This is a GLS paste I made last night.
70% high-oleic safflower
20% coconut oil 76F
10% cocoa butter, bleached and descented
I did not cook this, just stirred occasionally over a few hours and hit it with the SB a couple times.
Looking good!
... this paste isn't clear the way my last attempt was and seems visually to have stopped at the 'mashed potato' phase.
Let it set a few days to see what happens.
However, it does not zap and does lather as much as you'd expect a high-oliec soap to lather. It seems done, but doesn't look like I'd expected.
Even tho it doesn't zap, I'd let it set for a week or two before diluting. It may "look" more like what you expected with a little patience.
Is it just the cocoa butter making it cloudy?
Ditto what Susie said. For clear LS, it's best to keep butters at 2% max. Also, in my limited experience, glycerin seems to cloud LS a bit. Which is weird because it's meant to be a clarifier and solvent -- along with simple sugar syrup & alcohol.
... is the starting point for the dilution twice the weight of soap or half the weight?
This is where your preference comes into play. Some people like thick LS, but end up having good soap wash down the drain when rinsing off. True LS is thin -- just the nature of the beast. LOL But it has great lather -- even 100% olive oil diluted at the recommended ratio of 15% soap to 85% water, will have excellent lather. Versus 100% coconut oil soap that can be diluted at 40% soap to 60% water -- it has the ability to stay suspended and doesn't settle out at that rate.
IMHO and IME, for your formula, I would weigh the soap and calculate the dilution at 30% soap to 70% water due to the high amount of HO safflower.
My method: Bring water just to the boiling point in a large SS pot, range top. Add the soap in chunks. Turn down the heat to Medium Low. Cover lightly. Check on it every hour or so, breaking the chunks up with a spoon. Lower heat if it starts bubbling. The object is not to COOK the soap, but rather get it to ABSORB all the water. This happens "all of a sudden" when the soap reaches 159°F (71°C), (Don't ask how I know this. That's a story for another time! Wink.)
The really neat thing about using gycerin for your lye solution is that it speeds up dilution. I usually allow 3-4 hours for dilution. I do other stuff around the kitchen while waiting for it to do its thing. NOTE: if a film forms on the top, that is a good sign that your LS has just passed the optimum ratio of soap to water. Add more water, a little at a time, and stir until the film dissipates. Allow to cool in the pot. If no film forms, you're ready to pour into a jug and sequester 2 weeks.
