Teach Soap

Ok I am finally going to try my hand at liquid soaping today. I am going to use soap queens castile castor recipie (24oz. OO 4oz. Castor 5.6oz. PH 16.6oz. Water ) except I am halving it ( 340g OO, 57g Castor, 78g PH, 235g Water ). While reading the comments on her page she says none of the recipies she has written ( in her Ebook) needs to be neutralized. How do you know when to do that? From what I can tell her recipies are done at a 0-1% SF Depending what calculator I run it through. Will SF other recipies take care of the neutrailizing thing? Also just out of curiosity what is the purpose of letting it sit overnight?

Some recipes are purposely made lye heavy and then neutralized after the cook. (IMO, it seems like a lot more work to do this!) I superfat my liquid soap at 3% so I don't have to worry about it being lye heavy. The superfat could cause your soap to be cloudy, but that doesn't bother me. Not sure why some recipes call for letting it sit overnight. I've mixed mine as soon as the paste was ready and it worked perfectly.

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

If you are halving the recipe, make sure that you run it again through liquid soap calc. I use Summmer Bee Meadow liquid soap calc and superfat at 3%.

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

Wow this takes forever! Have been cooking this now for 3 hours. Finally got to the " taffy stage " about an hour ago.

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

how will I know its done? I am doing the "mug" test now and it is a little cloudy but it is not milky looking

by , on Flickr

by , on Flickr

It looks done.
I like your stick blender. I have the same one in Tennessee Vols Orange.

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

You could always do the zap test. I use phenoptalein in liquid form. If it turns pink, it needs to cook more. If it stays clear, I'm good to go.

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

Hey!
Are you using a double boiler (looks like one in the pic)?
I dont have a croc pot as they are not common here. But I do have an electric cooker which has 2 settings - cooking and keep warm. but no temperature control. Do you think I can use that?

You probably can if you test the temp it reaches first. Using water, check the temperature it reaches on both your cook and keep warm settings. My crockpot gets too hot on low (no warm setting) so I have to turn it on and off during the cook but it still works.

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

My biggest problem is the rate of dilution. I've done it at a rate of 2:1 and it's to thin.

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Debbie