Liquid Soap

Liquid Soap

By thecandlespastore

Rating for class beginner/intermediate

List of ingredients:

33 oz sunflower oil

14 oz of coconut oil

11 oz KOH

33 oz of Distiller Water

(this recipe is courtesy of Ellen's Essentials, tried it once and stuck with it cause it works!)

Hand on hand either a large double boiler or a large crockpot, and of course the usual for making soap (goggles, gloves etc.)

No need to worry about the temps or heating up your oils. Measure your oils right into the crock pot.

KOH does not get as hot as NaOH, although it will sound like Rice Crispies when you pour it into your water. At around 7:55, go ahead and combine your KOH with your water (always lye into water, not the other way around.)

We should all have our KOH mixed and ready to go. When you mix the KOH as previously mentioned, you will hear a crackling sounds. It sounds pissed off, but luckily it gets nowhere near as hot as NaOH.

Pour lye into our oils with crock pot turned to highest setting:

high for 4 hours, high for 6 hours, low for 8 house and low for 10. I put mine on high for 6 hours because typically its takes about 4-5 hours from start to finish. Don't worry, you can put your crock on low and let it cook through the night if you do not want to stay up late waiting. It will be fine in the morning. Now let's get to stick blending until we reach trace. Liquid soap's trace looks a lot like cp trace, except it takes forever. So you will want to give your stick blender a break every few minutes. Takes me about 15 minutes to reach trace:

After about 15 minutes, the soap has started to thicken up a bit. It will want to separate but keep stirring it:

After stirring/stick blending for about 12 minutes I get this:

A close up of the separation:

The next stage I hit after a few minutes:

Runny mash potatoes is good, it means you are not far from this stage:

At this point you can put the stick blender away for the night, because soon you will not be able to do much with it.

After you hit runny mashed potatoes, you go to something that feels like very thick cp trace. After that, you hit taffy stage:

Until you hit taffy stage, the key is to keep stirring away.

The soap will continue to try and separate at the edges, but keep trying to stir as best you can:

This is a pretty long process, so the key is to let it do its magic, checking it every 20-30 minutes and stirring in any separation. Soap after about 50 minutes of cooking and second time around stirring in moisture:

This is my soap after 2 hours of cooking:

This is the soap about about 3 hours:

45 minutes later:

Looking kind of translucent but still not quite ready. I do a test by taking 2 oz of distilled water and boiling it, then adding some paste to it. If its cloudy its not ready yet, keep cooking:

Definitely cloudy, so I cook for a bit longer:

Looking a bit more translucent. I did the test again and it is still cloudy, so as of now it is still cooking.

Leave it on high. You want the soap to cook at 160 degrees at least. After you have been cooking for at least 3 hours, you will want to leave it uncovered for the rest of the cook if you have kept it covered.

For those who have done the soap test, boil the rest of your water for the recipe add add the soap paste to the boiling water. Turn the heat source off. If you followed the recipe to the t you should be adding about 80 oz of water (unless you want it really really thick, then only add about 60- 70.) After you have added the soap paste, cover it and just leave it to sit overnight.

Let it dilute for a day.

An example of clear (let's pull the attached thumb on page 15 under LovelyLathers post ... sixth one down)

Here's my finished product. I got over 3 gallons, already tapped into some as you can see from the one gallon:

Diluting:

Additional info:

If you find after 2-3 weeks that your liquid soap is too drying for your liking, you can add an ounce or two of glycerin. My personal favorite is hydrovance, because it is literally like water, yet it feels so good in applications. I reach for my hydrovance before I reach for glycerin. Soap does remain pretty clear with hydrovance and with glycerin.

You can take a bit of the liquid soap, heat it in a pyrex in the microwave for 45 seconds, then add the glycerin, mix and dump back into main batch and shake it. With hydrovance I normally do not need to heat as it has the same consistency as water and blends right in. I would add .75 oz pp depending on how thick or thin my soap is.

If too thin, you might need to add crothix, start with small amounts (teaspoon).

Questions: If LS needs to cook for at least 3 1/2 hrs. Is that from the taffy stage or from the very beginning?

Answer: from the beginning.

Question: Does LS have a cure time like CP soap before it can be used?

Answer: yes, you have to let it sit and rest in the jugs/jars whatever you are storing it in for the same amount of time as CP. Liquid soap gets better with age, just like cp. You will notice a dramatic difference between using it tomorrow and using it 3 weeks from now.

Question: if you wanted to, say....conserve space....could you cool off and store the paste and then dilute it down as needed? And if so, do you know the ratios? Like 2oz of paste to 6oz of water?

Answer: I have read of people keeping the paste in the fridge and diluting as needed. You could of course dilute it all and put it in the basement, attic or wherever so its not in the way. Diluting is pretty much 2 parts soap to 3 parts water (if that makes sense.) I like to under dilute so that if it is too thick I can add more water later. Its easier than having to boil the water out.

Question: while waiting for my water to boil. Do you just put a born date label on your jugs and store in a cool dark place for the 4 to 6 weeks needed for curing?

Answer: Yes, you can do that. I have used mine within a week, although I don't sell any for 6 weeks. So by all means try some sooner.

Question: after sitting over night i have approx. 30% of the LS paste that didn't dissolve is it fixable? the liquid part is clear amber colored (awesome class dh was not near as excited more stuff to make)

Answer: Yes, this will happen. Take something and scoop out all the undissolved chunks. Boil a bit more water, just enough for the chunks, and add those chunks to that water and let that sit just like the other batch. You can now pour the other part into your jars and bottles for the cure.

Weigh the paste that you took out, and add equal parts water, that way it wont be runny. You can always up the water later if it is not completely dissolved.

Question: with a master batch and scent, what is the ratio of FO/EO to the LS base.

Answer: usually 1/2 oz for an 8 oz bottle, but scent to taste.

Question: Mine is cloudy in the pot. Is there anything I can do to clear it up?

Answer: If it is cloudy, it could mean that it did not cook long enough and there are unsaponified oils in there. No biggie. Cook it a bit longer the next batch.

Question: Should I insulate my crockpot with blankets, towels etc. if I leave the soap to ignore overnight?

Answer: No need to insulate, although it can help keep the heat to dissolve faster.

Question: Can you superfat this soap with glycerin or castor oil so it is not as drying? Would you do this before or after dilution?

Answer: You can superfat with turkey red oil (sulfated castor) but not regular castor, after the cook it will just float on top. Glycerin is water soluable so you can try adding that after the cook, during dilution.