Teach Soap

After thinking it over for ages, I finally took the plunge and made liquid soap a la Catherine Failor. I added fragrance and color and will sequester several days before adding borax solution to neutralize, and thicken per instructions. So far, it looks clear, as I had hoped; but I have a couple of questions. 1)Since I came up with 5+ quarts, could I have divided the batch and fragranced and colored them each differently? 2)Can I still try different additives with different portions of diluted soap at the appropriate rates - e.g. add some sulfonated castor oil to some; try some glycerin in another part; or did this need to happen when I first made the soap? In any event, it was a fun way to spend a cold Saturday, and I don't think I will be buying liquid soap for quite some time.

I have no idea about all that, but I would love to see the finished product! I have been wanting to try for a long time but lye scares me!

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Robin

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Hey way to go. Now you will never be able to quit. Here are some tips I have learned while making mine. Do not super lye at 10% like the book says, I do it at 2%. The more excess lye you use the more borax you will have to use and I think that can leave a drying feel to your soap. Add less water, add less water, and add less water. It is easy to add more later if you want, and you have very thin soap if you do. You can split it up to add different things to it. I did all the time when I was learning. I found many additives will cloud liquid soaps at lower tempatures. What I did was buy 100 disposible clear small cups and put a little soap in several of them. Then add a little of whatever you want to test it with and label the cup. Do this at room tempature, then at 60 deg. or a little lower and see if it stays clear.

Anymore questions just ask.

Bruce

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www.homebrewsoaps.etsy.com

Bruce is the expert in this dept.

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

Hi PEscapes and Bigmoose: Here is a pic of 1 of the 5 jars of liquid soap. I'm sorry I didn't t take pics of the process, especially the paste - it was something else. Thanks for all the great suggestions, Bruce. I followed the 10% recommendation to the letter, so tonight I will be adding borax solution. I did remove one pound, reheat and adjust the fragrance. I wish I had divided the batch for that, but now I know. I really like the clear plastic cup tip. There are so many possibilities, and that's a great way to try them. I can't say I'm hooked; but if I hit on a nice shampoo or hand/bath soap, I just might be in trouble. Hope I'm not posting this twice, I tried before, but didn't see the post.
Scents (Robin, too).

So I'm new in making liquid soap also. Recently I made 2 small testing batches, #1 with normal amount of lye, #2 batch with 5% extra lye. The result is:

#1 tends to be more liquid no matter how little water I added, harder to thicken it. Dry after feel when used.
#2 tends to be less liquid like and very easy to thicken. No dry after feel when used.

I heard to use warm saturated salt water(melt salt until water can't melt anymore salt) to thicken liquid soap naturally while your soap is still hot instead of using borax or other agents. That's what I used in both my batches. At first it clouded my soap and then I left it over night and it all cleared up. And like I said, I had no problem thicken batch #2 with saturated salt water but batch #1 just would not cooperate.

That's interesting about using the salt solution to thicken, Cat. I think this is becoming an endless experiement. I did see something about using dendritic salt for this. I happen to have a little, and may try it. I did use borax on a part of the batch, and it feels nice to use, but leaves a slightly dry feeling after use. However, we are at the height of dry skin season. I have some sulfonated castor oil ordered and plan to try that addition as well for supefatting. Just curious - how did your scenting go? I used a combo of clove leaf and ylang ylang III for a faux carnation scent. I thought I would like it based on a Qtip trial, but now I'm not too sure. Oh well, there's always next time. And from what you're saying; smaller batches work out just as well.

Just tried saturated salt water again in liquid soap (5% extra lye batch), still didn't work, guess that method is not 100%.

Scent wise, I'm using rosemary + French lavender + litsea EO for facial wash; cedarwood + rosemary + patchouli EO for shampoo. I smell like spa everyday now.

Just about any sodium product will to some degree thicken liquid soaps. I have tested some of them but have never used it in a full batch. My reason was "what does salt contribute to the soap to make it better?" It is a cheap thickener. I have always thought that it would be at least a little drying. But on the other hand the thickeners that do add something nice to the soap are costly. I still choose to go this route. To survive you need repeat business. Here is one to look at.
http://www.brambleberry.com/Crothix-Pas ... P3215.aspx
I have not used the pastilles but I have used another version of Crothix and it was very good!

Bruce

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www.homebrewsoaps.etsy.com

Bruce, have you made liquid soap in a crockpot? I have tried 3 batches and I have found, 1) that it takes a lot longer than 3 hours
2) soap has never been clear 3) It is always too thin. It works but it never comes out the way I feel it should. All the recipes were posted online at various sites and I have not changed them, but I'm not happy with them.

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Diana
Butter Babies Soap
bbsoap.com

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www.homebrewsoaps.etsy.com

Opps I forgot to say that soaps with more than 20 to 25% of coconut oil will start getting harder to thicken and will want to be thin.

Bruce

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www.homebrewsoaps.etsy.com

Thanks. I think the other problem is dluting the paste. Is there a more definite percentage?

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Diana
Butter Babies Soap
bbsoap.com

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www.homebrewsoaps.etsy.com