Teach Soap

My first batch was made with glycerin and those never dry even after three weeks, they got weepy after a while and I threw them out. They did have tons of bubble though.
The second batch I made with surfactants, this was on Wednesday and they are begining to dry. I tested the second batch but they don't seem to have as much bubbles and they don't last very long, also leave a film of powder in the tub. The recipe had 200 gr of baking soda and 200gr corn starch with 100gr of slsa and 200 gr of surfactant plus FO. I did weight everything, asnd it was actually easier to do it this way.
Can i tweek this receipe for more bubble and less powder in the tub? How can I tweek it for better results.

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I don't know your actual recipe, but that looks like way too much cornstarch.

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

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I would cut the cornstarch by half, but reformulate your recipe so it's smaller, so you don't waste your ingredients.

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

I try making like half a batch and then reformulate the cornstartch to half, just to see how it works. These ingredients are getting costly, and I feel I paid my dues already!!!!!!!

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I feel your pain. Formulating and getting the ingredients just right is expensive and time consuming.

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

Why use cornstarch at all? It seems to me that any amount of that will leave a film. Don't really understand your recipe. You said 100g of SLSa, that's a solid surfactant if I recall correctly; but then you have another 200g of surfactant, presumably liquid? And you've got 200g of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)?
This seems like you're half way between a bubble bar and a solid shampoo bar. What's the use of all that bicarb? It seems to me that it should have a counterpart to react with and make foam, say citric acid for instance.
Bicarb: 84g = 1 mol
citric acid: 192g = 1 mol.

So for each 100g of bicarb you would need exactly 100/84 * 192 grams of citric acid, or 228g of citric acid.

It seems to me that whoever 'designed' this recipe wants to use the corn starch as a binding agent but IMO it is not suitable. Better to use binding agents that are 100% water soluble. For instance, sorbitol (say 5%); also acts as a skin hydrating agent. And 0.2% EDTA as well.
So my recipe would be more like:

100g sodium bicarbonate
250g citric acid
150g SLSa
cocoamidopropyl betaine, Q/S to make the right consistency.
FO 1%
EDTA 1g

But it would be just a starting point, you understand... there is more citric than necessary to neutralize the bicarb, because the surfactant has a basic pH; you would need to adjust the final pH to around 5.5 using a sample dissolved in distilled water.

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

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~Kelly~

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barquentine So far i tested one and they are fairly dry maybe another day to be perfect. Now all i need to do is get the betaine and test the ph. If I remember right the higher the number is akaline and i adjust the BS for that and the lower the number is the citric acid, correct?

Thanks for all you have done to help me.

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You're very welcome. Your comment on pH is dead on; too high, and you need less bicarb; too low, use more bicarb. Or adjust the citric acid, as you prefer. If they don't stick together well, you will need a binding agent like sorbitol. When you add binding agents, it is best to use ones that are water soluble. Like making meatballs, we use flour or egg. I once tried to make a product using microfine cactus powder; it left a green film like algae over everything! I still have 2Kg of the powder in the fridge. Heaven knows what it could make, apart from a peel-off face mask perhaps!