Liquid Soap problem, please help!

[NoelsArk]

I just made my first liquid soap recipe. I used the snowdrift farm Basic liquid soap recipe and just cut it down to a more manageable size
18oz Coconut oil 76 degree
32oz Sunflower oil
14.5oz KOH
19.8oz H20

I cooked this down to the jelly stage in my crock pot, just like i do my HP soaps and then cooled and store the gel in the fridge for a few days as I didnt have time to do the dilution phase.
Last night I put the gel in my crock pot and added the distilled water... it cooked on low all night from about 730 thru now....the next day at 730 and I STILL have undissolved gel!
Do i need to add more water to my batch? Could I have cooked the gel down for too long? Argh![/b]

 

[donniej]

Is the problem that the soap paste is not dissolved in the water? If so, this is common... it takes a but of work to get the paste to dissolve. I find an egg beater works pretty well. A spray bottle of rubbing alcohol helps to keep the suds down (spray the suds).

 

[NoelsArk]

yes this is the problem. I came home from work to find a layer of the gel on top of the liquid... it seems like nothing more has mixed since when i went to work this morning!
Thank you for the help i will try the beater!

 

[karajan]

I find that after diluting the paste, my soap is rather liquid. Anyway to thicken it up?

 

[donniej]

Borax will thicken it. Add the borax to very hot water to dissolve it, then add a little of the borax/water to the liquid soap. A little goes a long way and too much will make it cloudy.

I've also heard you can use pectin (for canning fruit) but I've never tried it myself.

 

[karajan]

Thanx Donnie. Will give it a try on my next batch.

 

[karajan]

Finally managed to try borax with this batch of liquid soap. It does thicken but not very much. I guess I should not expect to get the thickness of liquid soap we buy off the shelf. Am I right to say that?

Also I can never get my soap paste to melt entirely, I always have quite a fair amount of unmelted pasted. Is there anyway to totally melt the paste or get it to melt almost all the paste?

 

[Bigmoose]

The more coconut oil you use the harder time you will have to thicken it. There are a few other thickeners you can use like corthix, it works well but it is not cheap. There are cheaper ones but if you want clear soaps your choices are limited.

I get my paste to dissolve 100% all the time. I use a crocpot set on warm for a few hours keeping the lid on except to stir often. Then shut it off and leave the lid on overnight. By morning you should be good or you can warm it up to finish it off if needed.

Bruce

 

[donniej]

Hot water, agitation and patience will get the paste disolved.

 

[karajan]

Thank you. Guess I need more patience. Will give it another go.

 

[florusa]

I just made my first liquid soap too... Now I am trying to prepare it for the regular pump and foam pump bottles. How to figure out when the soap is diluted just right for these two different kinds of bottles? Is there a certain proportion of soap and water I need to follow?

 

[Bigmoose]

Foamers are easy. You will be suprised at how much water you can add and still get it soapy enough to wash your hands well. Since recipes are all different there is no set amount of added water to add. Just play with it till you are happy with the outcome.

Bruce