Neutralizing Liquid Soap

[Rockpaws]

I know about the Zap method but have never used it. I've used Phenolphthalein to test for excess lye for the past year of liquid soap making. Taking a small amount of soap and mixing with boiled and hot distilled H20, cooling it, and then testing with a few drops of Phenolphthalein. If it's pink or fuchsia I know need to add more neutralizer (I use citric acid). It's a trial and test method that takes several tests to get a clear no pink test.
What I've been concerned with is going too far below whats considered natural soap and I've had some separation I believe due to this issue.
What do you all do? Any thougts?

Thank you!
Frank

 

[BattleGnome]

I’ve never used that method, instead I use the cold process method. I know it doesn’t help you now but for future batches it may help. Note: the glycerin method has been noted to be a bit dangerous, you can use water just fine for your KOH dilution.

Others will probably chime in about neutralizing. Just wanted to point out an alternative method

 

[Rockpaws]

I should have mentioned,I’m making liquid soap. It’s the neutralization process and checking for excess lye.
As far as using glycerin in soap.. I use it all the time when making my liquid deturgent/dish soap. I add it in with the lye water, after the lye and water is completely mixed and clear.

 

[shunt2011]

Read the linked thread above. PH testing doesn't tell you if there is an excess of lye only the ph and it's not that accurate either for soap. Here the same thread for CP liquid soap, works like a charm. Zap testing your soap paste is the best way to test for excess lye.

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/my-creamy-cocoa-shea-gls-tutorial.57974/

This makes awesome liquid soap.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...I should have mentioned, I’m making liquid soap. It’s the neutralization process and checking for excess lye...."

Yep, you did mention that in your first post, and everyone is following what you're doing.

When you get separation, what that's telling you is you've over-acidified the soap. Add a small amount of KOH back into the soap to correct that problem --

10 g citric acid neutralizes 8.42 g KOH. So keep track of how much citric acid you add to the soap.

For example, If you added 10 grams of citric acid to the soap and got separation, then you might try correcting that by adding, say, 2 grams of KOH to the soap, stir well, and let sit for several hours to a couple days.

See if that corrects the separation. If not, add another 2 grams KOH and so on.​

But frankly, neutralization is a pain and really not necessary. If you share your recipe, we can help you tweak it so you don't have to neutralize when you make future batches. As BattleGnome and Shari (shunt) are saying, a lot of us use a method to make liquid (KOH) soap that's similar to cold process bar (NaOH) soap making -- no neutralization needed.

 

[cjisler]

I zap test a piece of paste then smear it in a white paper towel. I drop a few drops of phph on it and look for an immediate color change. If there is none, it’s not lye heavy. Soap is alkaline just by its nature. So if you let it sit a while, the phph will eventually turn pink around the edges. But the no zap test is sufficient.
Carol