Liquid Soap Paste Turning White

Hi all!

I think I may have just failed another batch of liquid soap! Ah!:-(

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong, but while cooking my LS it never reached the "translucent" stage and stayed mashed potatoes. I let it cook longer and it started to get white and stick to the edges of the crock pot. (I thought maybe I cooked all the water out!!)

Anyway, here is my recipe that I ran though a good soap calculator:
Olive oil (pomace): 17 Oz
Coconut Oil: 8 Oz
KOH: 5.24 oz
Water: 10.5 oz
0% superfat

I haven't diluted the paste yet, but I'm going to shortly. I'll update the thread when I do.

I've only made 2 batches of LS, but Susie says that she stops cooking when the paste passes the zap test. Once my paste isn't zappity, I dilute half and store the other half of the paste to dilute later (saves space that way). Now, my soap isn't clear, but I dun care it's good soap that works!

Not every soap goes through every stage. Some hit transluscent within seconds, some never get there. I stopped caring quite a while ago. Now I zap test starting about 10-15 minutes after it hits paste stage. I don't even cook any more UNLESS it zaps me.

I have just this past week made a batch of laundry soap, dish soap, and hand soap. I used to cook all of them. Not one of them required cooking. When I hit paste stage, I pulled the stick blender out and threw a beach towel loosely over the crock pot, and cleaned the stick blender. By the time I got the stick blender cleaned off and put away, there was no zap. I then clarity checked to be sure that the oils were saponified, and it was clear enough to read through.

I might add that I only use the crock pot to help trace faster. Even though I use a bit of bar soap to help trace, I use the heat transfer method to melt the solid oil, so the little bit of heat the crock pot gives off in 10 minutes probably does not help, but it makes me feel better.

Your soap is probably just fine. But you need to zap test or phenolpthalien test. You need to be sure that is safe. Just out of curiosity, why are you making 0% superfat soap? If that is for laundry or dish soap, you might be very disappointed in the lather because of the low coconut amount. If it is for hand washing, you are going to have drying soap.

*EDIT* Something kept bothering me about your recipe, so I checked it with 3 different lye calculators. As close as I can figure, you used somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% superfat. So, I am not sure if there is a typo here, or if something went awry in the calculation stage. This soap will not be clear. There should not be any worry about zap test. But then we need to fix your over superfatted soap that separated. It can be fixed, so don't throw it away. But I am going to need to know what you intend to use it for, so we can aim for an appropriate superfat amount.

Thanks all!

Thanks Susie!!! I'm not sure what happe ed! I ran it through the calculator on the HCSG and it gave me a 0% superfat range for all those values.... gr!

I just double checked the recipe and got the same results.... I'm not sure what happened!

My intention is soap for handwashing, but I'm okay if it ends up being dish soap or laundry soap. I diluted the soap shortly after this thread with 40 oz of water and it has the consistency of thick glue and is still white.

Any help is so much appreciated!!

(sorry I've been hit or miss, I have a little guy who just started teething, so my soapmaking is all dependent on my husbands schedule. phew!).

I understand how it is with babies. I had 2, and would not have even tried any hobbies during that time. I got no sleep whatsoever.

Anyhow, I re-ran that recipe through all those calculators again, and now it looks fine. Not sure what gremlins have crawled into my internet, but it should be in the 3% range now. However, since it looks like glue, we have an issue. Try DeeAnna's fix for liquid soap, and be patient between additions, it may take a while. Don't use more than the 0.4 oz KOH total without giving it a couple of days or so before deciding you need more.

"First, put 0.4 oz KOH in 2 oz water. Mix until dissolved. Measure 1 TBL of this solution into your soap. Stir. See what happens. If needed, add another 1 TBL, and see what happens. If still more is needed, add 1/2 TBL (1 1/2 tsp)."

Thank you so much Susie! You are so wonderful, I really appreciate all of your help.

This is a pay it forward situation. Don't thank me, next year you get to help the next one that needs help. I learned from others, just like you. That is why this forum and all its members ROCK!

I will most definitely do that Susie, once I get some more experience under my belt.

For now though, I just did DeeAnna's fix and I've gone from glue to cottage cheese. I'm posting this just so I have something to look back on and it may help someone else in this situation.

Anyway, here is a picture of the soap after DeeAnna's fix. I'll wait another few days and see what happens next:

Hmmm, do me a favor and chuck a tablespoon of that into an ounce of boiling water, and see what you get?

Okay, I took 1 tbsp to 1 oz of boiling water and this is what I got. Still looks a little cloudy, but it did bubble nicely when I as stirring.

Let's let that sit a week or so, and see what you get after it has a chance just to rest. I think you are at the point of it being as good as it gets, but a week or two of the dilution sitting will tell the tale.

The paste does not zap, right?

Okay, I took 1 tbsp to 1 oz of boiling water and this is what I got. Still looks a little cloudy, but it did bubble nicely when I was stirring.

Will do. The paste didn't zap at all, so I think you're probably right. We'll see how it looks in a week.

About 5 days out and the soap still looks like cottage cheese/fine mashed potatoes.

I tried washing my hands with the soap to see if it was drying/worked and it had a great lather, but my hands almost instantly pruned up. Not sure what that means, but I think I'll just use this stuff for cleaning...

A quick thought... when diluting the paste, do you leave the water boiling as you stir in the soap paste and let it dissolve? Or do you shut the stove off after you put the paste in? I'm not sure if this factored in.

I tried another batch yesterday with a different recipe, so I'm crossing my fingers.

I know this might sound like a silly question - but are you sure that you used KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) and not NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide) in your paste?

FGOriold - I did use Potassium hydroxide (KOH) in the soap. Thanks for thinking of it though!

Bring the water to a boil, then pour over paste is how I do it. But you do it your way. Heat speeds the melting.