Diluting Liquid Soap Paste (what kind of water to dilute with?)

[Sweetmeat]

I recently made a large batch of liquid soap concentrate paste. I made a variation on my tried and tested hot process paste recipe to use up some old oils that were ageing in my crafting cupboard:

- 50% EV Olive Oil
- 25% Coconut Oil
- 15% Castor Oil
- 10% Macadamia Nut Oil

I followed my normal hot process liquid soap paste recipe, and it produced a beautiful golden brown translucent concentrate paste after 4 hours in the crock pot. (the beauty of working from home now is I can make soap in the background as I work )

I diluted a chunk of it with some room temperature distilled rose water (1:3 / soap : rose water, presumably neutral pH since it's a hydrosol) and it is PERFECTLY clear, and smells amazing. A great batch! However, when I dilute it with cold tap water, it turns out very cloudy. It's still a nice soap, just kind of ugly.

My question: does the pH or quality of the water which is used to dilute liquid soap concentrate paste affect the clarity of the final diluted liquid soap? I live in Vancouver BC, and we have quite soft mountain tap water. I've never had this issue before, where soap paste diluted with distilled water is clear, but when diluted with tap water is very cloudy...is this normal? Is it always preferable to dilute liquid soap paste with distilled / neutral pH water?


The paste, diluted with hydrosol, and diluted with tap water.

 

[DeeAnna]

Always use distilled, demineralized, or reverse osmosis water.

When you use tap water (aka spring water, drinking water, etc.), the soap reacts with "hard water" minerals to form soap scum. Scum is an insoluble white material and it clouds the soap.

Soft water is water with LESS hard water minerals than unsoftened water. "Soft" doesn't mean a complete absence of hard water minerals.

 

[AliOop]

Soft water is water with LESS hard water minerals than unsoftened water. "Soft" doesn't mean a complete absence of hard water minerals.

Yes, and it contains salt in varying amounts (depending on the type of your softener, and the settings you use). Salt from your softened water can have dramatic effects on LS, and house plants - ask me how I know

 

[Sweetmeat]

This makes sense, thank you for confirming!

 

[Organic.chemist]

Ita because of high TDS of your diluting water.. most preferably always use water between 0 ppm to 100 ppm... Beyond this you will have more calcium and magnesium in your water which means water hardness is on peak... Alternatively if you are using higher TDS or hard water then you can add 0.1-0.5% EDTA solution to get crystal clear soap