Milky liquid hand soap

[Sarah verdier]

Hi There,

I am making liquid soap for the second time and need some help please.

The first batch I made, using a different recipe (coconut oil only recipe), worked well.

I made up the following recipe and ran it through soap calc.

lye concentration 30%
superfat 0%

coconut oil 170.1g
olive oil 94.4g
Castor oil 113.4g
Jojoba oil 42.52g

Potassium Hydroxide 85.98g
Water 200.61g


I am making it in a crockpot.

After achieving trace I continued to cook for several hrs, stirring every 30 mins or so. It went from a stiff mash potato like substance, back to a thinner gloopy substance rather than a continuing to become more stiff as I was expecting. The batch eventually became translucent. I performed a few sample tests in distilled water- it was milky. each time. I turned off crockpot after 5 hrs cooking (not including time i took achieving trace). In morning i cooked for a few more hrs and it test samples revealed it was still milky. PH indicator paper revealed a PH of 8.

So, being impatient I decided to continue on my possibly perilous path to soap destruction. I started dilution phase at 20%. The soap is milky (not cloudy. watery with a creamy color) and a PH test reveals PH of 7.

So, what should I do at this point?

Chuck the batch?

Do I need to neutralize it?

What is the purpose of the sample test anyway? To test if caustic? To test for clarity? (apologies if this is a dumb question, but I am trying to learn).

I am experiencing difficulty finding a website that can "teach" me how to make liquid hand soap and understand the basic science behind it. Most sites just give directions/instructions (I am thankful they even exist!).

Is it milky because I did something wrong? or because of the nature of the oils I am using?

If milkiness is an aesthetic thing, then I am happy with milky. I just want a safe, effective hand soap.

TIA

I appreciate your help.

Can I have your 100% coconut oil soap paste recipe ?
Thank you very much!

 

[Relle]

Can I have your 100% coconut oil soap paste recipe ?
Thank you very much!

This thread is 2 1/2 yrs old and the OP you are replying to hasn't been here in 16 months, so probably won't see your post, it's best to check dates on the threads. If you want that information start a new thread with your request and as you are new and this is your first post, would you like to go to the Introduction forum and tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into soaping. Coming in and asking for a recipe first up, doesn't ingraciate yourself.

 

[DeeAnna]

Can I have your 100% coconut oil soap paste recipe ?...

If you are asking for a recipe this simple, you need to learn how to use a soap recipe calc. There are no excuses for not learning, if you want to be a soap maker. Even if you want to use other people's recipes, the rule is "Always check any recipe before using." Even the best soap makers sometimes make typos, so it's foolish to assume a recipe is completely correct as written.

A 100% coconut oil liquid soap is an easy recipe to calculate for any beginner, so now's the time to get started. Here are some tips --

Try Soapee at https://soapee.com It's an easy to use calculator. Or the SMF folks here are creating their own calc at https://www.soapmakingfriend.com/ It's functional enough at the moment for you to use it, so give it a try.

The recipe you want is 100% coconut oil (CO), so you have only one fat to deal with. Enter the weight of CO that you want to use. I'd recommend 300 to 500 grams (10-18 ounces by weight) if you're new to liquid soap making. That will make a LOT of liquid soap.

Choose KOH as the alkali (lye).
Set the KOH purity to 90% (or the actual purity if you know it.)
Set the superfat to 3%.
Set the lye concentration to 25%.
Calculate the recipe.

Last but not least, start a new thread in the Beginners forum or in the Liquid Soap forum, share the recipe you calculated, and let others check your work just to make sure you did things okay. When you know what you're doing, you won't need this feedback, but for the first few times it's always good to ask others to double check.