SpaceGirl Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 Hi All! I've been poking around the old threads and think I have an answer to my question, but need a sanity check.I really like the Liquid Shower Gel base from Essentials By Catalina... have mixed it with FO and had no thinning problems (yay! ) BUT I would like for it to lather/bubble a little more. I've seen that some people mix in a Liquid Glycerin base to their shower gels. Does this increase the lathering / bubble potential of a shower gel? It seemed to, but I couldn't tell for sure from other posts.Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DosGardenias23 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 This is a good question, I hope some people can pipe in on what they think here... I've been wondering about additives to shower gel bases, too - I was wondering if there would be any bad effects from adding shea oil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLSoaps Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 I can't quite wrap my head around why glycerin would add any kind of lathering abilities. It's a humectant. The only thing I can think of is to compare it to how adding a little sugar to the lye water for CP soap helps the lathering of the final soap. Glycerin is sweet.... :undecided ... I'm probably just talking out my .... um yeah. I'm stretching here! LOL! Other than adding some kind of a surfactant, I don't believe there is anything you can add to an already made shower gel base that will make it more bubbly. If I'm wrong, then I'll happily be wrong! But I can't think of anything.If you are making a natural liquid soap to use as a shower gel, the oils used make a HUGE difference in the lathering abilities. If this is something that interests you, I'd strongly recommend Catherine Failor's Liquid Soapmaking book. I don't use her methods for making soap, but her info in there on creating recipes, what oils do what, etc, it's invaluable.As for adding Shea Oil to a premade shower gel base, while it will help it feel more moisturizing to the skin, it will dampen the lather even more. It will basically be free floating oil in the shower gel, which always lessens the lather that you'll get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceGirl Posted September 1, 2007 Author Share Posted September 1, 2007 Thanks for the info, Linday. I'm thinking that I might take my research in another direction. I guess I thought since I didn't want to make soap I didn't really need to research the basics about soap in general. Looks like I was waaaaay wrong!ETA: I guess if the liquid glycerin was more bubbly to begin with, a mixture might up the bubbles in a shower gel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CareBear Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 can you add a squirt of liquid soap to it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceGirl Posted September 1, 2007 Author Share Posted September 1, 2007 CareBear -- I'm probably going to give the empirical test a try... the EBC 10% off sale starts today and my order is going to include a sample of the liquid soap to test out. I'll post my results.... assuming my order gets here and I get a chance to play around with it before I leave on a two week business trip...... (sigh) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel91805 Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 Which base are you using from EBC? I use the liquid glycerin base and it's so bubbly that customers are using it for bubble bath! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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