LauraHoosier
Well-Known Member
I think I handled all the "wth??" moments pretty well. My crockpot went wonky and on low was going up to 180F+. I can't say I saw too many of the phases because of this. I used David's tutorial and recipe except I used citric acid to neutralize since it was all I had. I forgot to pick up the Borax last night. :roll:
It seemed to hit the first few phases fine then hit hard taffy phase and seemed to stay there. That's when I found out the temp was way off from what it had been at for the first hour of cooking. I mashed it as best I could and worked it over every 30 mins for the next 3 hours then turned it off and added my boiling hot water. The chunks went nice and see through in no time so I slapped the lid on it and went to bed.
This morning it still wasn't completely dissolved so I turned the pot back on and hit it with the stick blender and it smoothed out right away but it wasn't clear now. It kept getting this on top and while it would mix right back in, a skin would form again on the soap, turn into this and I'd mix it back in.
I went about neutralizing with 10g citric acid and 40g boiling water. Now from the stick blending it was not clear at all so I'm hoping it clears up but while its not crucial it does but it did make watching the neutralizing in action not possible. I stirred like mad until all the white bits were gone and shut the crockpot off again and got out my fragrance and color.
Well lemme tell ya, Lemon Verbena seizes liquid soap apparently. My fault for not checking up on if it behaved well or not. Shame on me. 2 cups of boiling water fixed it fine and thank goodness my lotion stuff arrived yesterday because in it was glycerin. So I read up on it and added 3 oz to thicken up the soap, added a few drops of green color, stirred well again and then found my jug missing. Had to improvise and used our sun tea jar lol.
The finished product before sequestering. Not sure what to think of that last pic but hoping its just tiny bubble and that it goes away.
It seemed to hit the first few phases fine then hit hard taffy phase and seemed to stay there. That's when I found out the temp was way off from what it had been at for the first hour of cooking. I mashed it as best I could and worked it over every 30 mins for the next 3 hours then turned it off and added my boiling hot water. The chunks went nice and see through in no time so I slapped the lid on it and went to bed.
This morning it still wasn't completely dissolved so I turned the pot back on and hit it with the stick blender and it smoothed out right away but it wasn't clear now. It kept getting this on top and while it would mix right back in, a skin would form again on the soap, turn into this and I'd mix it back in.
I went about neutralizing with 10g citric acid and 40g boiling water. Now from the stick blending it was not clear at all so I'm hoping it clears up but while its not crucial it does but it did make watching the neutralizing in action not possible. I stirred like mad until all the white bits were gone and shut the crockpot off again and got out my fragrance and color.
Well lemme tell ya, Lemon Verbena seizes liquid soap apparently. My fault for not checking up on if it behaved well or not. Shame on me. 2 cups of boiling water fixed it fine and thank goodness my lotion stuff arrived yesterday because in it was glycerin. So I read up on it and added 3 oz to thicken up the soap, added a few drops of green color, stirred well again and then found my jug missing. Had to improvise and used our sun tea jar lol.
The finished product before sequestering. Not sure what to think of that last pic but hoping its just tiny bubble and that it goes away.
