How to tell if 100% Coconut Oil has Saponified

[PaintyLiz]

Question: what are the symptoms that show soap has saponified? or not saponified?

- as you read this - realize I KNOW IT WAS STUPID LOL - but I got up early & it was on my list of things to do today

Situation: I live full time in a 19' travel trailer. I have access to a basically unheated cabin where I do crafty things. This morning it was in the 30's (50's inside cabin)

I didn't have access to a crockpot, so I wanted to try using the heat transfer method on 100% coconut oil soap that was about 45F. I mixed the lye outside (33F) and left it there for a few minutes while I chunked out enough coconut oil.

The lye was warm not super hot when I poured it on the solid CO. I managed to blend it all up, but it got thick very quickly.

Since this is for laundry, I want to make sure that it is really saponified & not just hard because it's still only about 60F in here.

It's been in the molds a couple hours, it is WARM, (not hot) and is quite hard. But then, so is the coconut oil in the jar LOL.

So:

How can I tell?
Should I just dump it into a crockpot & heat it up?
Can that even be done?

Thanks for all help!

 

[PaintyLiz]

Update: the soap is very nice & warm (even though the room is still 65F) so hoping it is saponified.

 

[AliOop]

It will saponify on its own. For 100% CO, you must cut as soon as it is firm. It will still be warm. If you wait longer, it will be too hard to cut. Ask me how I know, lol.

If you want to use the heat transfer method, here is the right way to do it. Measure out all the hard oils and butters first, which, in this case would just be your coconut oil.

Then make the lye solution and stir until just clear.

Don’t let the lye solution cool off! Pour the steaming hot lye over the hard oils/ butters to melt them.

If you are using soft oils, add them as soon as the hard oils/butters are melted. That way, you aren’t “wasting” the heat on oils that don’t need to be melted. You need all of it for the solid oils.

 

[PaintyLiz]

It will saponify on its own. For 100% CO, you must cut as soon as it is firm. It will still be warm. If you wait longer, it will be too hard to cut. Ask me how I know, lol.

If you want to use the heat transfer method, here is the right way to do it. Measure out all the hard oils and butters first, which, in this case would just be your coconut oil.

yeah, well, that WAS the plan LOL


Thanks for such a quick answer

Sorry for not being clear with my question. What I want to know is how can I tell if it did not emulsify completely. I don't want pockets of oil in my laundry soap. Is that even a thing?
Should I be extra careful and rebatch it in the crock pot (now that I have access to one)?

If it was for bathing, I wouldn't worry about it, but I don't want loose oil on my clothing, I have enough spots already

 

[AliOop]

Got it, thanks for clarifying. You will know when you cut the soap whether there are oil pockets (oily) or lye pockets (chalky or chunky). If you don’t see any, your soap is fine.

Hopefully you’ve cut the soap by now? Normally a 100% CO soap should be cut within a few hours at most. If you haven’t cut it yet, it may be too late - way too hard- for cutting; it will just shatter. In that case, you will have to grate it up somehow.

 

[PaintyLiz]

Got it, thanks for clarifying. You will know when you cut the soap whether there are oil pockets (oily) or lye pockets (chalky or chunky). If you don’t see any, your soap is fine.

Hopefully you’ve cut the soap by now? Normally a 100% CO soap should be cut within a few hours at most. If you haven’t cut it yet, it may be too late - way too hard- for cutting; it will just shatter. In that case, you will have to grate it up somehow.

Had to finish making failed sourdough into crackers LOL very time consuming, so I just starting grating the first bar - grates easily I am using this for powdered laundry soap.

Thank you so much @AliOop - you are wonderful!

Funny digression #1 - because I knew absolutely NOTHING about soap, I was using a bar of ivory as the soap in the laundry recipe (borax/soda/soap) and my clothes are very spotty. Now I know - no superfat! I'm assuming ivory has a lot of superfat? Anyway, hoping for better results with my own soap - plus making liquid detergent w/soda is not effective as soda only lasts a few days after dilution? Seems right, since I read that, I've been adding soda and my clothes are cleaner. Yay! I was beginning to look like I was homeless & lived in a tiny travel trailer hahaha (I am & I do LOL but totally by my own choice)

Digression #2 - Don't use raw milk kefir whey as the liquid in your sourdough bread. Makes extremely weird bread dough. Kind of like playdough, soft w/no structure. Or maybe it's something else. I used whey from kefir made with pasteurized 'store' milk successfully many times. If anyone has experience with raw milk kefir whey, would love to hear it.

It did make fantastic crackers, tho.

 

[artemis]

Funny digression #1 - because I knew absolutely NOTHING about soap, I was using a bar of ivory as the soap in the laundry recipe (borax/soda/soap) and my clothes are very spotty. Now I know - no superfat! I'm assuming ivory has a lot of superfat?

It could also be that your water is too hard to use soap as your laundry detergent. If so, your clothes will start to look less clean as deposits build up. Even with sufficiently soft water, I started to notice my whites looking dingy. Some have better success by adding citric acid-- search the forum for "chelator" and "laundry soap" for more info.

But, yes-- you want 0% superfat in a laundry soap.

 

[PaintyLiz]

Thank you for all info!

