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making handmade liquid soup milder
Hello
I’m already new to soap making with not good background in chemistry but willing to learn and have tried making soap a couple of times recently out of curiosity and now I’d like to substitute our household cleansers step by step, maybe more families encouraged in future, contributing to regenerate mother earth a bit.here is my challenge:lather and cleansing properties are good but they are harsh to the skin especially the one made just with coconut oil so how to make liquid soup milder in these two recipes especially the second because it is milder than just coconut oil LS.
is there a specific emollient or emollients you suggest so that I can add and experiment with?
by the way these recipes are superfatted about 5%No 1:
ordinary coconut oil 150 gr
KOH 42 gr (85% purity)
glycerine 60 grNo 2:
olive oil 65%
coconut oil 25%
castor oil 10%
KOH
half distilled water half glycerine for 25% lye concentration solutionprocedure : I used soapee.com as lye calculator
first I dissolve koh in glycerine or water to reach a clear solution then pour it into the oils and stick blend it until it comes to the trace,in case of the second recipe I stick blended until it turned to a vaseline like paste in about 10 to 20 minutes.then left overnight and diluted with equal amount of glycerine 1:1. of course I diluted with water too but its thickness with glycerine is more liked.
I really appreciate your comments on this and suggestion on any resource for further study.
thank you so much in advance -
4 Replies
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I would not recommend using only coconut oil, and as you have started to do, it is necessary to experiment with different oil blends.
A good starting point is to get yourself a copy of “Making Natural Liquid Soaps” by Catherine Failor.
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Liquid soaps tend to be regarded as easier than solids but it may not always be so. Please research the properties of a number of oils, coconut, palm, palm kernel, olive, safflower ect to blend an oil base to suit your soaps goals first. Catherine Failor wrote a nice book called Making Natural Liquid soaps, you may find it most useful. Good luck.
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How about just adding a good amphoteric hydrotrope like disodium cocoamphodipropionate or sodium lauroamphoacetate. These products reduce skin irritation, stabilize your barely soluble alkali soap, build foam, etc. Also, why are you adding glycerin when some is being made in situ already in this saponification reaction; and glycerin does zilch in your formula unless you really can’t stand suds? All these “natural” formulators use it in cleansing products - just madness!
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@chemicalmatt I think anyone making natural soaps is not going to want to add synthetic surfactants to their formula. IMO, you either do one or the other.
I have made natural liquid soap using a similar formula with glycerin (aka glycerin liquid soap method). What you do is substitute the glycerin for the water that is combined with the KOH. The reason for doing this, is that glycerin speeds up the otherwise very slow saponification process, as well as the actual end-product production process (you can actually stir the concentrated paste, which is impossible if you just use water). There may be some other benefits that I’m forgetting. I think it also results in thicker product. However, as you pointed out, there are downsides to this method. I too have noticed that-following this glycerin method-that the end product is pretty harsh (due to too much glycerin humectancy? I don’t know), doesn’t foam all that well, and often leaves a residue on pump bottles that will clog them after awhile. I haven’t perfected my liquid soap recipe, which is why I don’t sell it yet.
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