

So... it's been 4 days since I posted my original question and things didn't go as I'd hoped. I put my glob (about 3.25 cups) in my crockpot with about 0.5-1 cup of distilled water, put a lid on it and set in on warm. I used my spatula to try to break it up as much as I could every few hours. It seemed to absorb the liquid but the consistency of the globs were still quite stiff Vaseline like. So I added more water maybe 3-4 times over a period of about 2-3 days with the crock pot running on warm non-stop. The liquid would lessen, but the globs seemed to just get bigger without soften or dissolving much at all and the watery part never got much thicker in viscosity.

Remembering that some of you mentioned separation may happen due to the high 7% SF, I took a chance and added a solution of about a cup of water and about 1-2 TBSP of KOH. I was immediately able to notice that the globs were breaking up into smaller globs and the liquid part was thickening up. So I let it sit there on warm all evening, mixing and trying to break it up as much as possible every few hours and let it go overnight. So now it's been a good 24 hrs since I added the KOH. It is much more dissolved than before the KOH addition but there's still a big glob that rised to the top and the rest is like the consistency of heavy cream. I tried mixing it and mashing it around with my spatula, and now there's no "liquid" and "solid" but it's just all mashed up into a lumpy mashed potatoes state with a lot of air bubbles trapped in it. I was thinking of maybe adding a bit more KOH so did a phenophthaline test and it was bright pink- still had unreacted KOH. It's temp has been around 175-185 What should I do?

Sorry the pics posted not in order. The last one where my spatula handlenis sticking out is what it looks like now. The 3rd and 4th ones that look more separated with big glossy globs is what it looked like after 2 days of just water. The top 2 are soon after adding the KOH.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...I took a chance and added a solution of about a cup of water and about 1-2 TBSP of KOH..."

It's fine to add KOH to fix excess fat, but I would have recalculated my recipe to get a rough idea of how much KOH would be needed, rather than blindly add some. Now it sounds like you'll have to correct the reverse problem of excess KOH by adding an acid, assuming your phenolphthalein test is valid. (I use the zap test to check for excess lye.)

Honestly, your soap just looks like it needs more water. You can correct the excess KOH issue when you get it diluted.

 

[Magic7M]

I would try and cook out the excess water and use the paste as is as a shaving soap. It is just another option other than liquid soap.

 

[DeeAnna]

Using any KOH soap in paste form is certainly an option, but I'd use this particular soap for normal body cleansing. It's really not formulated to be a decent shave soap.

 

[Magic7M]

You are right DeeAnna. Shaving soap needs a lot more stearic Acid. Since it is a small batch I thought maybe another alternative would be to shave with it.

 

[emi]

Ok, thank you for the help and suggestions!