need Help Liquid Soap

[epowers777]

I am making my second batch of liquid castile soap in my crock pot, I get it to trace and then I get dried out mash potatoes. I cant get that honey look.
here is the link im using
http://silverfirsfarm.wordpress.com/201 ... -tutorial/
Please help

 

[Bigmoose]

What is more important than getting it to be like honey is that it starts to get translucent or just a little more clear. Did you reach this point? If yes you are done so no worry. If no turn your crocpot back on and keep cooking till it gets there. Also did you use a good scale?

Bruce

 

[epowers777]

Yes I have a scale. It's an expensive postal scale that goes to .0 of an ounce. It did not become translucent my understanding is translucent is raw honey. This is a white creamy mash potatoes that became dried out after cooking it longer. My thoughts is the crock pot is too hot?
The receipt that I used is 48 ounces of olive oil 10 ounces p hydroxide 30 ounces of distilled water. Came straight out of my liquid soap book.

 

[epowers777]

I could really use.someone's help.

 

[agriffin]

I would really recommend getting Catherine Failor's book Liquid Soapmaking.

You say this is your second batch? How did the first one do? How does this one compare to your first?

If you didn't get translucent, you probably mis-measured somewhere. How long did you cook it?

 

[epowers777]

The first batch pretty much did the same thing but this one seemed to curdle like cottage cheese more. Would you like a picture I left it in the crock pot.

 

[Bigmoose]

Your water to lye ratio is right on. You have about 9.6% extra lye. But that will not be the issue. I aim for 2% extra lye. I don't think it would be that your crocpot is too hot. I do all of mine that way and mine goes pretty hot. It sounds like the only thing you are doing different than what I have done is that you are going all olive oil. Do you stir the paste as it is cooking? My only other guess is that liquid soaps sometimes offer a false trace. Meaning it will get thick on you and then thin down a bit and then 5 minutes later it will get thick again.

Bruce

 

[epowers777]

I just got home I will take a photo. I stired for almost 4 hrs straight ARM is sore! I stick blended on and of to not over heat the blender. When it got thick (changed to a white color) I did it with a spoon. While it got thick that's when it became mash potatoes and fluffy. After cooking awhile then it become dried it to mash tators!


The first batch I did had coconut oil in it and I used a real blender with a wire wisk. I thought I ruined it because I used a blender so I tried the 2 batch with a stick blender.

 

[epowers777]

Here is a pic its pretty hard at the moment.

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[agriffin]

Here is a pic its pretty hard at the moment.

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Mine curdles like that when I don't reach trace. If you can, keep stick blending. Is there a layer of oil?

ETA - oh, I see it's hard. I'm sorry, I have no idea.

 

[agriffin]

Let me ask you a stupid question and please don't throw your stick blender at me...

But you used potassium hydroxide not sodium, right?

But I guess even if you mixed the two up you still would have seen the vaseline stage.

I'm just typing out loud.

 

[epowers777]

I just double checked my 50 pound bag 116 dollars worth a they gave me the wrong stuff. I asked for potassium and they gave me sodium.
I just called the store they will exchange my bag for the proper stuff

 

[justme]

potasium hydroxide is correct. I jsut tried my first batch in a crock pot. I cooked it on high till it waws done. I got it to thick trace, then taffy and the.... a rock. there was no way to actually stur it I kuind of had to mix with a cut and a scoop. I was thinking OMG will this stuff even come out of my crock pot??? but it did work. I have been diluting it for two days and have almost a gallon of liquid soap. Diluting at a two lbs of water to one pound of paste.

Recipe was coconut oil, olive oil and cocoa butter. I followed the instructions from anne Marie and brambleberrys.

I was looking at her pictures and seems to me her consistancy is like a cow pie it will pour a bit and plop in your pot. Mine had to literally be cut with a spoon and dropped into the hot water.
I am also reading the liquid soapmaking book and tomorrow I will probably be ready to sequester and then thicken.

Never got a vaseline stage.

 

[epowers777]

Is there a way to fix this since they gave me the wrong bag?

 

[Bigmoose]

About all you can do is take a crash course in cream soap making. It is about 83% NaOH and 17% KOH. Glad the problem is solved.

Bruce

 

[epowers777]

I tried another batch with potassium hydroxide and it happened again. It turned white fluffy. it did not taffy and it turned whit. also its not honey color. Any suggestions?




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[Muzhik]

Epowers, I used the steps described on the Silver Firs web page, although I had a different mix of oils (long story). Your mix actually looks good, like mine was.

The photo has a wooden spoon in the crock pot. Are you using that to mix or are you using a stick blender? If you're using the spoon, then you'll just have to keep stirring and stirring.

When I got to that stage (same as your photo), I took off the blade attachment of my stick blender and started using the whisk attachment. That's also when you put the lid on the crock pot, turn the temperature to "medium" or "low", and only hit the soap with the stick blender for a couple of seconds every 20 minutes or so for the next 3-4 hours. Don't worry, it will turn golden after it's cooked for a while and set overnight.

 

[epowers777]

Hey this is the wife. Thank you for letting him know that he kept telling me it was ruined and I kept trying to let him know that it wasn't that we just needed to keep doing what we were. We used the stick blender and hand stirred. I don't think our stick blender has a wisk part to it though. Thanks again.

 

[Muzhik]

You're welcome! My first attempt to make liquid soap came from a recipe on eHow, which insisted that you could make it using potassium chloride (KCl) (like in those salt substitutes) instead of potassium hydroxide (KOH)! I can't tell you how much oil I went through trying to get that stuff come to trace! I finally looked around and found the steps from Silver Firs, and used them. They worked wonderfully!

 

[epowers777]

Well I cooked it for another 4 hour total of 6 and I'm tired of stirring. It turned out the same as the first picture. Does anyone else have a castle soap liquid recepie?