liquid milk soap blunder?

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first timer of liquid soap making, have researched and done my homework for the stages, the mixing, etc. so i thought i knew what to expect, i got it trace, and have a few questions as to what happened to it. took bout 45 minutes to get it to trace, but is it possible to hve mixed it to much? when trace hit i continued to mix with a mixer until it couldnt mix any more then moved to a spoon which i ended up breaking by the weight of the soap base. the trace appeared to be a whipped look though. is this correct, should i have kept mixing? as it cooked, i first had just the lid on, and my whipped glob just looked more whi[pped, it neve went to a translucent stage, or paste stage. so i placed a plastic wrap as the lid thinking maybe to much water evaporated and it was having a hard time getting thru the stages it need to process thru. after 4 hrs i turned it off and went to sleep. in that 4 hours all it seemed to do was appear and sound more airated that i thought it should. when ;looking at this this morning it looked like a vasaline type glob, translucent, but seemed to have a bunch of specs in it. was hoping someone has come help for my next batch. i did use tallow, and gm in this mixture. added half the water weight in frozen, slushy gm, and the initial water with lye solution was halved and at a 25% lye mixture. the milk didnt burn or scorch, but would the initial temp of my oils being at 180 be the playing factor as to why the mix kept in this fluffy turning in on itself stage? thanks in advance for any and all help.
 
Hi there,

Everything you did sounds fine to me, as long as you used at least an equal weight of liquid to dissolve the KOH. If you used less water or other liquid (by weight) to dissolve the KOH, you may have undissolved lye. Maybe you can clarify about that?

I also like to SB to the thick taffy stage like you did. That's honestly a matter of preference, and you can't really SB too much since eventually it becomes almost solid - as you experienced.

What you saw with the folding in is just part of the saponification process, and does increase as the heat increases, whether that is from the starting temp of your oils, or applied heat through cooking.

If you want to save yourself some work next time, don't even cook the paste. It will saponify on its own if you cover it and leave it alone for about 6-8 hours. Mine is usually zap-free in 2-3 hours, actually. Then it is ready to dilute and scent. :)
 
Milk soaps are known for creating a sludge or sediment that falls to the bottom"
:thumbs: That is true. The one time I made goat milk LS for a customer, the brown particles settled to the bottom of the jug after the 2-week sequester. I've read that on other sites as well.
 

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