Teach Soap

Apologies in advance if this question has already been asked a million times here, tried searching it but apparently the search term for "water" is too common...lol

Anyway was wondering what types of water Are and Are Not suitable for soapmaking???

Last 2 batches (or should i say only 2 batches so far ) of soap iv'e made so far were with store bought "100% purified water" since almost every soapmaker tells me to use distilled water but i couldn't find it at the stores!
(i really have no idea what distilled water is by the way - to me water has always been water)

Anyway is cheaper bottled/cask "springwater" alright to use with soapmaking?
What about mineral/sparkling/other types of water?
Also what wouldn't you use (other than tap water) to make soap?

_________________
Learning to make soap for 1 year and counting!

CP Bar Soap ✓
CP Liquid Soap ✓
HP Bar Soap ---
HP Liquid Soap ---
Other Soaps ---

Use distilled water. Walmart n Target both carry it.

Or even better, try aloe Vera juice. Be sure there's no glucose or sugars added for taste. Or beer. I made some beer soap recently n it turned out great. The recipe only called for 21 ounces of liquid so I boiled 36 ounces of beer down until it was reduced to 21 ounces.

Don`t use tapwater! Tapwater (and bottled water) has ions and impurities which includes constituents of copper, iron, calsium, and sodium, which can give your soaps DOS very quickly (Dreadded Orange Spots = oils become rancid and makes ugly orange spots on soaps. Smells icky, doesn`t look good, but thay are NOT harmfull, just not pleasant)

But you don`t have to use destilled water either, as that for many people is very expensive and makes soaping a very expensive thing. I live in Norway, and here distilled water is VERY expensive. So I use DeIonized water, which is water that has impurities and metals removed and becomes a perfectly cleaned water that is great for soapmaking, AND is inexpensive. If you have a car you may even have it on hand already (to fill your car battery when it needs a top-up) The general industry (perfume, manufacturing etc) use DeIonized water to prevent buildup of minerals in ecuipment etc, hence it is great for soapmaking too. I buy a big 4L jug at a time.

And some people use rainwater that they collect. It is more clean from the metals, but I don`t want to use that either as the rain will collect different types of pollution on the way down from the clouds, and I don`t want that in my soap.

And yes, you can use Beer, Aloe Vera juice, even pure 5% vinegar. But since I got a sense that you are very new to all of this and have only made a coupple of batches, I would NOT venture into those fluids just yet, as sugars in them will make for some strong reactions you may not be ready for when you are so inexperienced.

Just take your time, practice with water first, and then try other things and learn as much as you can, and you will be fine!
Good luck

Distilled water is best as all the dissolved metals and impurities have been taken out.

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

I use filtered tap water all the time with no problems. I've even used unfiltered tap water with no problems. I still have bars of soap from 5 years ago that used regular tap water and they are just fine. No DOS.

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

Thanks everyone!
ahhh so tapwater seems to be a general no-no, and even bottled water???
darn...gotta search other local stores for distilled water again, the "100% purified water" iv'e been using for 3 batches so far has already caused DOS in the first 100% olive oil soap i made (been curing for 2 weeks now), though then again that batch i accidentally mixed in a Lot of air pockets, and as well that's where the spots seem to be...only on a few bars so not so bad i guess (also maybe cause i superfatted at around 7-8% ?? )

_________________
Learning to make soap for 1 year and counting!

CP Bar Soap ✓
CP Liquid Soap ✓
HP Bar Soap ---
HP Liquid Soap ---
Other Soaps ---

I always superfat at 7-8% as anything below that my skin finds drying. I don't think that would cause DOS.

