question re: making initial soap paste before diluting

[tammy sue starks]

Hello everyone,
I need some feedback on liquid soap paste. I made mine strictly for cleaning the house and laundry NOT skin. I made it from 50% lard, 30% coconut oil and 20 %olive oil. Its in my crock pot. I just got it hot again because it cooked from 4 pm to 8 pm and totally stopped changing so I turned it off and went to bed. I see a lot of posts where folks aren't using heat at all which is a question for another time. This morning I awoke to it still being soft, oil colored, not as hard as room temp vaseline. I had expected to be able to take cooled taffy like bits out of the crock pot and put them into a bag and into the refrigerator until I needed to add water to make liquid soap. I don't think I am there yet. Could I be oil heavy? I've only made one other batch and it turned out so well I was amazed but it was 100% coconut oil.
Tammy

 

[cmzaha]

Olive Oil will make a softer paste and if I remember from my single oil LS test I think Lard also makes a softer paste. Different oils make different types of paste. What was your superfat? Also, I am not so sure OO in a laundry soap is going to be great.

 

[tammy sue starks]

my superfat was 0 since it was for cleaning and not for the skin, however I did add a fragrance oil since my husband doesn't like the smell of regular soap lol

 

[DeeAnna]

If you want serious troubleshooting and advice, you need to give your entire recipe in weights.

There's no point to cooking for hours. Once the soap batter reaches a stable trace, it should take around 1/2 hour to saponify -- an hour tops -- if you're starting with a correctly formulated recipe and encouraging saponification with some heat (or glycerin). At the end of a 1/2 to 1 hour cook, you can turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let it sit overnight to finish any last tiny traces of saponification.

When the paste is zap free is when it's done, assuming you're using a slight superfat. It's not when the soap gets to some arbitrary texture or thickness. All the textures you're supposed to see according to all the tutorials ... well, they don't always appear per the book.

As far as this batch looking different than the first one -- You're using a blend of fats in this soap, not 100% coconut oil. So the texture and appearance are going to be different. I agree with Carolyn that CO soap paste will be much firmer than a lard-olive paste.

 

[tammy sue starks]

Looking at the printed recipe there is actually no olive oil in it, sorry about that. There is 1592 grams of lard and 756 grams of coconut oil. 504.85 grams of potassium hydroxide, and 587 grams of water

 

[DeeAnna]

You made liquid soap paste with a lye concentration of about 46%. Did you really intend to use so little water? I normally use a 25% lye concentration (not "water as % of oils"). For your recipe, a 25% lye concentration results in a recipe calling for about 1515 grams of water.

The low amount of water might be another reason why your paste looks different than what you expected, but a high lard paste won't have the same texture as a high coconut paste.

Your recipe is about 0% superfat, but only if I assume the KOH purity is 100%, which is unrealistic. Most KOH sold in the US is 90% to 95% pure. This assumption of 100% purity means your soap might actually be a little high on superfat. You might see a layer of fatty acids or fats from the high superfat.

The high % of lard may also contribute to some separation. Lard is high in palmitic and stearic acids and the soap made from these fatty acids doesn't always want to stay in solution.

You might want to switch to the SoapCalc or Soapee or Soapmaking Friend soap recipe calculators if you aren't using one of these already. If so, I suggest you find out what the supplier says about the purity and use that information to adjust the KOH purity accordingly when you create a recipe.

 

[tammy sue starks]

I tried soapCalc but couldn't figure it out. I'll try it again tomorrow when Im not tired. I used majestic mountain sage's lye calculator. I will try the other soap calculators as well and see what the difference is. I did dilute some of the paste and it is clear, not separating, and cleans nicely. I appreciate your comments and will go through the recipe again

 

[Susie]

I tried soapCalc but couldn't figure it out. I'll try it again tomorrow when Im not tired. I used majestic mountain sage's lye calculator. I will try the other soap calculators as well and see what the difference is. I did dilute some of the paste and it is clear, not separating, and cleans nicely. I appreciate your comments and will go through the recipe again

Soapee.com is super easy to manage for newbies. Just take one blank space at the time. Double click on the oils to add. Your recipe updates with every change at the bottom, so you can tweak on the fly as you get more experience. SoapCalc almost made me give up soaping way back in the day. Not user friendly at all.

 

[Arimara]

Olive Oil will make a softer paste and if I remember from my single oil LS test I think Lard also makes a softer paste. Different oils make different types of paste. What was your superfat? Also, I am not so sure OO in a laundry soap is going to be great.

It's going clean some but it will suck for really cleaning something. At least 50% coconut oil will make a difference as a cleaning soap.