Teach Soap

I have made my first soap paste for liquid soap. I used the Bramble Berry online lye calculator to make my own recipe (10oz coconut oil, 5oz sunflower seed oil, 3.7oz KoH and 11oz water). Now I'm struggling to work out how to neutralise it. I don't have ph strips or phenophthalein. I have read on one website that I may not need to neutralize but everywhere else I have looked it is recommended.
Does anyone have any tips or links to resources that could help me?
Thanks in advance.

Did you superfat it? If you did you won't have to neutralise.

I don't think so. I selected 0% super fat in the lye calculator. Is it possible to super fat liquid soap ? Does it cause it to separate or just make a cloudy soap?

Yes, according to what I got, that soap will be lye heavy and need to be neutralized. You can make it either way, with neutralizing or without, but if you are not building in a sufficient superfat, then you will have to neutralize. Many do it that way to be on the safe side of things, it is probably a bit more difficult to make it without that buffer.
Mastering liquid soap making is a journey for sure, enjoy!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

I'm too lazy to be bothered with neutralizing my soap.
I make liquid soap with 3% superfat. It is slightly cloudy, but it's for personal use so that's ok.

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

Linda, me too, but it took a while to get that down good enough to sell! For me it was a Journey in deed! Lol

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Hi, I'm new here and don't want to butt in but I make a fair amount of liquid soap. I don't superfat it and I never neutralize it anymore. The ph is 9 for my coconut oil soap and between 8 and 9 for olive oil. I run my recipes through summberbeemeadow (the simple version) at 0 superfat.

I'd feel a little uneasy not having ph strips. I suppose you could zap test it. Good luck.

Thanks Bunni, and everyone else. In the end I neutralised by making a 5% citric acid solution and used 4tbsp of this per 8oz soap paste. I don't have ph strips but don't have sensitive skin either so next time ill make a small batch and won't neutralise it, and see what happens.

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

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy