soygirl Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 I finally made my first batch of MP soap:yay:. I used the Natural white MP soap from WSP. It was really easy. I added color, Spearmint, Rosemary and Peppermint EOs and ground apricot seed (which suspended better than I expected). It smells really yummy and worked great too. I almost duped the scent of my Aveda Rosemary Mint shampoo - think it needed a little more rosemary. After I melted the soap, before adding anything I checked the pH with a pool strip (not sure if that works for soap) and the pH was really high - over 8.4, which is as high as the chart on the bottle read. I was hoping my soap would be close to pH neutral, so I could use it to make dog soap too. I did a search on this site and found the following statement by RobinInOR:"It's just about impossible to get soap down to a pH like that without going synthetic. Soap averages around 10 and 10.5. Most people that say it's any lower than that usually have bad pH strips - it's *extremely* difficult to lower the pH..."So, here's my question. Was Robin only talking about CP soap? Is it possible to add something (citric acid, for example) to MP soap to lower the pH?? Does adding EOs, oils or butters help, or make it worse? I didn't check the pH after I added those things because the soap was blue so I didn't think I would be able to read the color strip anyway.Lastly, can anyone tell me the best way to measure pH in soap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinInOR Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Yes, I was talking about CP. MP has other ingredients in it (the synthetics) that bring the pH down. I don't think you could add anything to bring it down further w/o getting mush - oils/butters don't have a pH. You'd have to formulate something from scratch. Which is why synthetics were designed in the first place. pH meters such as http://www.lotioncrafter.com/store/pH-Meters-Accessories-c-261.html are the most accurage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soygirl Posted April 10, 2006 Author Share Posted April 10, 2006 Thanks Robin!What if I add palm stearic acid? That's supposed to make a harder bar (and unfortunately reduce lather), but wouldn't it lower the pH too, since it is an acid, or would I have to add way too much to make any difference? I might give it a try, but if anyone already has, please let me know so I don't waste a whole batch:grin2: .Thanks,Margie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinInOR Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Stearic acid isn't that kind of an acid - it's a fatty acid, not one that would lower pH. It doesn't dissociate in water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soygirl Posted April 14, 2006 Author Share Posted April 14, 2006 Thank you Robin. I'm a little slow, but I'm starting to get what you mean:smiley2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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