Soaping 101 liquid soapmaking video?

[DeeAnna]

... we just do the calculation and divide the amount of water between water and glycerin ??

Yes. You can choose any proportion of glycerin to water.

"......is there a required temp i should wait to add my lye or just by dissolving the glycerin i add it , and after the 2 ingredients being dissolved i remove it and stay a while and add it to the oils or add it immediately??..."

I am not sure I understand your question, but I think you are asking "should I add the lye solution to the fats while the solution is hot?" The answer is yes, you can add the lye solution while it is hot.

"...why we would use a superfat if we used sodium lactate, aren't they do the same job, providing smoothness to the pates ?..."

No they are not the same. Superfat is a fat. It ensures there is no excess lye so the soap is safe to use on the skin. Superfat can also increase the mildness of the soap on the skin. Sodium lactate is a salt. It modifies the texture.

"...is the liquid soap can be considered as a body wash? and if not what is the difference ??..."

Body wash is technically a non-soap cleanser made with synthetic detergents. In the US, non-soap cleansers can not be called "soap" by law. (I know you are in Egypt.)

Liquid soap is a cleanser made by saponifying fats with an alkali. It can be called "body wash" or soap, as you wish. "Body wash" in this case is simply a fancy name, nothing more.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

sorry for interruption but here is a thing i couldn't understand,the amount of glycerin we use to dissolve the KOH ,is it a fixed ratio between it and the lye or what, as no one mention the amount he used , or we just do the calculation and divide the amount of water between water and glycerin ?? depending on the recipe you have written

Hi Amal and welcome! I'm not Susie or Irish Lash but I've been making liquid soap since 2004 so I hope you don't mind if I answer your questions as I understand them...
Once you figure the amount of KOH needed, the amount of water is generally figured at 3 X KOH.

and about the temp we used for cooking, is there a required temp i should wait to add my lye or just by dissolving the glycerin i add it , and after the 2 ingredients being dissolved i remove it and stay a while and add it to the oils or add it immediately??

Warm your oils/fats to 160°F, then make your lye solution. If using a crockpot, there's no need to wait to allow the lye solution to cool down. It is added right away, but take good care -- it's extremely hot. I use a stick blender with a steel shaft -- plastic melts! -- and start mixing as I'm pouring the lye solution into the oils.

NB: This is NOT a beginner's recipe. I would strongly advise you to wait until you have made a few (12-16 oz) batches of liquid soap before trying it. I always get concerned when a Newbie wants to make this liquid soap because the lye solution is made with glycerin (or glycerin/water) which gets very hot and if you overheat it, it gives off fumes that may damage the skin and respiratory system. Read Sephera's posts in this link:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/simple-liquid-soap.68710/#post-701255

ETA: Here's link where you can learn to make Basic Beginner Liquid Soap:

http://alaiynab.blogspot.com/2014/07/basic-beginner-liquid-soap-and.html

HAPPY SOAPING!

 

[amal]

Yes. You can choose any proportion of glycerin to water.
fine but i have a concern, i have read that we calculate the amount of water according to the wt of the paste, so we firstly dissolve the KOH in the same amount of glycerin then after we get the paste we double the amount of water to reach 3:1 ratio ??


I am not sure I understand your question, but I think you are asking "should I add the lye solution to the fats while the solution is hot?" The answer is yes, you can add the lye solution while it is hot.
i meant that if are we going to heat the two component at the same time (as the lye and glycerin on heat, do the oils would be heated too,as the CO that i got is at solid form)

No they are not the same. Superfat is a fat. It ensures there is no excess lye so the soap is safe to use on the skin. Superfat can also increase the mildness of the soap on the skin. Sodium lactate is a salt. It modifies the texture.
i got it thank you

"...is the liquid soap can be considered as a body wash? and if not what is the difference ??..."

Body wash is technically a non-soap cleanser made with synthetic detergents. In the US, non-soap cleansers can not be called "soap" by law. (I know you are in Egypt.)

