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Anyone here into liquid soap?


Candybee

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There's a yahoo liquid soap group and a facebook group. If you can HP you can make liquid soap.

The first thing i did was make a lb of single oil LS pastes. Then blended them as i diluted to see which blends i liked best.

Coconut is fab for laundry and surface cleaning all by itself. Hard as heck to thicken, but works like a powerhouse.

Olive is thick and takes a lot to thin, and is very reactive to fragrances and EO.

I love sunflower oil.

Over all, i don't like the squeaky clean feeling with LS, but it is great to have around!

I was thinking about doing a short blog series on liquid soap. There are so many things to do with it. Some facebook peeps are making clear LS using NaOH! I have to try because i am still in a total state of disbelief.

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I make GLS (the Glycerin Liquid Soap method) I've only made about 6 batches so far, but it is so much easier (for me) than the water method, and it's also faster. 

My main problem is diluting. I can never seem to get it right. I either get it too thin or too thick, and when it's too thick and I try to thin it, I then get it too thin. LOL 

 

TallTayl, I'd love to read a blog of yours on Liquid Soap. :) 

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What i like about the glycerin method is that is is quick. What i dislike is the soap paste seems to not last as long. Which makes sense, since the glycerin method was used by pharmacists to have liquid soap readily at hand without needing to sequester for months on end.

When diluting it takes me often 24 hours to know what i am going to end up with. Frustrating!

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I did a Sunflower/Coconut/Cocoa Butter GLS soap once and the paste smelled amazing! Nutty with just a hint of cocoa - I didn't scent it because I loved the 'raw' scent so well. That was my very first glycerin liquid soap (about 7 years after my first/last attempt at the water method that failed miserably) I only made 8oz oils - can't remember how much actual diluted soap it made. (but I never really got it right anyway... LOL) 

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For some reason my KOH never properly dissolves in just glycerin, so i end up using part water. I have to look at my notes, but at least half water IIRC. With some fragrances, adding glycerin helps thin it out if it globs.

Thick undiluted paste with baking soda makes a really nice solid surface scrub!

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What I do to get my KOH to dissolve in the glycerin is add the KOH to the glycerin, and then gently heat it up on a stove top burner in my SS pan. By doing it that way it avoids the popping and cracking that KOH solutions are known to do. It takes about 5 minutes after it starts getting warm to completely dissolve, but it does eventually. 

 

This topic actually makes me want to make up another liquid soap batch. It's been on my to do list for about a year, but I just never get to it. One of these days. LOL 

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I have tried that so many times and end up with undissolved KOH in glycerin that turns brown. Not sure if it is because of my KOH or the asC glycerin or a combo of both. The little water added makes it dissolve no problem.

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Okay you guys are way over my head. I am not sure where to start but I have been eying this recipe from Snow Drift Farm's formulary for a while and thinking of trying this:

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20110811060236/http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/form_liquidsoap.html

 

Anyway, this is something like what I am looking for. General instructions to get me started. But I don't know enough to know if this is a good basic start? Also, I don't know which method this is?

 

When I first started making CP soap I used Miller's, Snowdrift, The Sage, and this forum to get me started. All the info I needed was on these sites. I'm kind of looking for similar sites so I can read on my own and get started on my own. I like to learn on my own time and be able to go back to the site and reread it and to get more recipe ideas when I am ready to branch out. KWIM?

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i have made and used both ....as far are feel...i liked them both..

the glycerin is fast to make...

the water method does that longer, and you need to let your soap cure, just like cp.

i use mine mainly in the bath room, and use it in the foamer bottles.

my only thing, i have never got it to be totally clear...either method.

what i mean by clear, is crystal clear...mine is mostly a off yellow clear...

it has been a while...i will look thru my notes, i will post my recipe..for you candybee

Edited by 8-GRAN-ONES
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I only want to try it and at this point I don't think getting it clear is my first priority. I would kind of like to learn just for the sake of learning. But also because at some point I think I would like to make my own shampoo, dishwashing liquid, and hand soap. These are the LS soaps I use all the time. I keep thinking wouldn't it be nice if I could make my own the way I want them?

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I made liquid soap exactly one time for the hell of it, and it was a huge success. I probably could never do it again, lol!

It was perfectly clear and mild. There is one thing I tried that I never read about but it seemed to work. I made sure there was a little extra caustic and I nuetralized it with lactic acid to produce potassium lactate. It seemed to be good in the soap.

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Are you saying you added lactic acid to some KOH and added that to the lye solution or the soap batter? Would you elaborate? Also, would citric acid do the same?

 

Taking into account the water content of KOH, I calculated a lye excess. I forget how much, but I wanted to be sure to saponify all the oil. That's not an unusual practice to get clear soap, but I think I intentionally overshot even a couple more percentage points. Then I neutralized with lactic acid instead of the more typical citric acid because I thought maybe the potassium lactate would be a better ingredient for the skin than potassium citrate. I guess it might have been. All I can say is that my one experience produced clear, gentle liquid soap. I wonder if I ever posted a pic of it. It's possible.

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What would be the difference between using lactic acid or doing a negative superfat? Although I presume a negative superfat would be less gentle.

 

The procedure is to use a lye excess (negative superfat), enough to take into account the high water content that's going to be part of the weight of the KOH flakes, and also to saponify the oils completely to help with clarity and avoid separation. That leaves you with some extra KOH floating around, which by the usual instructions you would neutralize with citric acid. All I did is use lactic acid instead. Also, I used a slightly greater than usual lye excess because I wanted the by-product of the neutralization (the potassium lactate) as an ingredient in the soap. The basic liquid soap method I used is pretty common and I didn't do anything radically different except for the tweaks I described. I'll see if I can find a good version of it later if you want.

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Since KOH is only about 92% pure, I always only do only a 1-2% SF. I used Summerbee's calculator until I could adjust my SM3 to have the same readouts consistently. I've never had a problem with getting clear LS, or really having a mild soap (since I use glycerin instead of water to dissolve my KOH) 

My biggest problem is dilution rates and making sure it's just the right consistency and not too thick or worse, too thin! LOL There is a fine line that I seem to cross every single time. LOL To help dilution go faster I do add about 2% Sodium lactate to my dilution solution as well. 

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