Did i do something wrong my LS would not come to trace

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Zeepmaker

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Joined
Feb 21, 2016
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Location
Devon, UK
Yesterday I made my batch Castile soap with Glycerin.
See recipe on picture.
As my KOH was 1 year old I tested it for purity (thank you AnnaDee for link on your website) purity was 85%.
Swapped the water for Glycerin.
Heated oil to 100 C = 212F
Added KOH to glycerin (room temperature) and heated on low fire till dissolved. Temp aprox 200C=392F
Added lye to oils.
Saw already the first curdlings.
Started with the stick blender for five/ten minutes after which foam was produced. The mix was gone back to liquid no signs of trace of curdlings!
What I did notice that that the soap which cooled down went hard and the drops coming from the stick blender got hard on a cold bowl.
I left my soap on the hob on low fire for about three hours using the stick blender every 15 minutes. temp 150C=302F
My soap was still liquid!!!!
After three hours I thought I give up. Shut fire down.
Next morning result soap came out nice hard and sticky as hell.see pic

Did I do something wrong as I hoped glycerin would bring cooking time down!

Screen Shot 2017-12-03 at 07.07.57.png


Screen Shot 2017-12-03 at 07.22.09.png
 
Looks like soap paste to me. Try diluting a bit of it and see how you like it.

Next time you use glycerin you should be able to bring the soap to trace and walk away. Turn everything off and leave it for an hour or so before checking on it again.
 
Looks like soap paste to me. Try diluting a bit of it and see how you like it.
Yes it work as soap.
But by all the cooking it lost the nice light green color it went to light brown and I lost the scent which the olive oil gave to my previous water base LS
 
Last edited:
Glycerin liquid soap often goes through a "false paste" stage for me. It starts thickening up, then I keep stick blending, and then it goes liquid. I pull the stick blender out then as I know it will then be paste in about 30 seconds. This only happens when I use glycerin for soap. Never any other time.
 

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