Okay- to continue.......
To dilute, I use Carrie's canning jar method. It's easy and it prevents evaporation as your're diluting:
A) I heat up some water to simmering in a large soup pot (enough water to come up the sides of my (wide-mouth) canning jar without making the jar float). Also- I stick a round cake cooling rack in the bottom of the pot so that my canning jar won't be in direct contact with the pot's bottom.
B) While the pot of water is coming to a simmer, I weigh out my paste (dried foamy head and all) into an appropriate-sized canning jar, i.e., one that will accomodate my paste and dilution liquid with enough room to spare for stickblending purposes, and set aside.
C) I weigh out my dilution water and my sodium lactate and add them together into a separate pot (using the dilution rate of 1 part paste to .75 parts water, and 3% sodium lactate as per weight of my paste)*[
See edited note in post #8 under procedure #3]. I bring this mixture to a boil then immediately pour it over my waiting paste in my canning jar.
D) Then I cover the the jar tightly with its matching lid, give it a shake, then place the jar into the large soup pot of simmering water to warm and soften things up.
E) After about 15-20 minutes or so I take the jar out, wipe the water/condensation off the jar, then I open it so I can stick a clean knife inside to stir things around and test how soft the paste has become. If it's as soft as jam/jelly, I hit it with my stickblender for a minute or so of on and off pulsing until there are no more lumps, but if the paste is not soft enough to my liking yet, I'll just cover it back up and let it sit in the simmering water about 10 minutes more and check again before deciding to stickblend or not.
I need to mention that when I hit it with the stickblender, the contents turn an opaque milky white color. This is normal and only temporary.
F) Once it has been stickblended, I squeegee off as much soap as I can from the stickblender back into the jar, cover with the lid, and stick the jar back into the pot of hot water (off the burner this time). If all goes as planned, the soap will clarify over the next few hours from the bottom up and turn into clear liquid soap with a foamy head on the surface.
G) Re: the foam: The foam eventually dissipates if I let it sit long enough (the warmth of the water helps greatly with this), but sometimes when I get impatient I'll spritz the foam with a spray or 2 of alcohol periodically to help the foam to dissipate in a more timely fashion. I try not to over-do the alcohol,though, because I don't want it to thin my soap out. I've read of people just skimming the foam off, but because I hate waste, I like to let it sit and dissipate to become part of the main body of soap.
H) When the soap is foam-free enough to my liking, I partition off as much as I would like to scent and bottle at that time, and I store the rest in the canning jar at room temp for later use.
I) When I add scent, I make sure to also add an equal amount of PS80 as per the amount of scent so that the scent will not separate out of my soap. I mix the scent with the PS80 and then stir the mixture into the soap. If it looks like the soap is clouding up from the scent at all, I'll just add more PS 80 drop by drop until all is clear again. Thankfully, that doesn't happen but once in a blue moon.
The finished soap is quite lovely, thick, and crystal clear:
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Here is a shot of it outside held up to the sky:
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My suds:
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IrishLass
