Liquid soap question

[Meridith]

This weekend I finally made LS and of course just my luck, CT went down. I did not have the class notes to follow so I had to wing alot of it. I used the recipe and instructions off of Ellen's Essentials website and used my crock pot . After several hours and it getting to the vaseline stage, I put a pot of water on the stove and brought it to a boil. I slowly added my soap paste to it and stirred it all in. It was late, so I left it to sit overnight. The next day when I went to look at the LS, most of the paste had dissolved, but there was still a pretty think layer of soap paste sitting on top of the liquid.

What did I do wrong? Should I add more water, bring the temp back up to stirr and let it sit some more? My soap is not clear either and is more of an amber color which I can live with. I'm sure my next batch will go much smoother. Any advice or suggestions anyone can give would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[topofmurrayhill]

You didn't do anything wrong. LS dissolves until it reaches a certain concentration in the water, and after that it dissolves very, very, very slooowwwly.

Keeping it warm helps. Taking a stick blender to it helps. But I think one of the main things is getting used to how much water is best for your recipe. There are very soluble fatty acids, medium ones, and fairly insoluble ones, so every recipe will behave differently depending on the proportions.

My LS recipe required more water than I expected it to. Whenever you add more water, a bunch more soap dissolves pretty easily and then it slows down again. I added a little more each time it seemed stalled, until in the end it was all dissolved and I still had a nice thick consistency.

[Meridith]

Good to know. Thanks.