emi
Well-Known Member
Don't want to rain on your parade...but I notice that you calculate KOH 100% purity.
Um... Did you double check your KOH package? Are you sure it's 100% purity? If not, you'll have some oil floating on top of your liquid soap.
Nope I sure didn't. I asked about how to calculate KOH earlier but I didn't get or wait for an answer and went ahead with 100% purity which I'm sure my KOH is not. I just checked and the bottle itself says 84%-92% purity. I knew not understanding all that was going to bite me in the butt. That's why I made such a small batch. So I was supposed to calculate at 90% KOH afterall. Damn. Plus this recipe was SF at 3% which I thought was odd for a liquid recipe but I just followed the directions. So this means I'm really going to have extra oil, like 13% SF right? I have it on the stove right now and it's almost all dissolved. Probably another hour or so. Is there anything I can do at this late stage to fix it? I can't just add lye solution to it now can I? Thanks so much for catching that for me.
And can you tell me why some liquid soap recipes ask for borax or some acid to neutralize while others do not? Is it because some recipes are calculated to be 10% lye heavy to ensure full oil saponification so the acid is needed to neutralize any lye heaviness that might result from that? But that has nothing to do with the 90% KOH option right? I thought it did before but I'm thinking it doesn't now. It's simply to make up for most people's impure KOH. correct? Also, when making liquid soap, should I keep the "water % of oils" at the default of 38%?