Cloudy liquid soap

[Ksavoy07]

I made my first batch of glycerin liquid soap a week ago and I now noticed that my soap isn't as clear as it should be and has an almost pearl like shimmer to it. I'm wondering what happened to make it like that.

Any help at all one this would be awesome. I really wanted to give out some liquid soap as Christmas presents.

 

[Susie]

If you could post your entire recipe (including all additives) in weights, it would help tremendously.

Also, what temperature is your house kept at?

 

[Ksavoy07]

13 oz olive oil 1.5 oz caster oil 1.5 oz coconut oil 6 oz glycerin 3 oz koh. The house is normally around 60 65 I believe

 

[galaxyMLP]

Did you use tap water to dilute it? or distilled?

 

[Ksavoy07]

I ended up using both on accident. It was half and half

 

[galaxyMLP]

I think you have 2 things going on:

1. You used a higher superfat than is usually used for liquid soap. I calculated 13% with a 90% KOH purity. I think you may have assumed 100% purity which is unlikely for KOH. However, if you purchased a pre-made % by weight solution, or lab grade, it is possible your KOH has higher purity.

2. If you have hard water, your liquid soap will become opalescent from the minerals in the water when you use water from the tap. It will also not foam up as well.

In both of these cases your soap is completely usable and safe!

 

[Susie]

To tell which case you have, allow the soap to sit for a few days without stirring. If you get a cloudier layer on top, it is too high a superfat. In which case, you can pour off the cloudy layer and have clear soap to give away.

If it is the hard water issue, someone else needs to step in, because I have never had hard water.

 

[galaxyMLP]

You can not fix the hard water soap issue. I tried. I would simply use it to clean things. Its not like the soap is bad. Its just not the best it could be.

You know, maybe if you add in some tetrasodium EDTA you can clear it up? I don't have any on hand so I cant test it but it might be worth a shot.Maybe even sodium citrate could clear it up but, you can try that too if you have some citric acid on hand.

 

[IrishLass]

I agree with the Galaxy that that's is a pretty high superfat, which is my first guess as to why your soap is cloudy, although the tap water could be playing a part, too, but I don't know for sure since I only use distilled in mine. It shows up as a 10% S/F on Summerbee's calculator (I think they calculate for 94% KOH purity there if I remember rightly).


I would do what Susie said about letting the soap sit without stirring to see what happens. If you find that the extra super-fat is the cause of the cloudiness, an alternative to pouring the fatty part off is to try adding a solubizer such as PS80 to a small portion of your soap to see if it will help clear things up. That's what I use in order to keep my extra super-fat from separating/coming out of suspension in my liquid soap formula that I super-fat @ about 6%.


IrishLass

 

[DeeAnna]

Yes, I think you could clear up the LS by adding some tetrasodium EDTA to chelate the hard water scum, if that's what the cloudiness is. It might not be worth the trouble, however. I'd probably just use it as-is and do better on the next batch.

Somebody on a Facebook liquid soaping group was bragging about making an opalescent look in her LS by deliberately using hard water for dilution.