Teach Soap

Hi all! I was wondering if anyone can tell me if all liquid bases will turn translucent when complete? I made liquid laundry soap that was all coconut and it came to trace pretty quick , almost like it seized. I am attempting liquid shampoo and used aloe vera in place of the distilled water for the lye. It took forever to get to a thick taffy and I couldn't get it past that stage. I set it aside for a bit and it looked like it gelled so i figured i would put it in the oven for the 4 hour cook. It was in there for the full 4 hours but it wont get to the vaseline look like the laundry soap did? Is it because of the aloe or did I fudge?

I don't know a thing about putting aloe in lye products. I make my shampoo in a completely different way though. I use an emulsifier instead which would not be good in this case since you're using aloe which will have water in it and the shelf life would not be good. I dont actually use water in my shampoo at all I use oils and thus use the emulsifier to thicken. Anywho I have used aloe in salve making once and I will NEVER do it again because surprise it did exactly what I just mentioned and ruined the self life and got moldy and nasty. You could not pay me to ever put aloe in something like shampoo or salve ever again. I would think in the cold processed realm you would want to treat aloe as an additive and not the water base though. (I could be totally wrong as I am a new soaper though). Good luck!

I presume you used potassium hydroxide and not sodium hydroxide? Or is this a premade liquid soap base or paste?
High coconut oil liquid soap tends to be thin when diluted. How much water did you add? Any scent?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.