Teach Soap

I have been making cold process soap for about 6 months now. I'd like to venture out and make liquid soap, and lotions. Any tips and/or recipes? I have dry, sensitive skin.

For lotion making, I would read Susan's blog. http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2 ... aking.html For lotion testing I recommend The Sage Script Institute.

For liquid soap, the only way to know what works for you is to experiment. Try olive oil, potassium hydroxide and water with a 2-3% superfat. Always run any soap recipe through a soap calculator.

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

The only thing that Susan doesn't really use much is carbomer. I like carbomer because it makes the business of getting an emulsion to work well, much more user-friendly. Ultrez-21 is good for creams and very easy to use. If you use a carbomer to establish the viscosity, then there is no chance of separation really - everything will stay where it's put. Making emulsions that pass the freeze test and so on, can be quite tricky, involving use of the HLB math, and so on; with carbomer it is a lot more forgiving. You don't need much - I only use 0.25% or less, and that's plenty. I think to a large extent what you use as an emulsifier system depends on what you can obtain. I can't find E-wax here for instance. Pretty much all the standard chemicals are available locally and reasonably cheaply, though, because we have a substantial local perfume / soap / edible fats and oils / cleaning materials, etc. industrial base. So, instead of EWax I will use emulsifiers such as glycerine monostearate, ethylene glycol distearate, stearic acid, and so on.

I don't use a carbomer as my customers prefer a more natural formula.

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

I prefer as natural as possible. I have VERY sensitive skin, and a lot of allergies, so the more "plain" and natural I can get, the better. Thanks!