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Liquid Soap is cloudy
Hi,
I made liquid hand soap with coconut oil, safflower oil, palm kernal oil and potassium hydroxide. I did 10% additional KOH and then neutralized with boric acid. I thickened it with sodium chloride and added grapefruit extract for scent. I sequestered for 2 weeks and now it is cloudy and has a “white cloud” on the bottom that won’t mix in. Is this due to the grapefruit extract? I have made this same soap and scented with orange essential oil and the soap was clear. Any suggestions to fix would be great!!
Thanks
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5 Replies
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It could be microbial contamination. What was the final pH? Have you run a plate count?
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Compounder, when you lowered the pH, then added salt, you salted out the saponified coconut/palm higher fractions (C18 +). Leave the pH at 9.0 plus, and don’t add salt. As long as your total solids are less than 25%, you should be OK. If not, just decant the water off and re-tag it as shaving cream. No problemo!
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chemicalmatt:
The pH is currently 9. I have made several other batches and used salt to thicken it. I have never had that happen. Do you think its the grapefruit essential oil cauing the cloudiness?Bobzchemist: The pH is currently 9. I don’t think its microbial contamination.
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It could still be microbial contamination at pH 9 in my opinion. To quote my Ph.D. advisor Charles Gerba, “Germs never give up, they always find a way!”
pH 10 or above would be the alkalinity at which I would not anticipate much microbial growth.
The problem with germs is that they’re invisible so it’s tough to tell without lab testing.
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We’ve seen microbial/fungul growth in our liquid soaps up to pH 11…
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