Fixing very low KOH in liquid soap batch.

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poramor

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I made a big mistake making liquid soap a couple of days ago and I´m so absent minded I hadn´t realized until now! I used Soapee calculator for the formula of my soap but I checked the NaOH button, although I know perfectly well it should have been KOH. So I used KOH in my soap but in the ammount that would correspond to making soap with NaOH. I was making 7 kilos of soap base with 15% castor oil, 25% coconut oil, 76 deg, 35% olive oil and 25% sesame oil with 3% superfat. This resulted in my adding 1001 grams of KOH instead of 1592 grams I should have used. The method I used to cook the soap was cold process, stick blending as long as it was possible and using the koh heat to finish the cooking. Obviously, test for doneness always resulted in cloudy results. The next day I tried cooking with heat to see if this would help. I cooked and cooked but obviously tests were always cloudy. I experimented with a part of the soap base adding destilled water and heating to dilute it and predictably, this resulted in a white liquid. Finally I did what I should have done from the first problem, look at the Soapee formula and find the huge mistake I made.
So my question is, how do I fix this soap. How do I do it with the soap I haven´t diluted and how do I do it with the part I diluted.
 
The good news is that you used the incorrect amount of KOH instead of using NaOH which sometimes happens. :eek: All you need is to add more KOH to the batch and patience.

Here's what I would do:
1592g (KOH needed) - 1001g (KOH used) = 591g more KOH to add to the batch.
Make lye solution: 591g KOH + 1773g water (3 X KOH)
Put the diluted soap and the undiluted soap in a large stainless steel pot. Add the lye solution.
Bring just to the boiling point, then lower the heat to MED/LOW, or LOW. (Watch carefully -- if it starts to rise up, remove from heat, set it in the sink, and stir down.) The object is not to cook the batch but rather to get the undiluted soap to absorb all the liquid.
Once you have a homogeneous mixture (uniform throughout), take if off heat, cover it and let it set for as long as it takes to test neutral. This may take a day or more. That's where the patience comes in. 😁

HTH

ETA: If you're making 7 kilos of soap base, I assume this isn't your first batch of LS, yes?
 
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