Anstarx
Well-Known Member
Warning for lengthy post.
I decided to try my hands at liquid soap since I just bought a cheap crockpot to make soup.
I read some articles about making liquid soap and figured it doesn't look too different from bar soap, just use different lye and need heat so I throw coconut oil into the soapcalc and went ahead.
The recipe I used:
400g coconut oil
121.2g KOH (85% so there's actually 103g KOH)
152g distilled water
0%SF
So I poured CO into my pot, measure and mixed my lye, and started SBing.
This is how it looks like after 5 mins of SB. I was panicking a bit because this doesn't not look like the video I watched!
I continued blending for another 5 min or so and the mixture start to thick up but it's not emulsifying. The solids and the liquids just won't go together. I decided that instead of panicking, I just let it be and do its thing so I turn off the crockpot, walked away and had my lunch.
An hour later, I came back to a almost transparent pot. I was excited so I didn't take any picture.
My stick blender had scractched my pot a bit, leaving black bits in the soap, so I switched to a whisk.
After whisking only a couple of time, the soap turned solid color again.
And within 1 minute, the soap was too stiff to whisk and in solid color. It was again not looking like what I saw in tutorials again so I was confused and decided to let it sit again.
Nothing changed after 3 hours. I decided whatever if it fails I will just try again, so I started dumping water cooking it. It start to turn translucent after cooking and mashing for 30 mins. I let it sit overnight and packed into a Ziploc bag this morning.
I didn't do a zap test. I was kinda scared of licking soap. I read you could dissolve soap paste in water, if it's clear then soap is done, if it's cloudy then it still need to cure. So I did that. The water is not "water clear" per se, it's a bit milky. I forgot to take pictures but it's rather similar to this↓, albeit a bit whiter.
（picture was from https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/tips-tricks-making-liquid-soap/）
My question being: what went wrong during the process? Most of my process doesn't look like liquid soaps I saw online. I also don't have my crockpot on most of the time since the heat from soap is already pretty hot so is it really necessary to use crockpot? Do I need to let the soap paste cure or can I use it right away?
I decided to try my hands at liquid soap since I just bought a cheap crockpot to make soup.
I read some articles about making liquid soap and figured it doesn't look too different from bar soap, just use different lye and need heat so I throw coconut oil into the soapcalc and went ahead.
The recipe I used:
400g coconut oil
121.2g KOH (85% so there's actually 103g KOH)
152g distilled water
0%SF
So I poured CO into my pot, measure and mixed my lye, and started SBing.
This is how it looks like after 5 mins of SB. I was panicking a bit because this doesn't not look like the video I watched!
I continued blending for another 5 min or so and the mixture start to thick up but it's not emulsifying. The solids and the liquids just won't go together. I decided that instead of panicking, I just let it be and do its thing so I turn off the crockpot, walked away and had my lunch.
An hour later, I came back to a almost transparent pot. I was excited so I didn't take any picture.
My stick blender had scractched my pot a bit, leaving black bits in the soap, so I switched to a whisk.
After whisking only a couple of time, the soap turned solid color again.
And within 1 minute, the soap was too stiff to whisk and in solid color. It was again not looking like what I saw in tutorials again so I was confused and decided to let it sit again.
Nothing changed after 3 hours. I decided whatever if it fails I will just try again, so I started dumping water cooking it. It start to turn translucent after cooking and mashing for 30 mins. I let it sit overnight and packed into a Ziploc bag this morning.
I didn't do a zap test. I was kinda scared of licking soap. I read you could dissolve soap paste in water, if it's clear then soap is done, if it's cloudy then it still need to cure. So I did that. The water is not "water clear" per se, it's a bit milky. I forgot to take pictures but it's rather similar to this↓, albeit a bit whiter.
（picture was from https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/tips-tricks-making-liquid-soap/）
My question being: what went wrong during the process? Most of my process doesn't look like liquid soaps I saw online. I also don't have my crockpot on most of the time since the heat from soap is already pretty hot so is it really necessary to use crockpot? Do I need to let the soap paste cure or can I use it right away?
