Teach Soap

I am so hoping someone can help me I am lost and not sure what to do, after doing internet searches I am even more lost. I created a recipe for liquid soap, I thought I had everything set and ready to go and realized I have no idea on how to figure out how much distilled water I needed for the dilution step. I read many online posts that stated, divide this or that by the weight of your paste and multiply this to that, and all I could think was HUH? How am I supposed to know the weight of my paste until I have made it, I don't want to start making the liquid soap until I know for sure that I know exactly what I need and which steps they are incorporated.
Can anyone tell me a clear cut simple way to know how much water to use?

Thank you sooooo much in advance for any help you might be able to provide!!

How thick or thin do you want your liquid soap to be? Some oils like coconut tend to make your soap paste thinner to begin with. Here are Catherine Failor's guidelines:

For a 15% dilution 48oz of water per lb of paste
For a 20% dilution 32oz of water per lb of paste.
For a 25% dilution 22oz of water per lb of paste.
For a 30% dilution 16oz of water per lb of paste.
For a 35% dilution 12oz of water per lb of paste.
For a 40% dilution 9oz of water per lb of paste.

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

Thank you for your response Soapbuddy!

I do not want a super thick soap, but I don't want it thin an watery at the same time, so a nice medium thickness would be perfect, I will be using coconut in my batch.

So my question to you is I see that it says per pound of paste, this may be a silly question but bare with me as this is my first attempt at liquid soap. Per pound of paste meaning once I get everything mixed and cooked, I should weigh it then determine the amount of water I want to use for my dilution?

Thanks again for you help!

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

Ok, so I made my first attempt at liquid soap over the weekend. I followed the instructions I found which was:

Mix all oils in cook pot on low heat until they reach 160 degrees add my lye mixture stir in well and then hit with stick blender until a good trace is reached, cover with lid let sit for 15-20 minutes stir cover again stirring every 20-30 minutes for 3-4 hours, until translucent Vaseline stage is hit (mine took 7 hours for some reason???) once this occurs boil your distilled water for your dilution pour boiling water over soap paste stir well cover and leave sit for an hour, stir again, cover and repeat every hour or just leave sitting overnight water will dissolve soap paste. (What I did was for the first few hours I stirred once an hour then I went to bed and let it sit covered over night with towels covering pot to keep heat in and this morning when I checked my paste still isn't dissolved).
Could someone please tell me if I did something wrong that my paste has not dissolved or is there still something I can do to get my paste to dissolve and not lose my entire batch?

Thank you in advance for any and all help with this.

Lost and confused

Heat your crock pot back up with the paste and water, then hit it with a stick blender (off and on). You might need to spritz the top with alcohol to keep the bubbles down. Another option is to cut the paste into as small pices as possible and put it back into the crock pot and cook on low til the paste dissolves.

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

I will try that, thank you sooo much!!

You're welcome and good luck!

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