I am makeing liquid soap!

[GrandmaArial]

I made (or rather am making, it’s tucked away for the next two weeks) liquid soap. I have been thinking about it for almost a year… reading recipes and instructions. I finally got up the gumption to try it. Thank you Soaersworkshop. I decided to follow your instructions. I decided to use the same oils I use in my favorite soap recipe increasing the water to 60% (the recipes I looked at used between 50% to 70% water to oil ratio so 60% seemed a good average) . It was all like you described, only easier. It took about 20 minuets to reach trace… and then about 30 seconds to turn into paste. It separated once after that… but I kept checking it for the next two hours as I couldn’t believe it could be that easy.

I superfatted at 0%, which according to Steve Mushynsky (Summer Bee Meadow) means it’s about 10% superfatted (he explains that POH is only about 90% pure), we will see. I plan on diluting with herbal tea, probably rosemary and calendula, but will start with 50% of the dilution water and test the PH. If it’s high I can neutralize then and then add more water to make the full dilution. I’m so excited! How can I wait two full weeks?????????

I was scared to try this having read how hot POH gets compared to NaOH. And how it fizzles and sputters, and how bad the fumes are compared to NaOH in some sources. What gave me courage was a few people here said it was cooler, just a lot of noise. So when I poured the POH into the water I was as far away as I could be (just in case) and waited for the water to start boiling and sputter. Nothing. It sat there. So I inched closer and started stirring. I did hear a grinding sound… the sound of the POH flakes (more like disk shaped beads) grinding against each other. No more disturbing than stirring gravel in a bucket. And it didn’t get all that hot. Maybe 140F. not much hotter than I take my baths. Not even as hot as our tap water is. As for fumes I wore my mask as usual… but when I took it off (it makes my glasses fog up) after I had poured the lye water in the oils and started blending it seemed milder than NaOH. I would suggest anyone doing this have a potato masher handy. I had my wisk handy to use after it reached trace… didn’t work, just glumped up in the tines. If hubby finds out I used the masher he will freak out (he’s convinced I’m going to poison him) so no one tell him… Kay, I’m talking to you! I’ll have to pick one up for LS before I make another batch.

[quiet girl]

Thanks for the tips GA!! Congrats on making your first batch of LS. I so look forward to making my own batch in the not too distant future.

[MsDammit]

Congrats and good luck, the dilution stage is where I panic and goof up, lol.

[Jo Ann]

good for you!!! i hope I will be there some day*super banana*

[Mostly Lurkin]

GA you are awesome!! I have LS on my list to 'to do's' but haven't yet because of all the troubles I've read. You really took alot of the anxiety for me away.

And I won't tell about the 'tater masher if you don't tell mine I use his digital thermometer he uses for his espressos for my soy wax....

[Meridith]

Your plans to infuse it with rosemary and calendula sound just wonderful. Liquid and cream soaps are on my list of things to try. You've inspired me so maybe I will try it sooner than later. Maybe not. :rolleyes2 But for now, I will live vicariously through you and your wonderful soaps.

[Hibiscus]

Potato masher?...yeah they got me with that one too.:rolleyes2 It didn't work out for me and I am happy to hear it worked for you. I believe LS is easier to make than all the rest:yay: congrats!

[asheebeans]

Oooooh, I am jealous! Congrats and hope it turns out well for ya! LS is on my to-do list, but I was one of the bunch who was scared of the KOH too! :embarasse Thanks for alleviating some of my fears! Maybe I will give it a go this weekend.

[eugenia]

GA, I just sit hear shaking my head! You go girl; you truly are an inspiration! Love to see how it turns out as I've never tried it, along with lotions and many other things, LOL!

e

[GrandmaArial]

And I won't tell about the 'tater masher if you don't tell mine I use his digital thermometer he uses for his espressos for my soy wax....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA… My lips are sealed!

I can’t believe Meredith and euginia haven’t made LS! If I had known that I would have been convinced it’s to complicated for me! But really… follow thesoapersworkshop’s directions… it’s easier than bar soap.

I was itching to mess with the liquid soap last night… but I was good… I left it in the basement and made a batch the old fashioned way and cooked it. Never again. WAY to much work. It bubbles so I guess its soap, though seems to thin to me (probably to much coconut oil), and very cloudy. It’s sequestered now so we will see what its like in a week or so.

Tonight I am making my third batch. Yes… I was bored… and I have been getting a lot of requests for goat’s milk liquid soap so I thought why not? So I’ll set it next to the first batch and exhibit patience. I adjusted the oils to have a higher percentage of soft oils and will dilute in stages to find the right balance for the oils I used.

