Question on full saponification

[Jor224]

Hi,

My liquid soap paste, consist of 60% pomace olive oil, 30% coconut oil, 10% palm oil, has been saponified for 1.5 day, as shown in the picture. It was still soft, like fluffy mashed potato.

1. How do I know if it has been fully saponified? How will the hardness be?
2. Does full saponification looks translucent for soap with dominant olive oil?
3. How long more do I need to wait until full saponification?

 

[Arimara]

The cheapest and quickest way is to do a zap test. It's as follows:

1. Wet your finger and rub the paste a little.

2. Touch finger to your tongue.

If you feel a very strong zap, you paste is not saponified. If you don't, you have a very white soap paste there.

 

[Jor224]

By zap, you mean something like tingling sensation? I tried that, tasted plain and slightly slippery, no tingling sensation.

However, my paste is 60% pomace olive oil, I have in mind that it's full saponification would be transluscent and rather hard, like dried tree sap. So with zap test resulted like that, I want to confirm again with you guys how is the fully saponified soap for my composition should look like.

The cheapest and quickest way is to do a zap test. It's as follows:

1. Wet your finger and rub the paste a little.

2. Touch finger to your tongue.

If you feel a very strong zap, you paste is not saponified. If you don't, you have a very white soap paste there.

 

[atiz]

You'll know it zaps when you feel it. It's like licking a 9V battery.
(But I have no experience with liquid soap so don't know what it should look like.)

 

[Arimara]

By zap, you mean something like tingling sensation? I tried that, tasted plain and slightly slippery, no tingling sensation.

However, my paste is 60% pomace olive oil, I have in mind that it's full saponification would be transluscent and rather hard, like dried tree sap. So with zap test resulted like that, I want to confirm again with you guys how is the fully saponified soap for my composition should look like.

You clearly didn't get zapped (yay!). Olive pomace has the most unsaponifiables of the olive oil grades so it's likely that that is preventing your paste from being translucent (palm is also a culprit but you have so little of it). It really doesn't matter that much though unless you really want pretty-looking soap paste. Your paste is saponified, which is what matters above much else.

If you want a more translucent soap paste, you would want a more refined oil and you'd probably want to swap the palm for another oil for good measure.

 

[Susie]

Assuming you used a recipe with 3% or less superfat, and you do swap the oils as Arimara suggested (and I would), you may still get fluffy translucent paste. Sometimes you just get lots of air bubbles. If you are looking for perfectly clear diluted soap, though, I would make those recipe changes.

Your soap is saponified. No need to wait longer. Once it becomes a paste, it is generally done. Zap test tells you if you have unsaponified lye.