Here we go...making liquid soap...

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agriffin

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Doing it right now, so I'll be adding to the post as I go...

Liquid Soap Recipe:
Olive oil - 350 g
Safflower Oil - 170 g
Coconut Oil - 115 g
Castor Oil - 170 g
Palm Oil - 50 g

KOH - 181 g (+8% excess)
Distilled Water - 543 g

Step 1: Make the lye solution
Mix KOH with water. I set my under the vent-a-hood so it sucks up the fumes.

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Step 2: Measure out your oils. I go ahead a measure out everything- solid + liquid - and melt all in the microwave until melted. I want to heat everything up...I find it helps trace faster.

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Step 3: Add your lye solution to your melted oil.

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Step 4: Stick blend the heck out of it. I started stick blending at 5:00 pm and was done at 5:20. So it took about 20 minutes. Sometimes it seems to take longer although I didn't go to that thick of a trace.

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And I'm done.

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Trace is tricky in liquid soap. Depending on your oils, initial water and so on...you'll have different results. I'm happy with this trace. It's similar to a CP type of trace...like thick pudding. You'll read some tutorials and watch some youTube videos that tell you to go alot further and get a much thicker trace. As long as this doesn't seperate...I'm happy. So pour it into your pot...turn your crockpot on high and set to cook. Be sure to put your lid on...you don't want alot of water to evaporate out. (5:20 pm)

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WARNING: For the first 30 minutes you really want to stick close and make sure of two things:

1. It doesn't seperate
2. It doesn't rise up out of the pot (which happens quite often!)

If it does seperate at any point simply stick blend it back together. If it rises up...stir like crazy until it goes back down.

So after 30 minutes of cooking on high...here is what I have. (5:50 pm) So separation and no rising. We're doing good. You can see it start to gel a bit on the sides. It will usually start turning over and turning to a gel.

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So we've been cooking for 30 minutes and all looks good. You can stir it or not...I usually don't. I'm going to check on it in 30 minutes and that's when I'll probably stir.

Okay...so it's been 30 minutes and here's how it looks now. (6:20 pm)

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The pool of liquid you see in the middle is condensated water that has fallen off of the inside of the lid onto the soap. It's not oil. Go ahead and give it a good stir. Now it looks like this....

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It's been thirty more minutes. (6:50 pm)

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Go ahead and give it another stir. It should be thickening up quite a bit. You might end up doing more glopping, smooshing and folding than stirring...do the best you can.

Then we have this. Keep cooking.

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To be continued...
 
Thanks for posting this tutorial. The pics are great and so are the instructions. I'm excited to see the continuing saga because I'm interested in trying liquid soap someday. :D
 
I can't thank you enough for this - as you well know, my first attempt didn't quite work out.
 
I just noticed the cup in your pic looks like the cups I see in the paint section of the local home improvement store. Is your cup from a DIY store?
 
I'll post more tonite.

Yes, I think I got a bunch from home depot or lowes. But they are perfect for doing lye/water and also coloring small amounts of soap.

ETA: Oh...lol. Yes, the big one also. Paint section.
 
I saw them at Home Depot. I use one as a watering cup for plants. I never thought about using them for soap. Smack my forehead. Doh! Usually I look at everything and wonder if I can use it for soaping. :lol:

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to buy some the next time I'm there because I never seem to have enough mixing cups or they're too small. These cups are a really nice size.
 
Thanks for your tutorial so far. The instructions are great and the photos are so clear ... making this process much easier to understand.

I'm looking forward to the next instalment! 8)
 
Dragonkaz said:
Thanks for your tutorial so far. The instructions are great and the photos are so clear ... making this process much easier to understand.

I'm looking forward to the next instalment! 8)

Me too!!
 
I'm so sorry everybody! I'm such a tease to start this and not finish.

Sorry my KOH was bad; bottom of bucket not stored properly. It should have been in a bag. This batch bombed. lol I'll do it again in the next couple of weeks when I get some new KOH.

Common name is potassium hydroxide. Caustic potash.
 
agriffin said:
I'm so sorry everybody! I'm such a tease to start this and not finish.

Sorry my KOH was bad; bottom of bucket not stored properly. It should have been in a bag. This batch bombed. lol I'll do it again in the next couple of weeks when I get some new KOH.

Common name is potassium hydroxide. Caustic potash.

Sorry to hear about the bad batch, but I'm happy to hear we will get to see the whole process.
 

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