Please Help!

[littalee21]

I've been trying to make the following recipe for the past few days:

35% FCO
35%EVOO
20%Rice Bran Oil
5% Shea Butter
5% Castor Oil

I used 6.10oz KOH and 10.22 Water, as per the soap calculator's guidelines.

My first batch literally cooked for 2 days and never reached the vaseline stage. This batch has been cooking for about 6 hours and is stuck in that stage that looks like lumpy mashed potatoes.

Can someone tell me what I've done wrong? I've made soap paste a couple other times before (this recipe is new) and I didn't have this problem.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hazel]

I don't know whether the lye amount is correct since you didn't list the size of the batch and lye discount.

Did you use regular coconut oil for your other recipes? My first thought was the problem may be because of the fractionated coconut oil (if it isn't a lye issue). I know many people state you can use FCO in soapmaking but I don't think it works as well as regular CO mainly because the lauric acid is generally removed when processed. The only recipe I liked with it was 70% OO/30% FCO because it reduced the curing time. I think if you switch to regular coconut oil and it should be fine but this is just my opinion because I am not an expert on liquid soap.

Also, did you use distilled water?

 

[la-rene]

Does it test neutral? It may be done. My liquid soap never looked all that Vaseline like after cooking.

 

[littalee21]

Hazel, the oil weight is 26.87oz (I only had 6.1oz of koh after botching the previous batch, which is the reason for the weird number). The lye discount was 3%. I've used FCO before, but it was in combination with a higher hard oil content. And yep, I used distilled water.

La-rene, I can tell that the pH was still fairly high when I took a sample. It gave my fingers that slimy feeling that's hard to get off.


Is there any possible way to salvage this batch?

 

[Hazel]

And yep, I used distilled water.

Okay. I just wanted to check because I know some people don't use distilled water. You should try beer sometime.

I see the lye amount is correct for 3%. Did the previous FCO batch turn out all right? Did you use EVOO in it, too? How is this recipe different from your previous batches? Have you tried diluting some of it to see if it turns out? It might be fine when diluted.

You're probably already aware of this but I thought I'd mention it for people new to LS who wouldn't know it and are reading this topic for information. KOH isn't all lye. I've read it ranges around 90% pure depending upon the manufacturer (10% would be made up of carbonates and water). This is why a lot of people use zero or excess lye, for example 0% to -12% lye discount. So, if the KOH you used is 90% pure and you use 3% SF; the actual superfat may be up to 13%. It's recommended a preservative be added to the batch when using a higher lye discounts or superfat. Even when using a minus lye discount, soap or soap paste can still go bad. I had some soap paste which I decided to only dilute about one-fourth of it and store the remainder. I assumed would be fine since I had used 8% lye excess. The stored paste developed mold - it was nasty looking and I had to toss the remainder of the batch. It made me sick to throw it all away. Lesson learned - split the paste into freezer bags and store in the frig until ready to dilute.

eta: I forgot to mention another reason for lye excess is to increase the clarity of liquid soap. LS with a higher lye discount or superfat can be cloudy looking.

 

[bodhi]

If you have been cooking it for 6 hours, my guess is that its done. Ive never used fco or shea in ls so i cant say if anything seems amiss with the way it is tracing though.