cbv1 Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 I am challenged when it comes to making liquid soap. I either make it too thick, or too thin. When I make it too thin I use foamers and that works fine. So, I tried to make a small batch of Liquid Soap using the instruction on About.com using the crock pot method. The ingredients:16.5 oz. Sunflower Oil 7 oz. Coconut Oil 5.5 oz. Potassium Hydroxide KOH 16.5 oz. Distilled Water for the Lye Mixture 40 oz. Distilled Water to dilute the soap paste Either 2 oz. of boric acid or 3 oz. of borax mixed into 10 or 6 oz. of water Approx. 3 oz. Fragrance or Essential oil, as desired Soap dye or colorant, if desiredSo, everything went find yesterday. My paste got to the translucent vaseline stage all all was good. Now to start the dilution stage. I added the 40oz of boiling distilled water to the crock pot, covered it and waited until this morning to check on it. There were still quite a few big chunks of gooey paste in there so I have been stirring on off for hours, then I decided maybe I should turn the crock pot on again. Now after several hours it is all mixed together but just as thick as it was in the vaseline stage. I boiled another 20 oz of distilled water and added it back to the crock pot, turned it off stirred it up and covered it again. I will wait until tomorrow again but I feel I obviously did something wrong if the paste never diluted fully and then when I reheated it, it got all paste like again. Am I on the right path or have a messed this batch up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaggieMay Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 I haven't made liquid soap but plan to very soon...There is a good tutorial here on a LS making class its very informative and with pictures..HTH'shttp://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69345Hugs Maggie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soycrazy Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 Mine did that too and I went by the about.com & Z's class. I just added more boiling water like you did mine came out thick, but that's how I wanted it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaVSoap Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 I've had the best luck dissolving the paste when I use really hot, boiling water to start the dilution.I use canning jars to dilute a pound at a time in a makeshift double boiler. It takes around 3-4 hours for dilution that way.When I don't use boiling water, it takes a day or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adillenal Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 I pour the heated distilled water over my paste in a five gallon bucket, wrap the bucket up and let it sit for a few days. Usually when I open it up everything is dissolved and looks great. Quick and easy for me. But then maybe I am just lazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbv1 Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 I did boil my distilled water for the dillution phase but it didn't dilute very well MamaV. It was still mostly chunks after I checked it in the morning. I added the additional 20 oz of boiling distilled water after the initial 24 hour dillution phase. This morning it looks much better. There are a few guey chunks left but I will scoop those out and dilute separately as the tutorial suggested. Thanks for the link MaggieMay. The pictures and discussions really helped. The recipe ingredients in the tutorial look like it is just a bigger batch from the one on about.com.Dilluting in a bucket and leaving for a few days sounds like a good idea too adillenal. I find myself looking in the crock pot too often since it is out in the open. I should just put it in my soap room and leave it alone!!So, I am heating it up again to add my borax and glycerin, then my essential oils. I want to add the glycerin because I find liquid soap a little too drying. I have read the glycerin helps with that so we will see. Wish me luck... and thanks for the advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katshe Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 I used this exact same recipe and my LS, after dilution , the next day was chunky and gooey, I ended up adding somewhere around 20 more ounces of water and it is fine now.In my LS making I did not remeasure the boiled distilled water when I added it to the paste, so I am thinking that maybe that I possibly didn't add the correct amount for dilution as maybe some boiled out.I have only made one batch so far...I am going to give it a go again and see If my results are different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbv1 Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 If we both got the same results katshe, then I think we measured correctly. Soycrazy said the same happened to them with the same recipe. I boiled my water in the microwave so it's not like I left it on the stove to boil for a long time. Maybe if I had left it alone for a week or so it may have been fine. After I added the extra 20 oz of water the LS is fine and still nice and thick. I am sequestering it right now so I will know better next week how this worked out. Thanks for the input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katshe Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 I just added fo to 8 oz of my liquid soap and it got lumpy, I sure it was the fo I used so I will try an essential oil next ( lemon ginger sage)fo I used was yuzuGlad to hear you LS is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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