This soap is
so wonderful! I took the time to write out/consolidate step-by-step instructions that can be printed out as a checklist when you actually make it. I shared my write-up in a Word doc that you can access
HERE. In case anyone has trouble with that link, I've also posted it in long form, below. **
Please note that I used the faster method of dissolving KOH in DW before adding room-temp glycerin, and I omitted the EDTA. Both of these changes required adjustments to the dilution water. You will need to readjust your dilution water if you change either of those recipe components back to IL's original instructions.**
Irish Lass’ Creamy Cocoa-Shea GLS Tutorial
Ingredients:
Coconut Oil 35%
Castor Oil 30%
Cocoa Butter 20%
Olive Oil 10%
Shea Butter 5%
3% superfat
Lye concentration: 25% (25% KOH, 25% distilled water, 50% glycerin)
Post-cook dilution ingredients (using baker’s percentage):
100% paste weight
32.96% distilled water
3% SL
3% meadowfoam seed oil
(or other SF oil of choice)
3% stearic acid
.15% PS80 (
note the decimal point!)
1% max FO per weight of finished soap, mixed with equal amount of additional PS80 (
this is separate from the amount of PS80 listed in the line above)
Directions:
1. Weigh and melt hard fats, then add liquid oil. Turn off the heat and cover.
2. Pour KOH into distilled water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in glycerin. Add mix to oils.
4. Stickblend mixture from clear amber to milky opaque. You can stop at the “Flying Bubble Stage,” which is normally ~5-6 minutes. If you don’t see tiny bubbles, a good layer of bubbles on the batter’s surface is fine. You can also SB all the way to the thick cream-cheese/taffy stage if you want.
5. Cover the pot and let it sit (off heat) for 4-6 hours to become a firm, scoopable, sticky, taffy-like paste under a thin layer of dried bubbles.
6. Zap test. When zap-free, proceed to dilution, or store paste in the fridge for dilution later.
7. To dilute: Weigh an empty canning jar with its cover, and note the weight (important for later). Make sure to choose a jar large enough to accommodate all contents. A ½-gallon jar will accommodate a batch with 500g oils and its dilution ingredients.
8. Fill large pot with enough water to come up the sides of your canning jar. Put a heat pad or trivet on the bottom of the pot, and bring to a boil.
9. Weigh out post-cook dilution ingredients as a percentage of paste weight as noted above. Weigh stearic acid into canning jar. Tare scale, and then weigh paste into jar on top of stearic acid. Tare scale and weigh PS80 into the jar.
10. In a separate small pot, weigh out distilled water and SL, and bring to a boil. Alternatively, heat distilled water to boiling in a tea kettle, weigh out what you need into a heat-safe Pyrex measuring cup, tare, then weigh/add SL and stir.
11. Pour the boiling water/SL mixture into the paste jar, tightly cover it, give a little shake, and then place it on the trivet in your large pot of boiling water. Loosen the lid slightly while it is in the hot water (remember to tighten it again if you shake it later).
12. Cover the pot if you can, turn heat to medium, and then let it boil at a gentle roll for ~1 hour. Check water level to maintain it above the jar contents; top off as needed. Occasionally pick up jar with gloved hands, give a gentle swirl, and then return to boiling water.
13. Take the jar out of the pot, set it on a heat resistant pad, and wipe it down with a cloth. Carefully open jar and stir with a long, firm spatula. By this time, the stearic acid should be completely melted, and the jar contents will be a dual mixture of clear, amber-colored liquid (diluted soap), and undissolved globs of paste.
14. Smash the globs against the inside of jar to check firmness. If they are soft like jelly, stick blend the contents to break up the globs so they dissolve more quickly. If they are still quite hard/firm, cook it for additional 20-minute intervals until soft enough. After blending, the contents will be an opaque ivory color (temporarily).
15. After blending, recover the jar and place it back into the pot of water on the turned-off burner to let the jar contents settle and continue dissolving as it slowly cools. After about 30 minutes, the contents should look like amber ale with a bit of a foamy head. As it cools down over the next hours, the foamy head will thin out, gradually getting scantier and wispier. Optional: spray foamy head with alcohol every once in a while, to knock it down a bit. Don’t go overboard with spraying, or it will thin the soap too much.
16. Blobbiness: If your foam takes more than 12 hours to dissipate into mere wisps, and you have a layer of thick, stubborn foam on the surface that just won't dissipate, then open the jar and gently poke at the surface with a chopstick. If you encounter resistance, a blob of undissolved soap is the culprit. Resist the urge to add more water at a time, since a little bit of water goes a very long way at this stage. Add ½ ml of hot distilled water to the jar, warm it in a pot of simmering water, then let it cool down again. Repeat as needed until all soap has dissolved.
17. Leave the covered jar on the counter for 12-24 hours to become opaque and creamy before super-fatting.
18. Super-fat at 3% of starting paste weight, or at 2.053% of the finished soap weight. To calculate your finished soap weight, weigh the covered jar of soap and then subtract the covered empty jar weight that you noted earlier.
19. Multiply the finished soap weight by 2.053% (or the paste weight by 3%) to determine how much MFSO to add.
20. Multiply the MFSO weight by 3% to determine amount of PS80 to mix with MFSO so it solubilizes into the soap.
21. Mix the MFSO with the PS80 and hand-stir the mix into the soap. No heat or stick-blending is needed. Store soap until ready to decant and scent, as desired.
22. Add anywhere from .3% to 1% FO/EO per weight of decanted soap. Mix FO/EO with an equal amount of PS80 before hand-stirring it into the decanted soap.
(well that's my excuse). I know you don't do the KOH dissolving (over heat) anymore but this morning I thought I'd give this cold process liquid soap ago. I did dissolve over heat just because I (touch wood) am generally careful and I have a tall stainless steel beaker with handle (might be a milk jug but never seen one like one I've got) that fits 1200 mls so it's generally good size for KOH & NaOH.
