Teach Soap

Diluting Liquid Soap Paste seems like it couldn't be any easier (http://www.brambleberry.com/High-Sudsin ... P4847.aspx). But I've almost gone through my entire 2lbs in test batches and still am having trouble. Sorry in advance for the rant, but I'm really hoping someone has some advice for me!

About a week ago, I made a 4 oz test batch that behaved very well, but the recommended dilution of 4:1 of water to paste was much too watery for my preferences. So yesterday, I made a batch of 4:1 in a larger quantity (32 oz water to 8 oz paste), expecting that I could thicken it up a bit with the salt water solution. (I should note that I did add LabColor, preservative and about 1.5 oz of FO at this stage.) The salt solution barely had an effect in terms of thickening. It was dumb of me to expect it to have that big of an effect, but hindsight is always 20/20, as they say!

Today, I called BB customer service and got the OK from Tina to increase the dilution to 2:1 and water it down from there until I reached a consistency I liked. She assured me that I could rebatch what I'd done yesterday, so I heated that up yesterday's 4:1 batch to medium high (simmering but not a full boil) and added about 8.5 oz of fresh paste. The problem is, only about half of that ended up melting down. After about 45 minutes on the burner, all I had was yesterday's soap plus a lot of creamy, sticky foam and some stubborn pastey chunks that looked a little like mashed potatoes. I increased the temperature to high, but with all the steaming my soap was clearly losing a lot of water and was becoming thick in the pot. After about an hour on the stove top, I added about 12 oz of water (which would bring the dilution to 1 paste:2.5 water if I hadn't lost so much by evaporation). After this and a little more time on the heat, there were no chunks except for the half-inch or so of sticky foam that I simply couldn't get to blend in. I turned off the burner, covered the pot, and left it alone for about an hour.

The end result was just more too-liquidy soap, but now with a lot of that gooey lather that wouldn't incorporate. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I stirred frequently, kept the temp around a simmer. Did I not turn the temp up high enough to begin with? Was it on the stovetop too long and lost too much water? Did the additives from yesterday's soap not agree with being rebatched? I have a few ounces of paste left to fiddle around with, but am hoping for some tips before I waste more product.

Thanks everyone! As always, your insight is much appreciated

edit: I saw on another thread that some CP'ers had luck with putting their thin liquid soap in a foamer bottle. Would it be a safe bet that the thin 4:1 solution would foam up well in a bottle like this?

http://tinyurl.com/6odkksr

I've only done a couple of batches of liquid soap, but my take is this:

The foamer bottle works great, if the soap is too thin.

That foam on top when you were diluting? It happened on my coconut oil soap, but not on olive oil. Which one are you using?

While you can simmer for an hour or so to incorporate the paste and water, you shouldn't stir. It just ups the foam. Easiest is just to heat it up, turn off the heat, and walk away for 24 hours.

That's all I've got from my experiments! I can't get the salt water to work as a thickener, using the instructions on BB's site, but I've only tried it twice so far.

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

Don't give up!!! My first batch of liquid soap was almost 100% OO and it seemed like I couldn't get enough water into it to make it thin! The next batch was a coconut, olive & castor blend that was much easier to dilute...in fact it ended up being too thin. I'm using that in a foamer bottle and it works great. I cooked my soap paste in the crock pot and just added water to the crock and set it on low to do the dilution. It worked well with minimal stirring and foaming.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

Thanks, Linda. Must be a difference between olive oil and coconut in these formulas.

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

Thank you both! I really appreciate the advice and will give this project another go with your tips in mind.

I ordered some foamer bottles, which will allow me to go back to the 4:1 dilution that worked well my first time around. That batch came out very nice, took color and scent well, I just wasn't a fan of the wateriness. It sounds like the foamer bottles will negate that problem. I also won't be ordering soap paste every other week

No crock pot in my studio, unfortunately, but I'll heat the mixture on a low setting over a longer period of time.

Now the only problem is figuring out how to affix a label to this wonky-shaped bottle: http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/Pr ... +mm+Foamer

Thanks again! I'm so grateful for this community. You guys are awesome!

Hello There!

The 4:1 dilution rate in the larger quantity should have behaved exactly the same. I'm surprised that you thought it was too watery. Did you make a 20% salt water solution? And how much did you add? Also remember that it can thicken up within the hour.

Tina is great at troubleshooting recipes but I think there was a little confusion with the terminology. The word "Rabatch" does not apply to liquid soapmaking, that's actually a completely different technique. Tina had a good idea to add some more water if you're looking for an even thinner base. And we always recommend keeping the temperatures around 160. Do you know what your temperatures were?

Liquid soap can be tricky so we're happy to help you troubleshoot!

Courtney with Bramble Berry