Liquid soap is a cleanser made by saponifying fats with an alkali. It can be called "body wash" or soap, as you wish. "Body wash" in this case is simply a fancy name, nothing more.[/QUOTE]
thank you , i got it now
i was thinking if it could be used as shower gel that we found in the market, or i it worked with me can i release it under shower gel cleanser

 

[amal]

Hi Amal and welcome! I'm not Susie or Irish Lash but I've been making liquid soap since 2004 so I hope you don't mind if I answer your questions as I understand them...
Once you figure the amount of KOH needed, the amount of water is generally figured at 3 X KOH.
hii zany,thank you for your help )))))
and yes i have got that point
Warm your oils/fats to 160°F, then make your lye solution. If using a crockpot, there's no need to wait to allow the lye solution to cool down. It is added right away, but take good care -- it's extremely hot. I use a stick blender with a steel shaft -- plastic melts! -- and start mixing as I'm pouring the lye solution into the oils.

NB: This is NOT a beginner's recipe. I would strongly advise you to wait until you have made a few (12-16 oz) batches of liquid soap before trying it. I always get concerned when a Newbie wants to make this liquid soap because the lye solution is made with glycerin (or glycerin/water) which gets very hot and if you overheat it, it gives off fumes that may damage the skin and respiratory system. Read Sephera's posts in this link:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/simple-liquid-soap.68710/#post-701255

ETA: Here's link where you can learn to make Basic Beginner Liquid Soap:

http://alaiynab.blogspot.com/2014/07/basic-beginner-liquid-soap-and.html

HAPPY SOAPING! View attachment 32554

i have been through this blog for a while and i have read most of its posts about LS, according to its recipe and if i would start with 12 ounce oil batch (340g) my recipe ended like that
238g OO (70%)
68g CO (20%)
34g castor oil (10%)
68g glycerin
70.8g KOH
142g dis. water
is this accurate calculation??
and he dissolved the KOH in the water first,why is that ??

 

[shunt2011]

Warm your oils/fats to 160°F, then make your lye solution. If using a crockpot, there's no need to wait to allow the lye solution to cool down. It is added right away, but take good care -- it's extremely hot. I use a stick blender with a steel shaft -- plastic melts! -- and start mixing as I'm pouring the lye solution into the oils.

NB: This is NOT a beginner's recipe. I would strongly advise you to wait until you have made a few (12-16 oz) batches of liquid soap before trying it. I always get concerned when a Newbie wants to make this liquid soap because the lye solution is made with glycerin (or glycerin/water) which gets very hot and if you overheat it, it gives off fumes that may damage the skin and respiratory system. Read Sephera's posts in this link:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/simple-liquid-soap.68710/#post-701255

Mixing lye with glycerine has not been recommended and adjusted by IL. This has been stated many many time when this is pointed out. The lye is mixed with water and glycerine added afterward. Posting the correct thread would have made more sense as IL's recipe is amazing.

Also, I would never heat my oils to 160. Sorry too hot especially adding hot lye to it asking for a volcano in my experience. I heat my oils until almost melted and clear.

 

[IrishLass]

sorry for interruption but here is a thing i couldn't understand,the amount of glycerin we use to dissolve the KOH ,is it a fixed ratio between it and the lye or what, as no one mention the amount he used , or we just do the calculation and divide the amount of water between water and glycerin ??

Hi Amal- the recipe as originally written uses a ratio of 1 part lye to 3 parts liquid (i.e., a 25% lye concentration). If you use the amended recipe (see the notes in red in post #8) it's more like a 4:1 ratio (20% lye concentration).

and about the temp we used for cooking, is there a required temp i should wait to add my lye or just by dissolving the glycerin i add it , and after the 2 ingredients being dissolved i remove it and stay a while and add it to the oils or add it immediately??

It sounds like you may have missed reading the notes (typed in red) that I added to my original instructions for making this liquid soap recipe in post #8 on page 1 of this thread. Here they are:

[10/13/2016 Edited to add that I now mix my KOH /glycerin differently than the above. I dissolve the KOH in an equal amount of room temp. distilled water and then add the normal/full complement of (room temp.) glycerin to the lye solution. Doing it this this way makes it so much easier/less fussy to dissolve the KOH. Instead of taking 8 to 10 minutes of cooking in boiling glycerin for the KOH to dissolve, it only takes as little as a minute, and no heating is required. Of course, doing it this updated way changes my dilution ratio because I have to account for the extra water I'm adding up front, but, no worries- I've got that figured out: my new dilution ratio is 1 part paste to .62 parts distilled water, instead of 1 part paste to .75 parts distilled water. To see how things proceed when using my revised method of making the paste, see here. ]

another thing ,why we would use a superfat if we used sodium lactate, aren't they do the same job, providing smoothness to the pates ?

