What's wrong with my liquid soap?

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SudsinCA

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Could someone please help me figure out if this soap is a fail? I still see a layer of sticky white paste on top of my melted oils that won't dissolve. I've cooked it all night and still the foamy sticky layer remains.
I used: 180 g coconut oil, 240 g olive oil, 180 sunflower oil, 142.7 g, KOH and 1200 g of water.

In the beginning, the batter appeared to go through all the proper phases until the last phase when it got as hard as rock. I diluted it anyway and it melted. I thought it was headed back in the right direction but the layer of taffy is still on top. Is it salvageable?
 
Here is the batch for reference
 

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My calculations show the recipe is at 0% superfat assuming 90% KOH purity. The recipe looks fine, as far as I can tell. You did use a lot of water -- did you make the initial batch with this much water? I normally use a 25% lye concentration to make the paste. That translates to 428 grams water for making the initial paste. You'd use more later on for dilution.

My guess is the white material might be some residual fatty acids or fats, even at the 0% superfat. That's what fatty acids often look like, anyways -- white, fluffy curds a little like mayo. It might be that your KOH is lower purity than you think.

If you dip a fingertip into the white material and rub it between your fingers, it will feel greasy or oily if it's fatty acids or fats. If you then rinse the greasy skin with cool water (but without rubbing) to dissolve and flush away any water soluble stuff, the skin should remain slightly oily or greasy feeling even after rinsing, again if it's fatty acids or fats.

If you don't have a strong desire to figure this out, just skim off the material and discard it in the trash (not down the drain). It may not be worth your time to fiddle with it, to be honest.

If you want to see if the white material will saponify, I advise working with only that material -- put the good part of the soap away.

Skim off the white layer into a lye safe container, weighing the white material as you do this. Try measuring 0.1 grams of dry KOH for every gram of white material. Dilute this in an equal weight of water to make a 50% KOH solution. Add this to the white material and stir in well.

Give the process overnight to fully saponify and see if the KOH saponifies the material. If it does, the white material will probably turn more or less clear like normal liquid soap.

If it looks like the KOH is helping but has not fully fixed the problem, I'd add maybe 1/8 to 1/4 the weight of KOH you used the first time. As before, dissolve in an equal weight of water, add the KOH solution to the white material, and repeat the overnight saponification.

If this material passes a cautious zap test, it's fine to use -- I'd add it to the other soap.

If you don't want to zap test or are unsure the KOH treatment is working as expected, I'd discard the material in the trash and chalk the experience up to science.
 
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