LS Success!!

[steffamarie]

Following the recipe and procedure detailed by IrishLass in the liquid soapmaking thread, I succeeded at my first LS! I didn't get the Lawrence Welk stage and my paste never went translucent. Instead, I ended up with a thick, sticky, opaque taffy similar to the Bit O' Honey texture described later in that thread. I tried a clarity test with boiling water and a golf-ball-ish sized amount of paste, and that came out cloudy. I was pretty certain my soap would be cloudy once diluted, so I bought an opaque pump bottle to disguise it

Joy of joys, when I did dilute, it came out a beautiful honey consistency - and clear as a bell!! I fragranced with 1% Icy Shine from NG (with an equal amount of PS80) and added both 0.5% tetrasodium EDTA for chelation and 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus just as a peace-of-mind sort of thing. Below are my dilution results and a lather test! Excuse my sink that clearly needs to be cleaned. Perhaps that ought to be my next LS adventure

 

[Nate5700]

Congrats on the success! I haven't read up on the process for making liquid soap (though I did make some by accident during my shave soap misadventures). From what I understand crystal clear soap is a goal most shoot for and take pride in, so I'm wondering how difficult that is to do. I actually don't mind liquid soap that's opaque, but if you're shooting for one or the other and end up getting translucent and cloudy I guess that might not look great.

LS might have to be the next thing I try.

 

[steffamarie]

@Nate5700 I highly recommend reading the liquid soapmaking thread [here]. IrishLass' method couldn't be easier. I had sort of made my peace with it being cloudy but everyone had had such beautiful results clarity-wise I would have been a little disappointed if I had screwed something up. But again, there's almost no way to screw it up! I even added way too much tetrasodium EDTA by mistake and it didn't seem to affect it.

 

[Misschief]

Do read the entire thread before jumping in. There's a lot of great information in that thread and you'll want a complete overview.

 

[Nate5700]

Do read the entire thread before jumping in. There's a lot of great information in that thread and you'll want a complete overview.

I'll definitely give it a look. It's been a little frustrating getting into this new, I ask questions and every single one of them seems to have a 10 page thread detailing every aspect. Information overload! And my inclination is to just jump right in and find out for myself, so I don't read as much as I should before starting. Luckily I haven't had a lot of problems yet, but my shave soap did take a couple of tries to get right.

 

[Misschief]

I'll definitely give it a look. It's been a little frustrating getting into this new, I ask questions and every single one of them seems to have a 10 page thread detailing every aspect. Information overload! And my inclination is to just jump right in and find out for myself, so I don't read as much as I should before starting. Luckily I haven't had a lot of problems yet, but my shave soap did take a couple of tries to get right.

I'm very much the same way but, trust me, read the entire thread and make notes.

 

[Carl]

Looks great! Congrats to you.

How did you make out with this step from bullet point #4 in post #8:

"By the way, my soaping pot is off the heat when I do this (and from here on out as well- things are hot enough as it is!)."​

I've also done well with this recipe, but every time I take it off the heat, it does nothing. Last time I took it off the heat and left it there over night and I just had a whole bunch of separation in the morning.

But I have had success when leaving it on low heat.

 

[atiz]

I'll definitely give it a look. It's been a little frustrating getting into this new, I ask questions and every single one of them seems to have a 10 page thread detailing every aspect. Information overload! And my inclination is to just jump right in and find out for myself, so I don't read as much as I should before starting. Luckily I haven't had a lot of problems yet, but my shave soap did take a couple of tries to get right.

Well, I would not worry about reading *everything* (you can't). If you encounter a problem, you can search the forum and there's a big chance someone has had the same. Jump in and experiment, that's part of the fun

 

[steffamarie]

Looks great! Congrats to you.

How did you make out with this step from bullet point #4 in post #8:

"By the way, my soaping pot is off the heat when I do this (and from here on out as well- things are hot enough as it is!)."​

I've also done well with this recipe, but every time I take it off the heat, it does nothing. Last time I took it off the heat and left it there over night and I just had a whole bunch of separation in the morning.

But I have had success when leaving it on low heat.

Thank you!! My house is pretty cold, so I did blend it for a time on the heat and that seemed to help. It was moving a little too slowly for my impatient self when I left it off the heat.

 

[Meena]

Following the recipe and procedure detailed by IrishLass in the liquid soapmaking thread, I succeeded at my first LS! I didn't get the Lawrence Welk stage and my paste never went translucent. Instead, I ended up with a thick, sticky, opaque taffy Excuse my sink that clearly needs to be cleaned. Perhaps that ought to be my next LS adventure
View attachment 38250

Congratulations, well done!! I Love my LS and just thrilled to not buy it anymore! Plus, it's fun to make.

Store your undiluted paste in the fridge, if you can.

 

[Meena]

what I understand crystal clear soap is a goal most shoot for and take pride in, so I'm wondering how difficult that is to do. I actually don't mind liquid soap that's opaque,
LS might have to be the next thing I try.

I wanted opaque LS, and used stearic acid which was supposed to pearlize, or that was my understanding,, but still got clear, so I'd say it's more difficult to get opaque LS. A superfat of 1% didn't change it, either.

 

[steffamarie]

I wanted opaque LS, and used stearic acid which was supposed to pearlize, or that was my understanding,, but still got clear, so I'd say it's more difficult to get opaque LS. A superfat of 1% didn't change it, either.

You might try IrishLass’ Cocoa Shea GLS if you haven’t. She uses stearic too and has had good luck with hers going opaque/pearly.

 

[Susie]

Congratulations, well done!! I Love my LS and just thrilled to not buy it anymore! Plus, it's fun to make.

Store your undiluted paste in the fridge, if you can.

You can safely store your paste at room temperature. I do it all the time now that I have more space for soap stuff. Matter of fact, it breaks up easier when you want to dilute it if it is not cold.