No they do not do the same job. The job of a super-fat is to lessen the cleansing power of the soap, making it feel more gentle/ less drying to the skin. The job of the sodium lactate in this recipe is to help the paste to dissolve in a more timely fashion.

is the liquid soap can be considered as a body wash? and if not what is the difference ??
thanks in advance @Susie @IrishLass

You can certainly use it as a body wash if you desire. There really is no difference between using it as a body wash or a hand soap..... it's soap afterall..... it'll get your hands clean as well as the rest you. It will not lather as well as the typical body washes one can buy at the store, though, because those found in stores have lathering agents added to them such as SLS.

For what it's worth, I personally choose to use my liquid soap for only washing my hands, and my solid/bar soap for washing my whole body in the shower. I like using my bar soap in the shower as opposed to my liquid soap because my bar soap lathers so much better for me in the shower compared to my liquid soap.....and also because it lasts a lot longer- I don't need to use as much of to get the lather I desire for an all-over body soap.

i have a concern, i have read that we calculate the amount of water according to the wt of the paste, so we firstly dissolve the KOH in the same amount of glycerin then after we get the paste we double the amount of water to reach 3:1 ratio ??

I think you may be a little confused on this point, and I'm sure my having changed the method of dissolving my lye didn't help, but hopefully I can help clear things up:

My original instructions started with a 3:1 glycerin to lye ratio in order to make the paste (no water involved yet). The lye and glycerin were heated together until boiling, and then removed from the heat once dissolved and immediately added to the oils.....

....and then once the paste was made, I took the weight of the paste and multiplied it by .75 to get my needed dilution water amount: i.e., 1 part past to .75 parts water, which is the perfect dilution rate for this recipe as originally written (at least for my likes anyway).

But then sometime in the future I decided to change my method for dissolving the lye. Instead of dissolving 1 part lye into 3 parts boiling glycerin, which is fussy and carries with it a bigger danger factor, I decided to make things easier/quicker and also reduce the danger factor by first dissolving the lye in an equal amount of room-temp water by weight (which takes barely a minute and does not involve any cooking), and then adding in my original '3 parts' amount of glycerin to the solution before combining it all with my oils. This, in effect, changed the lye solution for my paste from 3:1 ratio to more like a 4:1 ratio.

Increasing things to a 4:1 water/glycerin to lye ratio up front in order to make my paste had the effect of changing my dilution rate later on for diluting the paste into soap in order to get the consistency I liked. Since my paste was now more hydrated/soft, I needed to use less dilution water than normal in order to get the same end-consistency I desired. Instead of using 1 part paste to .75 parts water, I now use 1 part paste to the lesser amount of .62 parts water to get that same consistency.

I'm like Shunt- when adding my lye solution to oils, I just gently heat my oils/fats on low until melted and then add my lye solution. No need to heat the oils to 160F. You can if you want to, but that's overkill if you ask me. Mine only get to about 110F to 120F at the most.


IrishLass

 

[Susie]

Did you read the whole thread? I think the amount of glycerin/water was covered quite adequately...more than adequately. in fact.

Superfat and sodium lactate are NOT the same thing, at all. Again, did you not read the entire thread?

I would not use this as a body wash. It is too thick undiluted, and too thin once diluted. You would have to thicken this up with a commercial thickener.

 

[amal]

Hi Amal- the recipe as originally written uses a ratio of 1 part lye to 3 parts liquid (i.e., a 25% lye concentration). If you use the amended recipe (see the notes in red in post #8) it's more like a 4:1 ratio (20% lye concentration).




It sounds like you may have missed reading the notes (typed in red) that I added to my original instructions for making this liquid soap recipe in post #8 on page 1 of this thread. Here they are:

[10/13/2016 Edited to add that I now mix my KOH /glycerin differently than the above. I dissolve the KOH in an equal amount of room temp. distilled water and then add the normal/full complement of (room temp.) glycerin to the lye solution. Doing it this this way makes it so much easier/less fussy to dissolve the KOH. Instead of taking 8 to 10 minutes of cooking in boiling glycerin for the KOH to dissolve, it only takes as little as a minute, and no heating is required. Of course, doing it this updated way changes my dilution ratio because I have to account for the extra water I'm adding up front, but, no worries- I've got that figured out: my new dilution ratio is 1 part paste to .62 parts distilled water, instead of 1 part paste to .75 parts distilled water. To see how things proceed when using my revised method of making the paste, see here. ]




No they do not do the same job. The job of a super-fat is to lessen the cleansing power of the soap, making it feel more gentle/ less drying to the skin. The job of the sodium lactate in this recipe is to help the paste to dissolve in a more timely fashion.



