liquid soap disaster! Any thoughts/ideas?

[rachelb5499]

So my first attempt at shower gel wasn't horrible but wasn't great. It's a long story but let's just say I had a soap volcano happen twice all over my stove and gel got everywhere, BUT I succeeded in getting a clear soap/gel with no zap, etc. so it wasn't a total loss, but I didn't like the texture/feel for myself so I decided to attempt actual liquid hand soap instead:

So I used Catherine Failor's "Creamy Coconut Soap" recipe:
23 oz of coconut oil
25 oz of soybean oil
12 oz of potassium hydroxide
36 oz of distilled water

Well, I mixed everything together (having warmed the oils in the crock pot) and then decided to let it sit overnight like I had done with the shower gel which was suggested by Failor's book and another book if you wanted to do less stirring.

Sadly, "leaving" it led to me not noticing that somehow it cracked the stoneware insert of my crock pot and then that lye/water solution (apparently) leaked out and ate through the metal portion of the crock pot so....I discover this in the morning, but the "soap" looks like "jello" so I transfer it to another crock pot that I have, warm it all up, and stir with spatula and then a stick blender...I do this several times and cook it for hours and it turns into a very "wet" paste. I did the dilution test.....milky, and once cooled a bunch of "fat" and grease like substance floating on the top.

I cooked for longer tried dilution test again. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. It really hasn't gotten better. Although after sitting two days one of my "dilution tests," is fairly clear on the bottom half of the glass. After sitting awhile the "paste" has got a lot of liquid pockets floating on top of the paste.

So...I figure it's all a "loss" so might as well do a small "trial." I mix .50 oz of lye with 1.5 oz of distilled water and stir that into the re-heated paste to see if it improves things.....It really doesn't seem to change the "paste" or the dilution test.

So......since this is all just a "test"/"trial" does anyone have any thoughts/ideas about salvaging this at all?

 

[rubyslippers]

I've not branched out to liquid soaps yet but have seriously been considering it and was ready to order some KOH. After reading all your trials with your shower gel, am rethinking I may not want to try that just yet. Sorry I can't offer any advice; just wish you good luck and hope someone can offer a solution to salvage your batch.

 

[Maria]

Success at liquid soap making seems to have a learning curve. I can read Failor's book a 100 times and it makes things sound even harder than they already are. I finally made small 1 pound batches, several times a week until I got it right. I also found it is easier to make 1 oil batches. 100% coconut is great for household cleaning. 100% olive oil is very mild. Then you can experiment with what ratio to mix to use for body wash.

 

[donniej]

When your crock pot split and the lye ate the aluminum or galvanyzed metal base, it consumed some of the lye. The problem is you can't tell how much lye so I suggest you throw the batch away and start over.

Liquid soap isn't too hard but it takes patience and a little practice... but mostly patience

PS. I had a crock pot do the exact same thing to me. IIRC, it was on a cold night while I left it on low in my garage. I assume hot and cold cycling caused it to crack.

 

[rachelb5499]

Thanks, donnie. That was my thought exactly (regarding lye AND the cracking crock pot with hot/cold.) and throwing out the batch which is why I mixed that small lye/water solution to add just "to see," but it obviously, wasn't enough and doesn't seem "worth" it to keep trying to save something like this. Just curious what more experienced liquid soapers thought.

And thanks for the advice about 1lb batches from the other forum member. I DID make a much smaller batch when I tried the shower gel. It just didn't seem like "enough" so was hard to stir, etc. which was a "warning" from moose, another more seasoned liquid soaper so I thought I'd test out making a bigger batch but smaller batches sounds more feasible for learning now too.

Do any of you get your potassium hydroxide locally? If so, what type of place do you buy from? I get my sodium hydroxide from a janitorial paper supply, but not sure they'd have the potassium variety so just curious.

 

[donniej]

potassium hydroxide is hard to find locally in smaller than 50 pound bags, and evn for thet you'll likely need an account with a chemical supplier. You;ll porbably have to order it from either a soap maker supplier or a BioDiesel supplier.

To make it easier to stir add a little potassium carbonate. You'll have to order it as well but it should be very inexpensive. It does make it *much* easier to stir. I've been experimenting with ~120 pound batches and stir it by hand, I doubt it could be done without potassium carbonate!

 

[rachelb5499]

Thanks, Donnie!
You know how it is...shipping just adds so much to all of our costs for things so of course, for that reason and others, I always like to buy local if I can. Not sure I want to "commit" to a 50lb bag at this point even if I could get it locally though too so hmmm.

Heh heh...I WAS able to get the sodium hydroxide locally in a 25 or 50lb bag, but wasn't sure about the potassium variety. Handy to know about the potassium carbonate too.

Can you believe that I've NEVER lost a CP batch...even when I was brand new. Losing a liquid soap batch is .........aggravating and a "new experience." heh heh