I am also starting to formulate lotions for distribution. I have been making lotion for myself for awhile now simply because what I can find makes my skin blister (I react to the hydrocarbons and alcohols in them) but have been getting a lot of people asking for lotion as good as the soap. I’ve tried to convince them to make their own… but they want me to make it… so I’m testing a recipe that uses the same oils I use in my favorite basic bar soap recipe. So far so good. Its three weeks old and tests clean for bacteria so I started handing it out to my testers today. Everyone loves it so far except one, who for some reason it was greasy on. The thing is the reason everyone else loves it is because it absorbs so fast but on her hands it just sat there… like she had rubber Crisco on her hands. It was from the same jar I am using and three other people first sampled from who all loved it… nice soft dry hands in a few seconds. Anyone have any ideas on this?

And yes Hibiscus, so far the CPLS is so much simpler than the CLBS. I don’t think dilution should be to hard as long as I take it slow and don’t try to rush it.

[Hibiscus]

Oh no, I don't make cpls I make hpls. It's faster and I turn out gallons of the stuff in no time. I can work two crock pots simultaneously!..LOL I fell in love with making LS from the very first batch...but by now everybody on CT knows I am a LS addict.

Once you've got all your formulas worked out there is no more 5 hour cooking and no more waiting for all those stages:yay: and all that other stuff that makes people want to throw in the towel after the first attempt. Hang in there Grandma, here comes the fun part:drool: all the experimenting with herbs, eo's ahhhhh:whoohoo: :whoohoo:

[GrandmaArial]

Oh no, I don't make cpls I make hpls. It's faster and I turn out gallons of the stuff in no time. I can work two crock pots simultaneously!..LOL I fell in love with making LS from the very first batch...but by now everybody on CT knows I am a LS addict.

Once you've got all your formulas worked out there is no more 5 hour cooking and no more waiting for all those stages:yay: and all that other stuff that makes people want to throw in the towel after the first attempt. Hang in there Grandma, here comes the fun part:drool: all the experimenting with herbs, eo's ahhhhh:whoohoo: :whoohoo:

It’s too much like work to me! LOL. I admit it’s taking a toll on my patience waiting for the CPLS but stirring the HPLS all day was to distracting for me. Every time the phone rang I cringed scared it was going to be some reason I would have to turn it off and leave the house. The CP method is right for me.

I do have some questions about dilution. I keep reading and reading but how do you know you have the right amount of water when you’re diluting? I can’t find any formula, just guile lines on guessing. Soft oils like to gel so need more water than hard… not real specific.

Also, I tested the HP batch tonight and it was 9.5 PH. I wanted something neutral so I added citric acid (in solution) and it foamed up. I wasn’t expecting that! I took the PH down to 7.0 and have it put back again hoping it will settle out again. The cream I skimmed off before I added the citric is… nice. I played with it… it’s almost like a cream soap, and very soft to the skin where the clear was a bit drying. And it lathers very nicely. That surprised me. I expected the oils in it to kill the lather.

Oh, and Lurkin, go ahead and tell my hubby I’m trying to poison him… I had the first batch in a 5 gallon bucked left over from dry wall mud last year, all scrubbed out of course. He saw it and thought it was just left over drywall mud and took it out with the trash this morning. The trucks had already run when I realized it. So yeah, I just might have to poison him!

[Hibiscus]

Well, my formula traces and gels in less than 45 minutes and there is very little stirring involved. Put the top on it and do something else..um maybe another pot of soap:laugh2: or some cpbs. The dilution part is a bit tricky because it's different with each formula. I used to start with small amonts of water, keeping track of every oz until it was the thickness I wanted. It's weird but sometimes I can look at the paste texture and determine the amount of water needed...can't explain that but it's like cooking to me anyway and that's the way I cook...weird..LOL and btw Allowing it to sit for a few days and it will thicken a bit on it's own. It may be different for cpls, not sure. Maybe I will try that one day.:embarasse

[MsDammit]

I've tried both methods as well and prefer hpls. I'm glad I'm not the only one that was a scaredy cat when it came to KOH. I procrastinated big time when it came to trying LS but now I think KOH is easier to work with then NaOH- the flakes are bigger with no static and it doesn't get as hot or as stinky IMO. That being said I still have to master the dilution stage(I've lost track of how many failed batches but have made one successful one, lol)and I really, really want to try cream soap someday.

[GrandmaArial]

I've tried both methods as well and prefer hpls. I'm glad I'm not the only one that was a scaredy cat when it came to KOH. I procrastinated big time when it came to trying LS but now I think KOH is easier to work with then NaOH- the flakes are bigger with no static and it doesn't get as hot or as stinky IMO. That being said I still have to master the dilution stage(I've lost track of how many failed batches but have made one successful one, lol)and I really, really want to try cream soap someday.

