First Liquid Soap - volcano!

[reinbeau]

Well, that was certainly exciting. My very first volcano making the liquid soap. It did stay in the pot, as I whipped it into the sink. Whew! When it calmed down I returned it to the stove and I think it reached the stage it should reach. It didn't take near as long as I'd read it would take! This is a recipe from Humblebee & Me http://www.humblebeeandme.com/make-basic-liquid-soap-easy-way/. I want to make her Egyptian Magic liquid soap with honey, propolis and pollen. I didn't catch the volcano, but hopefully caught the vaseline stage. It's in the oven now for a three hour cook. I can't figure out how to add my video.

 

[Susie]

That is not really an easy way to make liquid soap, but good save on the volcano. Why are you cooking it for 3 hours? Remember to zap test.

 

[reinbeau]

Because I'm being told I have to by liquid soap people I've been chatting with on Faceboook. The recipe didn't say to, and I was puzzled why it didn't, because the other procedures I'd seen all had a long cook time. I'm going to test it properly with the phenol solution shortly. It's very soft, nice and silken looking. Nothing like the chunky lump of the cream soap I made last month. http://youtu.be/FH8PWXuBeho

ETA I don't know why the video won't embed, but there's the link. It's short.

 

[Susie]

If you are open to trying something that goes against the advice those folks gave you, try making CP liquid soap. It truly is easy, and you really do get good liquid soap. Just keep your superfat at 3% or less, and avoid oils with lots of unsaponifiables(lard, tallow, jojoba, hemp to name a few). There are lots of folks unwilling to learn that you don't have to cook liquid soap, so they aren't alone.

ETA-Watched the video. The only way I can tell you to know if that is done saponifying, is to zap test it. I really can't tell from the video if that is gelled or not.

 

[DeeAnna]

Been following two FB LS groups for some time now, and I disagree with the common wisdom in both groups about cooking the soap for hours, even days. If you don't cook NaOH soap that much and get good soap, there's no reason why KOH soap has to be cooked to death either.

I'm not sure why the culture in the FB groups includes this idea ... maybe it's a holdover from the Failor method? I don't bother to share a different perspective any more, because the "truth" of the long tedious cook is so entrenched.

For example, one FB soaper said she doesn't use her LS for general cleaning because her LS is so doggone hard and time consuming to make. I remember reading that and shaking my head in disbelief that my experience is so radically different.

 

[reinbeau]

I'm open to learning anything, Susie, I just need to grok the ground rules first

DeeAnna, I see what you mean all the time. I don't argue. I experiment and figure things out as I go, I guess. It wasn't that difficult, actually, to just leave it in the pot in the oven for a few hours, then I shut it off and went to bed. This morning I have a nice pot of silky looking paste that I'm going to test in a minute.

 

[Susie]

Start here:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=46114

Then go here:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49852

I am not trying to brag. I only started the thread so that people could search "Cold Process Liquid Soap" and get a good thread to go to.

 

[DeeAnna]

You're not braggin' Susie!!! If you hadn't shared your tutorial, I would have .. so look at it that you saved me some typing.

 

[Dahila]

As soon as I use the two liters of my beautiful soap made to Irishlass turorial , which came as a success, I will try Susie way, it is copied on my computer so I will have no problem accesing it))
I think Susie and Irishlass tutorials are so simple and working, we do not need to do extra cooking )

 

[cleangrip]

I don't understand the need to "cook" the soap paste either? Don't get me wrong, when I first started making liquid soap I did the same thing. Long nights of hovering over the crock pot wondering when my "paste" would be done. After learning how to do it cold process with no cooking, life has been so much simpler! I can reach trace nearly instantly, there is never the occasional "volcano" effect, and it tests neutral nearly instantly. Ditch the heat, go cold process.

 

[FGOriold]

You cook the soap paste because traditionally, liquid soap was a hot processing method. Heat decreases the saponification time. You don't "need" to do it that way. Many people choose to not use heat and allow the soap to saponify at its own pace - no problem with that as the end result is the same. The lower your heat, the longer the process will traditionally take to complete. In the FB groups, oftentimes people will be told to cook longer, because we do not know what temperature they are usingm how big their batch is (they neglect to say or don't know sometimes) and based on the rest of the information they provide such as their formulation, if their soap is still milky or too cloudy (not your typical acceptable level of "cloudy"), the only thing we can really do is suggest they cook it longer. My personal approach is cook until all tests (phenol, clarity, etc) indicate the paste is complete - done. I have had 100% coconut oil pastes take 6 hours to complete and my last batch of my pink champagne soap was done in 45 minutes. There is no easy way to give advice virtually when you don't have all the info, so we do our best.