Thick soap

[MsDammit]

I love Bath & Body's mosturizing hand soap-is in a pump and feels like lotion. Does anyone know- is this a cream soap or a liquid soap?

[Gene]

If it feels like a lotion, it could is a cream soap, or a syndet with additives

[MsDammit]

I guess I am just confused as to what is what. A thick creamy lotionlike soap in a pump-I would assume it's cream soap. But the more I look at different sites, the more confused I get. I see "cream soap" that looks like a whipped butter-too thick for pumps, and I've also seen cream soap that's a hard bar of soap- or maybe that is whipped cream soap? Is there such a thing as a thick liquid soap? Back to some more googling........

[BLSoaps]

I just took a look at the soap I believe you are talking about, and I'd bet its synthetic, not a natural soap. It's listed in with their antibacterial collection. I have an empty bottle of their antibacterial foamer (from YEARS AND YEARS ago before I ever started making my own stuff). I keep it for my kids bathroom sink. Otherwise, I end up with soap ALL over the place and a lot of wasted product. Now I just have occasional messes, and when they unscrew it, and dump soap everywhere, since it's diluted for a foamer bottle, it's not much loss. But I digress greatly...

So the B&W one is most likely a syndet product.

As for your other questions, I can easily see why you're confused. There is whipped bar soap (both CP and MP I believe). There is cream soap. And there is liquid soap.

Whipped Bar Soap is solid, basically air has been whipped into, which usually makes it float in water. Made with NaOH.

Cream Soap is made with a combo of NaOH and KOH. I've never made it, but it's on my never-ending, ever-growing to do list. My understanding it is cream or lotion like in consistency.

Liquid Soap is made with KOH. It is harder to get an all natural liquid soap that is thick. Liquid soap is made by making a paste to start with (kind of like HP bar soap), which is then diluted. Most liquid soaps only have between 20-40% of actual soap in them, with the remainer being water. Once you go below 20% the lather quickly diminishes. Once you go above 40%, the paste starts coagulating (for lack of a better term), and you'll have globs of more solid soap within your liquid soap.

You can play with liquid soap recipes, different combos of oils, to get good lather and good thickness, but it's complicated, and time consuming. There are ingredients that can be added to thicken the liquid soap. Some are natural, some are not. I haven't played with any of those. I personally like diluting my liquid soap by quite a bit, and using them in the foamer bottles. It eliminates the thickness issue that way. And you can make even the stingiest soap lather as well!

I hope this cleared up a few things.

(and just in case ---> NaOH - Sodium Hydroxide ... KOH - Potassium Hydroxide)

[MsDammit]

Yup, u sure cleared things up, thanks so much for taking the time to explain all that to me.

[Jeana]

Lindsay,

is there a recipe somewhere for the cream soap with koh/naoh? Can you put it in a pump? Sounds easier than making liquid.

[Hibiscus]

LS is not any more difficult to make than bar soap. I learned to make it only two months after learning to make cp/hp bar soap and I prefer making LS to making any other kind of soap. I have been fortunate in that I haven't had any major difficulties with LS. But of course it's different for everybody. If you want instructions or a recipe for cream soap, you can find them at snowdrift farms.

[Hibiscus]

OOPS!

:tiptoe: