Sequestering

[Servant4Christ]

From what I've read, sequestering is done to help with transparency and allow any particles to settle out and such. Is that all sequestering is for?

Does sequestering help make the diluted soap become milder kind of like the way that an extra long cure does for cold process salt bars?

 

[AliOop]

My LS definitely becomes milder over time, so yes, I prefer to sequester at least 10-14 days after dilution when I have time.

This also depends somewhat on the recipe. For me, if the recipe includes higher coconut, PKO, babassu, etc., then sequestering definitely results in a noticeably milder soap.

 

[Servant4Christ]

Thanks. I made LS last night and changed some things, but not the base recipe itself, which is mostly olive. This batch isn't as mild or thick as my last batch at all. I should've only changed one thing at a time, but I was impatient. Lol

What I changed:

1. I added my glycerin to the paste this time instead of at dilution.

2. I changed my lye concentration to a 3:1 ratio instead of my previous 4:1 ratio. I won't be doing that again!

3. I dropped my SF from 1% to zero.

Anyway, I made paste in about 5 minutes flat on the stovetop and when it set, it super set! Instead of a soft maliable paste, I got transparent rock candy stuck in the pot and thus had to dilute the entire batch (1000g of oil)! I now have a gallon and a half of diluted soap!
Another weird thing: this batch is a bit cloudy whereas my previous batch was perfectly transparent from the very beginning.

 

[AliOop]

That's interesting that the batch changed so much by using the glycerin in the paste as opposed to dilution. For some reason I thought you had mentioned using a 33% lye concentration (2:1), so I thought you were going to be decreasing the concentration by going to 25% (4:1). Sounds like the opposite: you actually increased the lye concentration (decreased water), which does make for faster trace and harder paste, for sure.

I absolutely do feel the difference between a 1% and 0% sf; that's probably why it feels less mild to you. But it should be clearer, not cloudier. That one has me stumped! Please report on whether it clears during sequester.

 

[rperr2011]

I too just made my first batch of liquid soap (70% olive oil, 20% coconut oil, 10% castor oil; 1% superfat, 33.3% KOH concentration), but it is slightly cloudy on dilution (3 parts water to 1 part soap paste), even though it was perfectly clear on the clarity test (1 g soap paste in 99 g distilled water). I made this batch of LS with true cold process at room temperature with no added glycerin, so it took 6-7 rounds of 5 minute bursts of stick blending spaced 30 minutes apart to reach trace (opaque pudding-like consistency) and gelled overnight (became transparent yellow and paste-like).

Interestingly and unfortunately, it was positive in the zap test in 2 out of 6 samples that I took, which I found bizarre and attribute to imperfectly dissolved KOH (I mixed my KOH solution by hand with a silicone spatula and may have under mixed it). I thought the zap test would be uniformly positive if I made a large error with the batch. That's why my conclusion is that there's a small amount of unreacted excess oil remaining in the batch causing cloudiness. But does anyone have any thoughts?

I will update this thread on whether it clears during sequestering.

Thank you for sharing your experience @Servant4Christ, I will be following along to see what happens because I am having a similar issue.

 

[Servant4Christ]

That's interesting that the batch changed so much by using the glycerin in the paste as opposed to dilution. For some reason I thought you had mentioned using a 33% lye concentration (2:1), so I thought you were going to be decreasing the concentration by going to 25% (4:1). Sounds like the opposite: you actually increased the lye concentration (decreased water), which does make for faster trace and harder paste, for sure.

I absolutely do feel the difference between a 1% and 0% sf; that's probably why it feels less mild to you. But it should be clearer, not cloudier. That one has me stumped! Please report on whether it clears during sequester.

I went from 20% lye concentration to 25% and boy oh boy did that change the texture of the resulting paste. I didn't need as much dilution water for the paste made with more water in it, either. That batch was diluted to a 40% soap concentration and this one is about 35% if I'm calculating it correctly because I kept having to add more and more water to keep the skin from forming on top of the soap. Luckily I weighed my pot before I began, again with the paste, and yet again after fully diluted.

 

[Servant4Christ]

I too just made my first batch of liquid soap (70% olive oil, 20% coconut oil, 10% castor oil; 1% superfat, 33.3% KOH concentration), but it is slightly cloudy on dilution (3 parts water to 1 part soap paste), even though it was perfectly clear on the clarity test (1 g soap paste in 99 g distilled water). I made this batch of LS with true cold process at room temperature with no added glycerin, so it took 6-7 rounds of 5 minute bursts of stick blending spaced 30 minutes apart to reach trace (opaque pudding-like consistency) and gelled overnight (became transparent yellow and paste-like).

Interestingly and unfortunately, it was positive in the zap test in 2 out of 6 samples that I took, which I found bizarre and attribute to imperfectly dissolved KOH (I mixed my KOH solution by hand with a silicone spatula and may have under mixed it). I thought the zap test would be uniformly positive if I made a large error with the batch. That's why my conclusion is that there's a small amount of unreacted excess oil remaining in the batch causing cloudiness. But does anyone have any thoughts?

I will update this thread on whether it clears during sequestering.

Thank you for sharing your experience @Servant4Christ, I will be following along to see what happens because I am having a similar issue.

Mine did not zap and the clarity test was good. The recipe I used was similar to yours. 70 olive, 20 castor, 10 coconut. My first batch was thick and perfectly transparent and much easier/faster to dilute than this batch. This batch is getting clearer but just isn't as clear as my first batch. Yet. I'm not giving up hope. I'm wondering if the type of olive oil I used could be a factor. My first batch was using regular golden colored Carlini brand olive oil from Aldi and this current batch was made with extra light Filippo Berio brand.

 

[Servant4Christ]

I figured it out! I had spilled a little soap on the outside of my jars and wiped them down but didn't rinse them or anything because my soap was still hot off the stove. So, I put them in the sink and cleaned the outside of my jars and the soap was less cloudy looking but still was not as clear as I had hoped. I opened the jars and there was a bit of cloudy swirl at the top. I measured out 100g into another container a diluted with just a touch more water and voila! So, I added a bit more water to each jar and now they are totally transparent. Watery, but transparent. I'll add fragrance to individual bottles of soap as needed and then decide whether to thicken and use regular pumps or use foamer pumps.

 

[rperr2011]

I figured it out! I had spilled a little soap on the outside of my jars and wiped them down but didn't rinse them or anything because my soap was still hot off the stove. So, I put them in the sink and cleaned the outside of my jars and the soap was less cloudy looking but still was not as clear as I had hoped. I opened the jars and there was a bit of cloudy swirl at the top. I measured out 100g into another container a diluted with just a touch more water and voila! So, I added a bit more water to each jar and now they are totally transparent. Watery, but transparent. I'll add fragrance to individual bottles of soap as needed and then decide whether to thicken and use regular pumps or use foamer pumps.

Good to hear! How much soap:water was the final dilution? 1:3? 1:4?

 

[Servant4Christ]

Good to hear! How much soap:water was the final dilution? 1:3? 1:4?

Still calculates to about 35% soap to 65% water for final dilution as I only needed to add about a tsp more water to each quart. This paste was cooked at 25% lye concentration which is 3:1 water to lye.

In the future, I'll be going back to my original method of cooking my paste at a 20% (4:1) lye concentration which makes diluting faster/easier at a 40% final dilution (1:1.5 soap paste to water).

 

[Servant4Christ]

It's totally transparent today!