Liquid soap and I just don't agree with each other

[WillZ]

A little while ago I tried to make castille soap for the first time. (see https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/everything-seemed-to-go-wrong.69733/). So now I thought it time to make a Coconut liquid soap.
I am using:
CO: 48%
KOH: 13%
Water: 27%
Glycerine: 12%

I mixed water and Glycerine and added the KOH. This I poured into my melted CO, but I did NOT wait for any of the 2 sets of liquid to cool down.
Then I started to slowcook stiring and doing a bit of SB. After about 3/4 hour, nice wee bubbles appeared all over.
I kept kooking.
It started to get lumpy - but still all white.
Did the tongue test: Yeiks
Did the water test - foggy water.
I am still cooking ( but have now turned the cooker off). So now after 8 hours I still get zapped, and the water is still foggy.
What do I do wrong?

 

[cmzaha]

Y0ur biggest problem is your oil does not equal 100%. Water, KOH and Glycerin are not counted in the 100%. You simply will not make soap bar or LS without the proper percentages. Did you use a soap calculator? It will tell you how much water /liquid to use and if your oil equals 100%. You are getting zapped because you did use the proper amount of oil for the lye to react to. Where did you get the percentages?

 

[jcandleattic]

What is your other oil besides CO?

I'm no expert on LS so can't help you there, but your posted recipe looks like it's short about 52% of oils.

 

[shunt2011]

I have to agree with the above. You don't have enough oils for the lye/water. It's lye heavy.

 

[cmzaha]

^^^it is if she did not add anything else.

 

[WillZ]

DRAT! It's me that misunderstood the recipe. Thanks guys. Is there any way I can add the missing oils at this stage?

The recipe I used was from https://thethingswellmake.com/homemade-liquid-coconut-oil-soap/
I boiled it down to :
480 g CO
130 g KOH
270 g water
120 g glycerine
I guess I did it all wrong.

 

[cmzaha]

Not sure what you actually added into the pot. If the above recipe is what you used it should be okay, it is only high in the liquid which can usually be cooked out. Glycerin is part of the water, so you are almost 50% over what you need for liquid.

We were all going by the percentages you posted, so if the recipe you just posted is what you used you should just be high in liquid. I would try cooking it down to remove the excess liquid. Not sure why it is zapping if you truly used 480g CO and 130g KOH

 

[WillZ]

I'll just leave it be till morning, and see what's what.
Thank you all. I really muddle things up.

Next time I'll follow DeeAnna's advice and do it the way Irish Lass does.

This morning I checked my very hard soapmix. I still got zapped. I don't know what I've done wrong - maybe faulty weighing. Anyway I melted 100 g CO, and added it to the mixture. I chopped up my mix, gave it some heat, and stirred. After an hour I no longer get zapped, but the water test still shows murky water.
Hmmm

 

[BattleGnome]

According to soapee, 580g coconut oil needs 157g KOH for a 5% SF. My guess is that you need to balance everything the other way.

One option is to fiddle with the numbers and figure out how much excess lye you need to get where you want to be. The better option is to do the fiddling and wait till someone who understands the numbers better than me can confirm your method.

It will probably be trial and error while you learn what works for you

 

[Susie]

You really need to use soapee.com to figure out how to balance out what you have done. It is super easy to use. Just plug in the amount of coconut oil you used, click the KOH box, then use the 3:1 ratio of KOH/H2O. It will then tell you how much KOH you need for the amount of oil you used. If you are OK on that, then ignore your murky water. It will fix itself over time. Some oils make murky soap, but CO should not be one of them.

 

[WillZ]

Thanks Susie. It's just that now I am totally unsure of my figures, and I've put my bone-hard white soapmix into canisters for, maybe, later use. I am trying to cheer up by making an 'ordinary' soap batch.

 

[cmzaha]

It seems odd what happened and I really think I would chuck it. CO soap paste is usually a light amber color and not rock hard. Are you 100% positive you used KOH and not NaOH? If you accidently used NaOH it would answer the hardness and zappy, just a thought

 

[IrishLass]

It seems odd what happened and I really think I would chuck it. CO soap paste is usually a light amber color and not rock hard. Are you 100% positive you used KOH and not NaOH? If you accidently used NaOH it would answer the hardness and zappy, just a thought

My mind just went to the same place as yours, lol. The description of 'white' and 'bone-hard' is very typical of 100% CO soap made with NaOH, but not so KOH. The 100% CO liquid soap paste I have on hand is a light golden amber, and although firm, it is not bone-hard, i.e., I can scoop it with a metal spoon, albeit with a fair bit of exertion (it's much like trying to scoop hard ice cream.) I would definitely check to make sure what type of lye you used.


IrishLass

 

[cmzaha]

My CO paste is also light amber and scoopable but firm