Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Adventures in Liquid Soap: My Clear Liquid Soap Clouded

I made some pretty rad liquid soap the other day!!!  It came out clear!  I loved the thickness of it.  Not to thick, and not to watery.  It was perfect (according to me!) But a couple days later I noticed clouding!  A ghost-like appearance formed (like a whisp...think of the Disney movie BRAVE, but white, not blue) and eventually the whole jar clouded.  NOOOOOOO! I have sequestered the soap (a recommendation not only from Fallor's Book, but I joined a liquid soapmakers group on Facebook and that was a recommendation as well. ) And as I waited, I continued to consult with the Facebook group. (By the way, it never cleared up... it stayed cloudy.) I learned 3 major reasons liquid soap clouds.
1) Cooking: You didn't cook your paste long enough.  I did the clarity test and it was fine.  I had also separated my soap into three jars and two of the three clouded.
2) Sanitation:  There is bacteria or something yucky growing in your soap.  Well, I sanitized my jars as well as boiled my distilled water before I added it to my paste.  So I didn't think it was that, since it clouded so quickly after I made the soap!
3) Fragrance / Essential Oil:  These oils are added at the cooling phase after you add the boiling distilled water, and as I learned from this group, all FO/EO act differently.  Some may cloud the soap instantly or days after.  Looking at my three jars of soap, all containing the same "clear" liquid soap, the only difference between them was, they all contain different fragrances!  So I think I found the culprit!  I added Brambleberry's Oatmeal Stout FO and all is good.  The second contains a Honey Ale FO and it clouded... As well as the Tobacco Bay FO.

So now what?  The soap is completely fine to use, but I REALLY want clear soap.  Two suggestions I've read are:  1) Mix your FO/EO with a 1:1 ratio with Polysorbate -20. or ethyl alcohol and then 2) add this concoctions while your soap is still hot, but cooling!!!

I'll try this and let you know!  And as always, I'm always open to suggestions!!!


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