You can certainly use it as a body wash if you desire. There really is no difference between using it as a body wash or a hand soap..... it's soap afterall..... it'll get your hands clean as well as the rest you. It will not lather as well as the typical body washes one can buy at the store, though, because those found in stores have lathering agents added to them such as SLS.

For what it's worth, I personally choose to use my liquid soap for only washing my hands, and my solid/bar soap for washing my whole body in the shower. I like using my bar soap in the shower as opposed to my liquid soap because my bar soap lathers so much better for me in the shower compared to my liquid soap.....and also because it lasts a lot longer- I don't need to use as much of to get the lather I desire for an all-over body soap.




I think you may be a little confused on this point, and I'm sure my having changed the method of dissolving my lye didn't help, but hopefully I can help clear things up:

My original instructions started with a 3:1 glycerin to lye ratio in order to make the paste (no water involved yet). The lye and glycerin were heated together until boiling, and then removed from the heat once dissolved and immediately added to the oils.....

....and then once the paste was made, I took the weight of the paste and multiplied it by .75 to get my needed dilution water amount: i.e., 1 part past to .75 parts water, which is the perfect dilution rate for this recipe as originally written (at least for my likes anyway).

But then sometime in the future I decided to change my method for dissolving the lye. Instead of dissolving 1 part lye into 3 parts boiling glycerin, which is fussy and carries with it a bigger danger factor, I decided to make things easier/quicker and also reduce the danger factor by first dissolving the lye in an equal amount of room-temp water by weight (which takes barely a minute and does not involve any cooking), and then adding in my original '3 parts' amount of glycerin to the solution before combining it all with my oils. This, in effect, changed the lye solution for my paste from 3:1 ratio to more like a 4:1 ratio.

Increasing things to a 4:1 water/glycerin to lye ratio up front in order to make my paste had the effect of changing my dilution rate later on for diluting the paste into soap in order to get the consistency I liked. Since my paste was now more hydrated/soft, I needed to use less dilution water than normal in order to get the same end-consistency I desired. Instead of using 1 part paste to .75 parts water, I now use 1 part paste to the lesser amount of .62 parts water to get that same consistency.

I'm like Shunt- when adding my lye solution to oils, I just gently heat my oils/fats on low until melted and then add my lye solution. No need to heat the oils to 160F. You can if you want to, but that's overkill if you ask me. Mine only get to about 110F to 120F at the most.


IrishLass

thank you for your help
i have read the coment that include the recipe again and take my notes i found that there were things that i missed,but now itsw fine, i can get all the procedure and the quntaties

Did you read the whole thread? I think the amount of glycerin/water was covered quite adequately...more than adequately. in fact.

Superfat and sodium lactate are NOT the same thing, at all. Again, did you not read the entire thread?

I would not use this as a body wash. It is too thick undiluted, and too thin once diluted. You would have to thicken this up with a commercial thickener.

i wasnt actually ,but now i did
thank you for your reply

 

[Claudsoap]

Hey all,

Ive made liquid soap many times but thought i would try IL recipe.
I diluted with 62% h2o but it still formed a skin. I added up to 70% and still not diluted. Can you confirm my recipe is correct? Also what soap calculator do most of you use? I tried different ones with that all gave me a different recipe.

48oz weight in oil
3% superfat
20% Lye concentration

Olive oil 31.20oz
Coconut 12.0oz
Castor 4.8oz

Lye 10.58oz
H20 10.58oz
Glycerine 31.73oz

Cheers!

 

[CreamyBubbles]

Hi to everybody. (This is my first post)
I made this GLS last night (my first ever any kind of soap recipe) and I have some questions.

But before that I want to thank you IrishLass for your CP method: it's the reason I finally did it, after a couple of months of trying to gather the courage having in mind the HP method... So thank you, it was extremely easy! And I used my plastic blender with no problems!

