Strange LS Behavior

[KristaY]

I made my normal bastile LS paste using 80% OO & 20% castor, 2% SF. Added KOH to half the water, added the other half as glycerin. All went as usual through the cook and dilution. Nice clear finished soap in the end.

I divided off 16 oz/454 gms of soap to scent so mixed 5 gms PS80 with 10 gms lavender EO. Stirred that in, no problem. I went to pour into the bottle a few minutes later and it's thick paste again. What the heck?! It honestly looks like soft paste that hasn't been diluted yet. I've done this exact thing several times before with no issues but now I'm wondering if I didn't use any PS80 last time. Could that be the culprit?

So now what? I'm trying to decide if I should let it sit and see what happens, add some of this thick soap to a portion of the unscented, diluted soap, or add water to thin. What do you guys think?

 

[DeeAnna]

You say you've done this several times without problems, but have you scented your LS with lavender EO before? It's been my experience that lavender EO does a pretty good job of thickening liquid soap. No PS80 required either. See: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...erin-water-vs-water-only-lye-solutions.51237/

 

[KristaY]

Thanks for the link DeeAnna, very interesting indeed. I know I've used lavender EO before but it's been a couple of years. I do remember it thickening but not to the point of paste. Do you think the PS80 is responsible? Also, do you think there's any way to correct it? I've got about 9 oz of diluted soap left so can experiment with that if you think it would do any good.