# A soft soap?



## Tmattie (Oct 27, 2011)

I have just put my first batch of liquid soap into the warm oven to cook for the night (I think Ill turn the oven off though and just resume in the AM) but after I finally got it to a very heavy trace and completed it....I was looking back over the lye calculator and I may have been a little light on the potassium hydroxide. Maybe 2-3 oz short of what they recommended for a soft soap. Considering that it did trace and it is looking pretty good...will my soap just be softer? less dilution needed? little or no neutralizing?


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

You would have free oils that are not saponified. It will make your soap cloudy and possibly more prone to rancidity. What were your exact numbers? 2-3 oz of lye is a fair amount, depending on the size of your recipe.


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## Tmattie (Oct 27, 2011)

30oz CO, 10oz Soy Oil, 20oz Safflower oil, 20 oz Sunflower oil, 20 oz Olive Oil, 30 oz GM and I am thinking I put 17 oz of lye into instead of the 19 the calculator would require for a soft soap.

It continued to cook last night with the heat off, it is becoming more 'pasty'. I've turned it back on this morning. Can I add more lye solution at this point, ora lter point, if I dont think it will work?


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

What calculator did you use? I got 22.35 oz of KOH for a superfat of 0% on Summerbee Meadow's calculator http://summerbeemeadow.com/content/lye-calculator-and-recipe-resizer) but on SoapCalc, I got 21 oz. Either way, that's a considerable difference from 17. But, if you don't KNOW that you only put in 17, I don't know if I'd add more.


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## Tmattie (Oct 27, 2011)

http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php is the calculator I used. I'm not ready to give it up as a science project yet!


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Ok, the table doesn't exactly transfer over perfectly, but here's what I get at The Sage:
1st number is % excess fat 2nd number is the Lye Amount

0	21.07
1	20.86
2	20.65
3	20.44
4	20.23
5	20.02
6	19.81
7	19.60
8	19.38
9	19.17
10	18.96

Usually, with liquid soap, you do not superfat like you do with bar soap. In bar soap, when the soap solidifies, any excess fat gets incorporated, but with liquid soap, it doesn't. You then will have cloudy soap (though with all GM, it will probably be opaque anyway) or a layer of fat/oil on the top of the finished product. So, that 10% superfat you see at the bottom, with about 19 oz of lye (KOH) already gives you more excess fat than you'd want. Some people do a very low superfat (like 3%) on liquid soap, but many don't superfat at all, in other words, they would use the value for 0 up at the top (21 oz of lye). Now, if you are SURE that you only put in 17, then yes, I would think that you could dissolve some more lye in some liquid and add it to your project, but be very careful if your soap is thick when you are trying to incorporated the additional lye in so that you don't splash. You have to dilute the paste anyway, so more liquid is no big deal.


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## Tmattie (Oct 27, 2011)

Thanks! When I checked it this morning it still is not a paste...more like molten lava! But I took a spoonful and added it to a little hot distilled water and it did get bubbly, that means it did 'soap' right?


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Yes, part of it is certainly soap. There will just be part that is still oils.


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## Guest (Jan 14, 2012)

Yes, its soap but it will be very cloudy but I would dissolve a couple of more oz of lye in water and add to the pot, but cook for a lot longer and make sure that it get incorporated very good... 
Barb


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## Tmattie (Oct 27, 2011)

Thanks so much! I can deal with cloudy!


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