Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Skin Making liquid Handsoap

  • Making liquid Handsoap

    Posted by CurlyGurl88 on September 27, 2022 at 7:06 pm

    This may be a dumb question but I haven’t found a direct answer to it yet: traditionally hand soap is made with lye, but can you make a hand soap using an anionic surfactant?

    More specifically, can I make a liquid hand soap with just Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate as the detergent instead of saponifying oils?

    Or is there something that saponification does when cleansing the hands that cannot be replicated with anionic surfactants?

    CurlyGurl88 replied 2 years ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Paprik

    Member
    September 27, 2022 at 8:11 pm

    You can use any surfactant (preferably anionic, with amphoteric and non-ionic) to create a liquid handsoap. The choice is yours. And it will be even milder as the pH will be more skin friendly. 

    You can you SCI, however it is a bit tricky to work with. It is better in “bar” formulas. 

    Hope this helps? :) 

  • CurlyGurl88

    Member
    September 27, 2022 at 8:19 pm

    Paprik said:

    You can use any surfactant (preferably anionic, with amphoteric and non-ionic) to create a liquid handsoap. The choice is yours. And it will be even milder as the pH will be more skin friendly. 

    You can you SCI, however it is a bit tricky to work with. It is better in “bar” formulas. 

    Hope this helps? :) 

    This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for, thank you! 

Log in to reply.

Chemists Corner