Hi! Newbie here.
We have been running a very amateur liquid soap making operation for a year. As in - fully made and mixed by hand and sold at farmers markets/to friends. The consistency of our soap is not very even, and in general it doesn't seem as 'polished' as a mass market body wash. That's always been the charm of super hand-made farmers market stuff!
We're looking to scale up operations and begin doing e-commerce and selling into other businesses. We have to start making a more professional products.
Our soap is of the 'all natural' type (that's the branding), and the ingredients are roughly as follows (this may not be important to the question but I'm including it for full info):
Saponified oils of Coconut and Olive, Jojoba Oil, Guar Gum, Glycerin Extract, Aloe Vera, and a few different essential oils.
The question:
Should we invest in a mixer? Is such a machine really something that any respectable small-to-medium business uses during the manufacturing of liquid soap?
We use a little stick blender to make the 'saponified' ingredients, sure, but after that, when all the ingredients are combined to make the finished product, we've never had a mixer to really help things. Some of these 'high shear' mixers I've been reading about might help with consistency, reduce opaqueness of the final product (clear is better, but we never achieve it), etc. Perhaps there are many benefits that I'm unaware of.
Thanks!
Comments
@Bobzchemist: I've browsed a few topics on this site and indeed you appear to be the master wizard here! Thanks for the response!
Our current batches are not big. We're talking less than 10 litres. One of our directors is a veteran investor, and I myself have raised funds for other companies in another sector - so we have the means and desire to invest some money into scaling up.
Regarding the big commercial stick blender, overhead mixer, pots and lids - and I realize I'm asking a bit much here - would you happen to have a specific recommendation for each? As in, a link to a product you think is most suitable?
So, starting with our 2 saponified oils and the rest of the ingredeints:
@Belassi: we're OK to live in the niche world. As an example of a niche body wash that lives in the world of "natural ingredients", there's Defense Soap, amongst others: http://www.defensesoap.com/defense-soap-shower-gel.html
Hallstar has an entire line of olive oil surfactants that are really nice and have some favorable characteristics. This may be something of interest to you. This could save you some time with saponification and also lead to a bit more uniform end product.
Good luck with your expansion!
I'm curious - you mention that there's 'nothing wrong' with double boiling to make our base soap gel; does this imply that there are perhaps other methods that I might explore?
Our base soap gel is simply water + potassium hydroxide + olive/coconut oil.
And thanks again!
"The consistency of our soap is not very even, and in general it doesn't seem as 'polished' as a mass market body wash."
Perhaps you may wish to work on your formula and techniques before you try a production batch?
Basically, my liquid soap is made by heating the oils, mixing the KOH with water in a plastic bucket until combined then adding the solution to the oils and stirring until saponified and it turns to a paste. For me that takes about 10 minutes. It is then covered and left overnight to make sure the saponification process is complete. The next day the paste is weighed to determine the amount of H2O to be added, water is then heated then my thickener is added and stirred until dissolved, then the soap paste is added to the heated water and stirred then left to be dissolved by the heated water then covered. (glycerin can be added at this point if used). Usually the by the next day the paste is totally dissolved and the fragrance can be added and it is weighed again to see if H2O needs to be added to bring it to the proper concentration reflected in the formula and it is then ready to bottle. For this type of production a mixer is not needed.
I'm very much confused about the '10 minutes to saponify' part. Her teacher (and all the video material) includes over 3 hours of cooking until you get the paste.
Even looking at instructions from a local soap making shop (http://www.voyageursoapandcandle.com/How_to_Make_Natural_Liquid_Soap_s/367.htm), they say the following:
"Continue cooking the mixture for a minimum three hour period. During this time, you will note that the mixture will become translucent. After three hours turn off the heat and let the paste stand in the double boiler overnight if possible."
But now I understand why there are 2 different times as explained by the chemical process (the external energy that we added for 3 hours accelerated the process, I suppose, though it wasted a lot of time to monitor, keep boiling, etc). We can just let the chemical process run its course overnight!
If we have any more silly questions I'll ask in another thread. You've all helped me out more than enough here. Thanks from Vancouver, Canada!
Overall, works well for us, and product demand is high. We run this machine almost every day to keep up with deman, and are probably at the point of needing to invest in a second set up.
Cofounder & Chief Formulator
Indochine Natural
We produce the batches of saponified oils and then store in jerrycans for at least two weeks, then check the pH. When you say "mix the saponified oil(s) with the rest of the ingredients" I'm not sure what you mean here. In our case, we just mix with essential oils in the appropraite batch size for the order of face wash, body wash, or shampoo (all different recipes of saponified oils), and usually this is done using a large spoon or paddle.
Cofounder & Chief Formulator
Indochine Natural
See: http://www.soapequipment.com/Tanks/
Cofounder & Chief Formulator
Indochine Natural
rather than minutes. Three hours is ridiculous."
You could also use an oil that is high in a particular fatty acid such as olive oil which is typically 80-82% Oleic Acid... hint, hint...
Also, your lye solution is probably too weak! So many of the books, articles call for relatively weak lye solutions because so many homecrafters are afraid of working with a stronger solution hence the three hours (they say cooking!,,Ugh!) processing time! hint, hint...
Dilution of paste goes pretty quickly in hot water! hint, hint...
Why the heck do you need a mixer? I big paddle from a restaurant supply place will do the trick and it is cheap! Pretty much all of what I use in my 800 sq. ft. workspace is restaurant equipment from a restaurant supply place! I bought the heater from soapequipment.com and it sits on a stainless steel table unused...
Best of luck!
Yes, I have info about all size levels. How large are we talking about?
(When I first started working, I worked for Unilever. I used to joke about buying one of their surplus soap tanks to live in - it was larger than my house).
Note: how to avoid in tank solidification is also a great subject to cover for me. I know the greater the tank the a greater the risk.
This is quite a old post but based on your great responses would it be great to get your thoughts on the following video.
It is only showing a small part of the process and maybe that is why it appears as it does. What some of you maybe know is if it is possible to make castile liquid soap in a process where it always stays liquid as it appears in that video.
Looking forward to hear your thoughts
I tried to make it like that in a crock pot with a mixer slowly running but after 2 days it still was cloudy so I though to get some outside input. One thing I could retry is adding only enough water to make it liquid so it stays closer to "paste".
By the way, beautiful place you got and nice website. If you should not be aware do I believe your link to your contact page are not working correctly.
Thanks again