Yes, the KOH is so much easier to deal with! The larger heavier flakes make a huge difference in dealing with the lye. One thing is no powder like the NaOH has to fly around when I poured it. Granted it isn't very much dust but it bothers me to think of it floating around. That is where the static comes in helpful. I use a 2000 ml plastic beaker to measure my lye with. It is very tall and as I pour the NaOH in the static pulls the dust and errant particles to the walls of the beaker. To get all the Lye out I invert it over the mixing pitcher (the handle makes it fit perfectly so it doesn't drop into the pitcher) and tap the bottom a couple times. This works better for me than any other method I've tried. It doesn't eliminate all the dust but I think it does drastically cut it down.

I think at least part of the reason the KOH doesn't get as hot is we use so much more water to dissolve it in. With bar soap we use between 30% to 40% water to oils (between 1.96/1 to 2.6/1 water to lye) while we use 50% to 70% water to oil ratio (2.3/1 to 3.27/1) for KOH. This by no means makes it safe… but a lost less concentrated that we use with NaOH. I have been thinking about this… I can’t find anything on saturation points on KOH, will it all dissolve in a 40% solution? If so can it be used for bar soap? I may have to waste some ingredients and try.

Cream soap will, no doubt, be next on my list when I get this done. Anyone have any guide lines on how to calculate a recipe for it? What water to lye ratio to start out with? I have looked at a number of recipes; KOH to NaOH seems to vary between 1/9 to 1/4 parts. It’s all very confusing when I can’t find anything about why the disparity.

[Carriegsxr6]

Everyone loves it so far except one, who for some reason it was greasy on. The thing is the reason everyone else loves it is because it absorbs so fast but on her hands it just sat there… like she had rubber Crisco on her hands. It was from the same jar I am using and three other people first sampled from who all loved it… nice soft dry hands in a few seconds. Anyone have any ideas on this?

Does she has any type of medical skin condition?

[GrandmaArial]

Not that I know of. She is one of my testers because she has no health concerns I would have to calculate for. She is addicted to the soap I make with the same balance of oils. She is in my age group (entering senior citizens category) and has recently retired from housekeeping where she was exposed to drying chemical cleaners. She has been coming over and filching my personal lotion for ages to help her dry cracked skin but now suddenly the driest lotion I have ever made won’t absorb into her skin.

Thinking about it quitting the housekeeping has to be alleviating a lot of her dry skin problems but her age should be making up for it somewhat. It looked like she had used a whole jar, not the tiny dab I put on her hand. She kept rubbing and rubbing and all the happened it her hands looked glossy and greasy.

[Hibiscus]

I think at least part of the reason the KOH doesn't get as hot is we use so much more water to dissolve it in. With bar soap we use between 30% to 40% water to oils (between 1.96/1 to 2.6/1 water to lye) while we use 50% to 70% water to oil ratio (2.3/1 to 3.27/1) for KOH. This by no means makes it safe… but a lost less concentrated that we use with NaOH. I have been thinking about this… I can’t find anything on saturation points on KOH, will it all dissolve in a 40% solution? If so can it be used for bar soap? I may have to waste some ingredients and try.

KOH is definitely nicer to work with:D keep at it grandma, you will figure it out.....I should be making lotion and conditioner:drool: I better go now, a soaper has to have some secrets. I'm leaving this to the experts:D

Happy Happy LS Making!

[MsDammit]

Cream soap will, no doubt, be next on my list when I get this done. Anyone have any guide lines on how to calculate a recipe for it? What water to lye ratio to start out with? I have looked at a number of recipes; KOH to NaOH seems to vary between 1/9 to 1/4 parts. It’s all very confusing when I can’t find anything about why the disparity.

I dunno squat about calculating a recipe, but I do know there's a great cream soap group on Yahoo that has a wealth of info (I'm still reading it) as well as recipes, tutorials, pics, etc. All very nice members too. For some reason I am still dragging my feet with the cream soap-maybe when/if the snowy, cold weather starts & I'm stuck at home, lol.

Yanno, the more I think about it, I think part of my problem is that I've never seen nor used cream soap, so I have no idea what it's supposed to look/feel like (besides seeing pictures). Hibiscus, do you sell cream soap? I may be interested in trying some out.

[GrandmaArial]

Thank you both. I will learn.

I may look the yahoo group up when/if I actually give into demands and try cream soap. Thank you.

[MsDammit]

My soap seems to be darkening with age, is this normal? I scented it Holiday Wassail, could that be the culprit?

[GrandmaArial]

I diluted mine with herbal tea so it started off dark. Does the FO you used contain vanilla? I imagine that vanilla will discolor in LS just like it does in everything else.

I am surprised at how much “cream” I have with the first batch of HPLS. About half. Funny thing is I like it better than the pretty clear stuff underneath… its much softer on the skin. I know it will probably go rancid… oh well. Next time I try I will go -5% on fats. Maybe more… maybe -9%. That will give me a little buffer on the lye so I shouldn’t have to neutralize to much.

I dilute the CPLS a week from today… if I can wait that long… that will no doubt also have a great deal of cream as it was done @ 0% supperfat too.