My first encounter with more serious info on soap making was after I bought the book "How to make your own soap" by Sally Hornsay, where she describes all types of soap making, but I was still not satisfied as I wanted a liquid cream soap, same as Dove shower cream, and the recipes there were for more like soap butter / shaving soap, not pourable cream soap.

After I stumbled on the recipe here, I thought I will make smth like a hybrid between the GLS recipe and those more viscous type of creamy soap, so I thought I would add a little stearic acid to my paste (I only saw IrishLass creamy gls recipe after I finished making my paste ). So this is my recipe:
Olive pomace 11.2%
Coconut 20%
Castor 20%
Shea 10%
Stearic acid 5%
Ricebran 20.2%
Hazelnut 13.6%
Apart from adding stearic and messing with the oils, I followed the recipe accurately (3% superfat, water-lye ratio: 3-1, 3% sodium lactate, 0.75 water dilution).
Oh, and I also added only 0.1% chelator (INCI: sodium phytate, water, alcohol; usage: 0.05-0.5%, ph ~3) after seeing the creamy gls recipe, since I didn't know how it will affect my batch pH wise, but I will add some more on a small batch and see what happens.

Firstly, I'm not blaming IrishLass's recipe for my fails (now I know I should have added the stearic at the dilution stage) but I'm asking for some advice/opinions about what do you think I should do to salvage this lot. I want to understand the mechanics of my mistakes.

I divided my paste into 4 lots to try different dilution percentages/fragrances etc.

I'm in the stage of having my first lot of paste already diluted but: (1) has an awful color (a muddy yellowish/amber-ish color): (2) I think is too strong: as I used a bit I felt my skin really dry afterwards; (3) it's watery.

I saw in the gls creamy post that after about 12 hours, the liquid started to turn to an white opaque color due to the stearic. Do you think I should wait some more to see if that happens? I'm intrigued as I used more stearic (5%) and ... nothing!

What could I do to make it more mild? I can't do the dilution superfat as the only solubilizer I have access to (it doesn't have a name. INCI: Polyglyceryl-4 Laurate/Sebacate, Polyglyceryl-6 Caprylate/Caprate, Aqua) isn't in stock for some time and is really expensive as well. And if I add more water (or maybe honey?) what can I use to make it thicker?

Do you think that not using a solubilizer would make my gls separate when adding EOs / fragrances?

And finally, what to do to the rest 3 lots of paste to make them better than this one?

Thanks a lot for the patience

 

[DeeAnna]

"...sodium phytate ... ph ~3 ... I didn't know how it will affect my batch pH wise..."

It won't change the pH of the soap much if at all. What it will do instead is break down some of the soap into fatty acids. This essentially increases the superfat.

 

[amal]

if i don't have a crock pot and wont follow carrie's canning jar method, how can i dilute my soap ???
can i cook it on the stove ? or add simmering water to it and blend ?
and how mush time would it take ?? @DeeAnna @Susie

 

[DeeAnna]

You can use a warm water bath (bain marie) instead of a crock pot. Or you can dilute at room temperature. I would not heat the soap paste and water directly over a source of heat. Yes, you can heat the dilution water if you like.

Warmth will shorten the time to dilute the soap, but you have to pay more attention to the process. Room temperature dilution takes longer (maybe a day or two), but you don't have to worry about it.

 

[Claudsoap]

Hey all, is anyone able to check through my recipe I posted on #789? It would really be appreciated.

Cheers!

 

[CreamyBubbles]

DeeAnna, thank you for your response. Does anybody have any idea what to do to increase the mildness to my batch?

 

[IrishLass]

Hey all,

Ive made liquid soap many times but thought i would try IL recipe.
I diluted with 62% h2o but it still formed a skin. I added up to 70% and still not diluted. Can you confirm my recipe is correct? Also what soap calculator do most of you use? I tried different ones with that all gave me a different recipe.

48oz weight in oil
3% superfat
20% Lye concentration

Olive oil 31.20oz
Coconut 12.0oz
Castor 4.8oz

Lye 10.58oz
H20 10.58oz
Glycerine 31.73oz

Cheers!

Hi Claudsoap!

I have always used SummerBeeMeadows Advanced Liquid Soap Calculator when making my liquid soaps.

