Teach Soap

I just made my first batch of liquid soap using a recipe from catherine failor's book. It looks great. It is light yellow and almost crystal clear. I accidently spilled some on my hands while pouring it into containers for sequestering and it seemed to lather well when I rinsed it off, so after I poured all the diluted soap into containers for sequestoring I washed out the pot and was expecting a pretty good lather to form just from the little coating of soap that remained in the pot. However, when I poured water into the pot, the water immediately went cloudy white when it hit the soap and hardly any bubbles formed at all. Does that make sense? Does anybody know why this happened? I only ask because I was initially thinking this may make a good dish soap-- but there is no way this soap could be used to fill a dishpan with soapy water...it would just be a dishpan full of cloudy water.

I am thinking that perhaps it is superfatted and when diluted, goes cloudy as a result of an emulsion being formed?

Thanks for the input! I wish that were it, but I didn't superfat... Her recipe actually called for 10% excess alkali and when I added the water to the paste to dilute it, it didn't turn cloudy at all. Then I added the borax and that all seemed to work correctly too... and the finished soap looks really clear. I can use it to wash my hands and it works great, it just turns milky when I actually try to fill a pot with soapy water :/

I wonder if the essential oils could be the culprit? I added them at a rate of 1% of the final soap weight (paste+dilution water), but now I wonder if I should have calculated it based on the weight of the paste.

While I'm here, I have one more question too: can you use ph test strips to determine the PH of liquid soap? I cannot seem to find any information in this. The book says phenolphthalein is the only method for guaranteeing neutral soap...but I'm not sure why the strips wouldn't work.

Phenolphthalein is more accurate then the strips. If the soap tests pink, then it's either not cooked enough or there is too much lye in it, which needs to be adjusted. When I make my LS, I superfat at 2% or so and get a nice clear soap. I don't use borax at all and get a nice mild liquid soap.

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

I just made some liquid soap too. I didn't use borax or anything, it came out kind of thin. I think I may have superfatted a little to much. Question...I have read the book mention, but I don't understand the point of sequestering. I think when diluting I added to much water. I did a 2:1 dilution.

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Debbie

I don't understand the sequestering part either.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I don't sequester. I start with a 50:50 dilution.

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

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

Yes, mine is very thin too, but it lathers great when you are washing your hands with it! I don't mind the consistency, but I think other people will have a hard time getting over it, so I decided to get some foamer bottles. In the future, I will start with a 50/50 dilution.

I'm excited to try another recipe with 2% superfat and no borax! I can't wait to compare. I could really blow a lot of money on this new hobby

Regarding the original question, yes, it could be the EO content. If the EO's contain unsaponifiables, then diluting with water causes a reduction in the detergent effect of the soap and might cause the EO to turn the solution cloudy. I see the same effect with shampoo sometimes with certain FOs. Even a synthetic surfactant doesn't make that great an emulsifier.