Liquid Soap - Take One

[IrishLass]

If you ever decide to dilute in a pot on the stove again, first weigh your pot with all the dilution ingredients in it. Then, if at any time during dilution you suspect any water has evaporated out, all you need to do is just take the pot off the burner and weigh it to see if it matches the earlier weight. If it comes up short, just subtract the newer weight from the older and add the missing amount of water back in.

The above is why I really like to use the canning jar/boiling water method. There's never any chance of scorching, and there's never any evaporation to have to deal with or worry about. The only potential downside to the canning jar method is accidental breakage due to diluting in a previously-used jar (which recently happened to one of our forum members). Because of that potential, I've only ever diluted in brand new canning jars, although since reading about the member's jar that broke, I've been toying with the idea of trying out a boil-in-the-bag method using those oven-proof roasting bags, just to see how well they would work. I bought a box of the smallest size recently, but haven't put them to the test yet.

I know it's too late now- but as the others have said- there was really no need to toss your first dilution attempt out. It could've been saved, and quite successfully so I might add. Liquid soap is very forgiving that way. It's not uncommon for one to find themselves botching their way through several dilution attempts of the same glob of paste, and yet still come out on top. lol


IrishLass

 

[HowieRoll]

I appreciate your tips, IrishLass, and that is a great idea about weighing the pot that will go into my ever-growing list of Notes for Next Time. I'm also curious about the boiling bags - you could be on to a genius idea!

 

[DeeAnna]

"... And I meant to add earlier, that, as DeeAnna predicted might happen, the paste has softened up and is pliable, not rubbery like it was initially...."

Oooooh! That's good to hear!!! I don't always know if the things I observe when I make soap are what others see too -- many thanks for sharing that!

I think you might have slightly overheated and dried out the first batch of diluted soap -- but I don't think that's any great surprise to you by now. The white chunky, sticky stuff you were struggling with sounds like the soap I rebatched into a floating soap. The rebatch required melting the soap over direct heat with as little water as possible. Unless I watched the like a hawk and added dribs of water as needed, it would puff up, get chunky and sticky, and turn lighter colors.