Teach Soap

Making liquid soap. Lye and Water varies depending on the calc or book

I have been putting off the first batch of soap for a while now as experimenting seems too costly for me. I have purchased everything I need physically and made myself an outdoor kitchen. I have hotplates and boilers and even crockpots.

Now when it comes to liquid soaps, I was told to read Catherine Failor liquid soaps which I did. Failor works on a 10% lye excess as KOH has about that much water. The KOH I have purchased states 90 - 95% pure which is a 5% margin of error.

These are the oils I decided on for clarity and softening. I wanted to avoid cloudy in this batch but also not too harsh.

Cocount oil 22.9oz or 650gm (65%)

Castor oil 5.29oz or 150g (15%)

Olive oil 6.0oz or 170g (17%)

Hemp oil 1.06oz or 30g (3%)

I am using Dr Bronners liquid soap consistency and cleanliness as my target but trying to avoid processed oils.



Now this is where it gets confusing - The lye or KOH

Failors book - 8.35675433oz or 236.91g

SBM Calc - 8.62oz or 244.37g

MMS Calc 8.99oz or 255g

Soapcalc.net 9.10 (selected 90% pure) 257g



(Big difference in Lye weights)



Also the water content varies.

Failor is about 38%

Soap Calc is 38%

Summer be is 53%

Another site 98%



(Percent based on oil weight)



AIM: I wanted a soap paste that was workable. I aslo wanted to dilute down to a strength that was thicker than Dr. Bronners which seems to Failor to be Lb to Lb of paste to water or a further 50%.



To neutralize at the paste stage I was hoping to use:

20% Citric acid solution to reach a finished PH of about 9. (I tested Dr Bronners and its 8.5)



I have a PH meter and Litmus paper (I love lab work so litmus appeals to me).



I had planned to sequester the soap for a couple of weeks and I have some Glyrcerine 200ml bottle to help with clarity and Failor also uses a 2:1 sugar:water mix to help clarity.



Cook time was 2 - 3 hours with a problem of excess lye if required 4 or more.



Please - I am in Australia so we work in Metric here. I am a 1966 boy so I can also work in Lb and Oz. I do not want to waste half a day and $20 worth of oils and lye experimenting each time. I have 6 soap making books now and only Failors comes close to talking about chemistry but the soap calcs have totally confused me. Oh, I also intend to use a few capsules of Tocopherol (Vit E).



I would love your advice.

PS: I am creating a chemical free alergy free soap hence my limited ingredients. I do not want to use Borax or thickeners. I want a soap that foams and cleans, is clear, but not too harsh. I also refuse to use oils that are made in a factory as there is always chemical residue, not to mention transfats. I am not using colors or scents either for the alergy issue. My aim is for myself initially but commercial down the road. There is no one in Australia making natural liquid soaps and selling to the stores. Dr Bronners sells here in some stores (its a USA product ie Import) for $26. I assume it is quite dilute as I experimented with salt thickening in it, and I could hardly made a difference before losing foaming and getting cloudiness.

The soap I want - I would be happy with Bronners watery consistency but I would really love a thicker soap without loss of clarity. If I am going to sacrifice clarity I would rather work with milk + superfatting etc. but as I need to convince the stores I have a competitor to Dr. Bronners, that ist the benchmark. Does that make sense ?



So please feel free to bombard me with comments and help me work out what is doing wrong in all the conflicting information (lye, Water etc) and even challenge my choice of oils. I do not have a great deal of money as I quit my job and closed my business to come look after my mum. This business idea is not for a few dollars on the side - it might be able to provide me with real income. Hence why basic experimenting is not a favourable idea. I am happy to play with the product after I get it to work (in small batches).



I am also investigating making hang creams, butters etc all with the same purity and chemical free goal. The only thing I am prepared to add is alcohol. People can buy creams in the supermarket or health food shops but no one sells total allergy free products.



Brett.

SAP value is only a range. Some lye calculators use the higher end of the range; some use lower. SAP value slightly changes from harvest to harvest and season to season. I use The Sage Lye calculator as that one has been around for a long time, so I just stick with that one.

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

Yea I just noticed the difference in water between the different lye calc myself. Recently I made a batch of liquid soap using the lye content from thesage.com and the water content from the BB lye calc. I like to use the greater water content from the BB lye calc bc it seems to me the other one would be harder to work with.

I never neutralize my ls and I make my laundry n dish soap superfatted at 0%. But if u r worried about it superfatting @ 3% so you don't have to worry about it.

You can make ls in 30 mins instead of ten hours if you substitute glycerine for water. I'll give you some tips if u want.

A good way to make super thick gel-like soap is to substitute the amount for total yield, using bb lye calc, for liquid content and of course use glycerine instead of water. It will be pour able like honey n u won't have to dilute it w/ water from the paste. I made this stuff by mistake once n it turned out great. Took me a sec to figure out what I did wrong.

I just wanted to mention that the liquid soap I made from thesage.com lye calc didn't come out as good as when using the BB Lye calc does. My coconut ls is usable but there is noticeable oil when I fill up the sink w soapwater, and my 3% olive ls turned into a solid after I it finally dissolved all the paste. I am going to try spooning it out of the half gallon mason jar I put it in to cool and add more water to try to salvage it...

Going back to the tried n true BB calc, bc as SB wisely said, I have used it many times and never had any problem n if it's not broke don't fix it, right?. I just superfat a couple extra percentages when making solid soap w 100% lye