This is what it gives me when I type in your recipe:

SummerBee automatically/by default calculates a 25% lye concentration on their calculator (lye x 3), as this is the concentration that usually works best when making liquid soap. However, if you are making the recipe I posted using my newer/reworked method of dissolving the KOH into an equal amount of water in weight and then adding the full complement of glycerin to it that I have always normally added, this essentially brings the lye concentration to 20% (i.e., lye x 4)..............so, with that in mind, based on Summerbee's amounts of lye and water, this is what my KOH, water and glycerin amounts would look like if I were making your batch:

KOH: 10.2 oz (for a 3% superfat)
Glycerin: 30.6 oz
Water: 10.2 oz


IrishLass

 

[amal]

You can use a warm water bath (bain marie) instead of a crock pot. Or you can dilute at room temperature. I would not heat the soap paste and water directly over a source of heat. Yes, you can heat the dilution water if you like.

Warmth will shorten the time to dilute the soap, but you have to pay more attention to the process. Room temperature dilution takes longer (maybe a day or two), but you don't have to worry about it.

I can use a stick blender to shorten the time?? ?

 

[IrishLass]

I saw in the gls creamy post that after about 12 hours, the liquid started to turn to an white opaque color due to the stearic. Do you think I should wait some more to see if that happens? I'm intrigued as I used more stearic (5%) and ... nothing!

Hi CreamyBubbles!

Yes- you can wait a few days to see how things progress. Oftentimes things don't turn opaque from the stearic until a few days have passed.

If it's still just a murky amber after a few days have passed, this is what I would do.....I would take your already diluted portion (i.e., your first lot) and mix in 3% stearic as per whatever the weight of the paste was for that lot, and then heat it together until the stearic is completely melted, then give it a good stick-blending to combine. Or you can heat them both separately and then combine when the stearic is melted and the diluted soap is at least as hot as your melted stearic.

This may be enough to kill 3 birds with one stone, i.e., enough to turn the soap opaque, enough to add some mildness to the soap so that it is less drying, and enough to make it thicker. The only thing I would be worried about is separation due to you not having any solubizer on hand, but it might possibly be that it won't separate for a little while at first. Only time will tell.

You can store any leftover soap paste in a container in the fridge until you are ready to dilute them.


IrishLass

 

[Susie]

Hey all, is anyone able to check through my recipe I posted on #789? It would really be appreciated.

Cheers!

It looks OK on the surface (without running through a calculator). I typically use .75:1 ratio water/paste. If you are still getting a skin, you need more water...period. You lose moisture every time you lift the lid, stir, etc. Just add water in tiny amounts until the skin is gone, or pull the skin off to dilute separately. Pour the already liquid soap into bottle(s). I just add a tiny amount of water, run the stick blender through the mixture, and bottle. But I learned using the above methods, so you get a feel for how much water. Your choice.

I can use a stick blender to shorten the time?? ?

Yes, but be careful to burp it first, otherwise you get many, many bubbles!

 

[CreamyBubbles]

Hi CreamyBubbles!

Yes- you can wait a few days to see how things progress. Oftentimes things don't turn opaque from the stearic until a few days have passed.

If it's still just a murky amber after a few days have passed, this is what I would do.....I would take your already diluted portion (i.e., your first lot) and mix in 3% stearic as per whatever the weight of the paste was for that lot, and then heat it together until the stearic is completely melted, then give it a good stick-blending to combine. Or you can heat them both separately and then combine when the stearic is melted and the diluted soap is at least as hot as your melted stearic.

This may be enough to kill 3 birds with one stone, i.e., enough to turn the soap opaque, enough to add some mildness to the soap so that it is less drying, and enough to make it thicker. The only thing I would be worried about is separation due to you not having any solubizer on hand, but it might possibly be that it won't separate for a little while at first. Only time will tell.

You can store any leftover soap paste in a container in the fridge until you are ready to dilute them.


IrishLass

Thanks a lot for your answer IrishLass and sorry for my grammar/spelling mistakes (I hope it's not too difficult to understand what I'm saying)

It's been about a week now, and no change to my first lot so I'm about to try to make it milder with stearic acid, and since I don't have any solubilizer (therefore risking for the whole thing to separate) I kept thinking to find another solution and I had this idea:

1. I heat the diluted portion and stearic acid separately
2. I add an emulsifier to the 3% stearic acid
3. I combine the two.

What do you think? Could it work? Does it sound right to you?