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

Thanks Irena!

hmmmm then my only other reasons i can think of are the excessive air bubbles/air pockets i had mixed in (since didn't use enough oil volume to fully cover the stick blender i was using)
OR the "100% purified water" i had used,
OR something else i heard recently - where if the oils are heated too hot it can shorten their shelf life which can cause DOS later on??? (thinking about that now, i accidentally heated the olive oil to over 60C (140F) before letting it cool down to 50C (122F) which is what i was told the max recommended temp to add the lye/water mix to.

other than that mixed pretty well, olive oil still had 2 years shelf life/2017 expiry, and didn't seem at all too greasy nor caustic, everything else seemed to go well...hmmmmmmmm

_________________
Learning to make soap for 1 year and counting!

CP Bar Soap ✓
CP Liquid Soap ✓
HP Bar Soap ---
HP Liquid Soap ---
Other Soaps ---

Heating oils past the optimum temperature can cause oxidation and shorter shelf life of the oils.

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

ahhhh hmmm maybe that was it...no DOS in other batches so far though theyv'e only been curing for about a week now

_________________
Learning to make soap for 1 year and counting!

CP Bar Soap ✓
CP Liquid Soap ✓
HP Bar Soap ---
HP Liquid Soap ---
Other Soaps ---

I use reverse-osmosis water that we use for drinking that gets delivered in 5 gallon bottles every week. It's like $6 per (5 gallon) bottle. The water guys sells mineral and non-mineral reverse-osmosis water, and the non mineral water is pretty much same thing as distilled water. Some people say drinking mineral water gives you kidney stones.
It's a lot cheaper to go to Whole Foods w your own water bottles rather than delivery. WF sells reverse-osmosis water for 25 cents/gallon if you pick it up yourself. But man water's heavy and we go thru 3-7 of those bottles/month, esp in the summer and esp when I'm using it for soapmaking. But still, it's not too expensive.
Why is it so expensive in Norway? I hear good things about Norway. They handled the financial crisis of 2008 way better than we did in the US by actually putting some of the banksters in jail...

wow that's pretty cheap water! though still gotta search around for distilled water at least, cheapest "purified water" iv'e seen/bought was $5 for 5 liters (1 gallon), though then again that was the only purified water i saw

_________________
Learning to make soap for 1 year and counting!

CP Bar Soap ✓
CP Liquid Soap ✓
HP Bar Soap ---
HP Liquid Soap ---
Other Soaps ---

If reverse osmosis water is expensive for you, I'd buy a good water filter. A lot of people really paranoid about water use RO water bc it's pretty much the only way to remove the fluoride. But Big Berkley water filters get the fluoride out too, at a much lower cost per gallon. I heard these are really good water filters. I'm thinking about switching over from the water guy delivery to one of these things: http://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/

But these water filters are designed not to take the minerals out of water. So nevermind. I think distilled or RO water is the best for making good soap. Soft water can absord more lye and oils than hard water. You can get reverse osmosis water filters online or at the aquarium store.

hmmmm never thought about getting water online - though still in my country (Australia) reverse osmosis and most other types of distilled water are still wayyyyy to expensive... after a quick check online turns out the brand of purified water i first bought is still the cheapest purified water iv'e found so far $8 for 10 Litres (2.6 Gallons) is the cheapest iv'e seen so far....

_________________
Learning to make soap for 1 year and counting!

CP Bar Soap ✓
CP Liquid Soap ✓
HP Bar Soap ---
HP Liquid Soap ---
Other Soaps ---

Not getting water online. Water is too heavy for cost-effective mail delivery.

I said maybe look into getting a Water FILTER, specifically a reverse osmosis water FILTER bc they are cheaper than home distillation machine. Here's one on Amazon for $159, l8nk below. Get a rainwater catchment tank to collect h20 from the sky, or just use tap n pour it thru the filter n boom, presto chango, you've got perfect RO water for soap making, or drinking. Altho I recently learned it isn't healthy to drink de-mineralized water all the time bc it robs minerals from your organs, tissues, n bones.

$8 for 2.6 gallons of water isn't too bad I guess. 3 gallons of water makes alot of soap. But why so expensive over there? Distilled water, more expensive than RO water here, is still only $0.91/gallon. Does the Queen of England tax you guys pretty heavy- possible Australian Independence referendum coming up soon?

$159 reverse osmosis water filter: https://www.amazon.com/Drinking-Reverse ... B00J2DGTD8