Hi all,
I need help with the color of my liquid soap, please. I would like it to be a lighter, yellow color. But it is a darker, amber color. I'll post my recipe below after I explain a few things.
I use a variation of the Irish Lass glycerin method. I cook in a stainless steel pot on a hotplate because my batches need to be a lot larger so I don't use a crockpot. I do keep the lid on the stainless steel pot but it doesn't like lock on there or anything. After I cook, because I'm making such large batches, I dump my soap paste into a 10gal stockpot, add my boiling dilution water (1:3) and turn it on the lowest heat to dilute over the stovetop. I am trying to get it to dilute quicker by doing this (because I tried letting it dilute aturally and after almost a week in a 5gal pail it still had a ways to go), but I think this might be what makes my soap darker. I'll periodically turn this heat off so it isn't on for the entire time it takes to dilute, which is longer than I'd like it to be. After the heat does it thing, I add more water to make up for the evaporated water during the dilution process.
My soap paste itself isn't dark, it's a yellowish color. And I do the clarity test (and pH test) to see if my soap is finished and the paste is a light yellow and clear. But then again, with my clarity test I'm not specific about the dilution ratio and it's certainly waaaay more diluted than my finished batch because I use salt to thicken my soap so I can't have it be too diluted or otherwise it will take way too much salt solution to thicken.
What I'm asking you all is if there's any way to keep my soap lighter and still dilute it fairly quickly given the volume of soap that I make? Also, is there anything that can help my dilution go quicker that isn't direct heat like I'm doing now? I do use 3% SL PPO like Irish Lass suggested but I can't tell if that actually makes a difference with my production volume.
Lastly, I know this partiuclar recipe can be lighter because when I was making my trial recipes with this formula they were all a light to medium yellow color and very clear (when I add the salt, my soap is no longer clear but I'm trying to tackle on problem at once
, I'm considering HEC for thickening but right now I'm just sticking with the salt). These trial recipes yielded about 1/4 gallon of diluted soap. But, when I make it in these scaled up batches (about 10 gal worth of finished soap), I have this dark color problem. I do think it's the heat, but I can't wait a week or two for my soap to dilute. I really can't.
Here's what I'm working with:
80% sunflower oil
10% castor oil
9% coconut oil (76)
1% palm kernal flakes
I use SBM to calculate, but it's about a 1 : 1.19 oil to lye ratio
And on the lye mixture side:
~25% potassium hydroxide
~25% distilled water
~50% glycerin
When making, I use a stick blender until it becomes trace (which at that point it usually becomes a paste) and then I cook it on low on the hotplate in a stainless steel pot. Once it's that clearish, glazed consistency, I do a clarity test and pH test. I cook for the soap for quite a while, like 4 - 5 hours for about 160 ounces of soap paste. Is it possible that I cook the soap paste too long, too?
Please let me know any suggestions you have. Thank you so much!
I need help with the color of my liquid soap, please. I would like it to be a lighter, yellow color. But it is a darker, amber color. I'll post my recipe below after I explain a few things.
I use a variation of the Irish Lass glycerin method. I cook in a stainless steel pot on a hotplate because my batches need to be a lot larger so I don't use a crockpot. I do keep the lid on the stainless steel pot but it doesn't like lock on there or anything. After I cook, because I'm making such large batches, I dump my soap paste into a 10gal stockpot, add my boiling dilution water (1:3) and turn it on the lowest heat to dilute over the stovetop. I am trying to get it to dilute quicker by doing this (because I tried letting it dilute aturally and after almost a week in a 5gal pail it still had a ways to go), but I think this might be what makes my soap darker. I'll periodically turn this heat off so it isn't on for the entire time it takes to dilute, which is longer than I'd like it to be. After the heat does it thing, I add more water to make up for the evaporated water during the dilution process.
My soap paste itself isn't dark, it's a yellowish color. And I do the clarity test (and pH test) to see if my soap is finished and the paste is a light yellow and clear. But then again, with my clarity test I'm not specific about the dilution ratio and it's certainly waaaay more diluted than my finished batch because I use salt to thicken my soap so I can't have it be too diluted or otherwise it will take way too much salt solution to thicken.
What I'm asking you all is if there's any way to keep my soap lighter and still dilute it fairly quickly given the volume of soap that I make? Also, is there anything that can help my dilution go quicker that isn't direct heat like I'm doing now? I do use 3% SL PPO like Irish Lass suggested but I can't tell if that actually makes a difference with my production volume.
Lastly, I know this partiuclar recipe can be lighter because when I was making my trial recipes with this formula they were all a light to medium yellow color and very clear (when I add the salt, my soap is no longer clear but I'm trying to tackle on problem at once
, I'm considering HEC for thickening but right now I'm just sticking with the salt). These trial recipes yielded about 1/4 gallon of diluted soap. But, when I make it in these scaled up batches (about 10 gal worth of finished soap), I have this dark color problem. I do think it's the heat, but I can't wait a week or two for my soap to dilute. I really can't. Here's what I'm working with:
80% sunflower oil
10% castor oil
9% coconut oil (76)
1% palm kernal flakes
I use SBM to calculate, but it's about a 1 : 1.19 oil to lye ratio
And on the lye mixture side:
~25% potassium hydroxide
~25% distilled water
~50% glycerin
When making, I use a stick blender until it becomes trace (which at that point it usually becomes a paste) and then I cook it on low on the hotplate in a stainless steel pot. Once it's that clearish, glazed consistency, I do a clarity test and pH test. I cook for the soap for quite a while, like 4 - 5 hours for about 160 ounces of soap paste. Is it possible that I cook the soap paste too long, too?
Please let me know any suggestions you have. Thank you so much!
My thoughts exactly.
(Just kidding.)