I don't think we have hard water. The soap works a lot better now that I'm putting the soda back in fresh. I'll update when I use the new soap. I have a lot of chemical allergies, so I'm excited about this!

Here is my new dishwashing soap

If you want to grate a lot of soap, you might like something like this. I got it on HSN (which I never watch, but was flipping channels one day and there it was!) It was $20 and I use it for soap/beets, all kinds of things, but it's fantastic! (Also good when I don't have electricity)

 

[AliOop]

That soap grater looks fantastic! I'd get it if I didn't already have all the grater attachments for my KitchenAid Mixer and my Breville food processor. Love me some gadgets!

 

[PaintyLiz]

That soap grater looks fantastic! I'd get it if I didn't already have all the grater attachments for my KitchenAid Mixer and my Breville food processor. Love me some gadgets!

It is pretty fantastic especially when we're camping at a National Park - they have no electricity LOL. I have a kitchenaid, etc all in storage (5 years so far, hope they work when I take them out LOL) No room here for all my gadgets I even have a crank-operated food processor LOL

 

[PaintyLiz]

Oh Rats! I keep coming back to ask the question and getting distracted.

Do I need to lay the grated soap out to age/dry? And if so, how long?

Thanks EVER so much!!!

 

[Kcryss]

I've never tried making laundry soap, although my daughter keeps bugging me to do it. Just out of curiosity, is it possible to just put in chunks of the soap or does it need to be grated?

 

[artemis]

I've never tried making laundry soap, although my daughter keeps bugging me to do it. Just out of curiosity, is it possible to just put in chunks of the soap or does it need to be grated?

If you have a top loader, you need to grate it to make sure it dissolves in the wash. If you have a front loader, you need to grated or it won't go from the dispenser into the machine. Think: powder detergent.

 

[Babyshoes]

Oh Rats! I keep coming back to ask the question and getting distracted.

Do I need to lay the grated soap out to age/dry? And if so, how long?

Thanks EVER so much!!!

Not for laundry soap after its saponified, as I understand it, but it won't hurt to dry out a bit before storage.

 

[PaintyLiz]

I've never tried making laundry soap, although my daughter keeps bugging me to do it. Just out of curiosity, is it possible to just put in chunks of the soap or does it need to be grated?

I've been using a laundry soap recipe that is 1 grated bar of soap, 1 cup each of washing soda and borax. You only use a little bit for each load (2-4 Tblsp) But I made it liquid - like 10 gallons, used 1/2 c per load because we have only cold water. Turns out that washing soda is like baking soda and after it's diluted in liquid it soon loses effectiveness. After awhile clothes weren't getting clean. So it's back to dry powder for me.

The soap to use should be 0% super fat. I have bad chemical allergies so I was using Ivory bar soap (high super fat). This is a misitake LOL Don't do that!

You can make your daughter a batch of laundry soap quickly using soap like Fels-Naptha (cheap at Walmart, etc) but something in that breaks me out so I am trying my own 100% coconut oil soap.

 

[AliOop]

Definitely grate everything as fine as possible. Also, if you are washing in anything other than HOT water, I recommend pre-dissolving your powder in a bit of hot water just before use.

Before I switched back to store-bought detergent, I kept a little Tupperware bowl by the washer. I would add my powdered laundry soap to that bowl, add about a cup of hot water, swirl it around until mostly dissolved, and pour that into the dispenser section of the washer. This eliminated the white streaks often left on clothes from undissolved borax and soap, both of which dissolve much more quickly in hot water.

 

[PaintyLiz]

Continuing saga of the laundry soap:

I was really concerned about it not having been emulsified completely & didn't want oil on my clothes .... so ...

I rebatched it and added too much water - but it was so pretty LOL

Could someone explain what the separation is? Glycerin? It will eventually dry out, I think? Anyway, they are really pretty, kind of opaque. Since it's for laundry & dish soap not concerned if it looks odd.

You can see it on either edge of the stain stick sandwiches.

Thanks for all the knowledge shared here !!

 

[AliOop]

I'm honestly not sure what that separate layer may be. It almost looks like the excess water has thinned out that part of the soap. Perhaps someone else will come along with a better answer.

FYI, you do need to put some freezer paper or other non-porous material between your soap and those wire racks. Even if they are supposedly stainless steel, the stainless coating degrades over time and will expose your soap to other metals that can cause DOS (rancidity). Worse, if there is any aluminum in those racks that touches soap that may still have active lye (not this batch, obviously, but possibly the next one when freshly poured), the lye will eat through the aluminum and release toxic fumes.

 

[PaintyLiz]

I'm honestly not sure what that separate layer may be. It almost looks like the excess water has thinned out that part of the soap. Perhaps someone else will come along with a better answer.

FYI, you do need to put some freezer paper or other non-porous material between your soap and those wire racks. Even if they are supposedly stainless steel, the stainless coating degrades over time and will expose your soap to other metals that can cause DOS (rancidity). Worse, if there is any aluminum in those racks that touches soap that may still have active lye (not this batch, obviously, but possibly the next one when freshly poured), the lye will eat through the aluminum and release toxic fumes.

Thanks for the heads up

 

[Zany_in_CO]

but it was so pretty LOL

I agree. VERY pretty!