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Trying to create mild soap bar - HELP!!
Hi all!I am a new member of this discussion group.I am trying to make a mild soap bar with premade melt and pour soap base.( Ingredients: Certified Organiccoconut oil, Certified Organic palm oil, safflower oil, glycerin (kosher, of vegetable origin), purified water, sodium hydroxide (saponifying agent),sorbitol (moisturizer), sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), soy bean protein(conditioner), titanium dioxide (natural mineral whitener)) .I buy this base from :Here are the doubts I have about making this soap to have more lather and skin loving properties.1. Can I add Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (noodles) to the above melt andpour soap as it is without melting? ( at 5% by weight)2. Since the final product’s Ph is above 7, can I add citric acid to adjust the Ph?.If not Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate can anyone suggest me a mild biodegradable surfactant that I can add to the soap base?Any help would be appreciated. -
19 Replies
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1) No.
2) No. If you adjust the pH down, you will destroy your soap.3) Try one of the sugar-based suractants -
WOW!! Thank you so much Bobzchemist. That was a very valuble advice,else i would have spoiled the entire batch of soap.
I tried adding Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate (SLL) at 5%.It was mild and gave a good lather.But the texture of the soap felt like a solid rock. And then i added Decyl Glucoside ( i dont remember the % but it is less than 10%) which did not impart any mildness to the soap.I was thinking of adding Panthenol to give some skin loving properties (at 2% ).correct me if am wrong. -
I hate to tell you this, but I will. Melt and pour soap is inherently inferior to cold process or hot process natural soap and also inferior to syndet bars such as Dove. And expensive. It is a craft market thing for the inexperienced.
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Lush sells cold process soap as far as I know. You can see they are using rapeseed oil (it will be high oleic and standing in for olive oil) and coconut oil with NaOH. Everything after that on the list is <1%
Melt and pour … crap. Doesn’t foam. Hobby garbage. -
Hmmm… you are right, it dosent foam.It functions “like” a soap.But the ingredients for the melt and pour and cold process looks just the same..i am not able to spot the difference.
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Do your research with Google and on soap forums and you will discover what melt and pour is and how it is made.
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I sort of disagree about melt and pour soaps. Some of the bases which BrambleBerry sells, on top of being extremely mild, lather very well, and hold fragrance very well. Some of them are detergent based melt and pours, so they’re not true soaps; but they do carry true soap bases from SFIC (Shea butter base comes to mind) which, all be it a little expensive, lather extremely well.
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In fact, the ingredient list what you posted above looks like an SFIC base. The image online however, is that a glycerin soap, which always get really sticky in my opinion. Try the oatmeal or Shea butter base, and I think you’ll find that you won’t have lathering or mildness issues. I, too, prefer cold process soap, but, for melt and pour I think there are some good options.
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Melt and pour, to me, has always been those glycerin concoctions which look pretty but don’t actually function.
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Melt and pour soap is a hot process soap with some kind of an
alcohol (ethanol,
isopropyl alcohol, propylene glycol), Glycerin and sugar water solution added
at the gel stage.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nw4CBN_RC0
I buy melt and pour from SFIC. Nice quality soap, have no
other surfactants added to the mix. It is not as effective as cold process /hot
process soap. But mild enough and cheap! I buy the base from amazon where a
pound of soap is not more than $10, which brings the cost $0.625/Oz. But if I have
to buy very good quality cold process soap, it will be around $1.5/Oz.Ref for melt and pour:
Ref for cold process soap:
http://soaptopia.com/soaps
( I bought this from wholefood at $1.5/Oz)https://www.etsy.com/listing/223557769/all-natural-orange-soap-handmade-soap?ref=related-7
My final thoughts –Melt and pour - It is what it is, not super-efficient
to be used as soap but can be used as embeds in the soap and make soap making more
interesting and fun. Will I still use melt and pour? Yes, but just for fun and
make the product look more interesting. -
a pound of soap for $10? That’s $22 per kilo. Good grief.
I prepare 2Kg per batch of cold process soap and sell it at a profit at $30 per kilo retail! The cost of oils and NaOH and fragrance will be around $3.50 per kilo. You’re sure of your prices? You seem to be paying way too much. -
You can check the links I posted. When compared by kilo, the
melt and pour is still $8 less. I get what you are trying to say and I don’t deny
your statement about the quality of melt and pour. But the process and
ingredients are the same for both the soaps.I would love to have a look at the type of soaps you make, if
you are willing to share. -
Red Berries soap.
Mint soap.We make about 8 different types of cold process soap including an exfoliant bar with bentonite clay. Planning to add goat’s milk soap shortly. It is not a big market for us, even though we are the lowest priced producer, but the colours and aromas attract customers who go on to buy other things. -
Regarding price, you should be able to do as well as us. We buy 25 Kg containers of palm oil from a large local cooking fat producer, we buy high-oleic safflower oil from Costco which replaces more expensive olive oil, and we buy coconut oil in 20Kg drums from an outlet of KemCare, a UK based multinational with a presence here. The other main cost is the fragrance. About 4$ plus labour, manufacturing cost per kilogram.
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@Belassi I like the images on the website you posted links to. In regards to SFIC bases, if you order directly from them, you get them for less than two dollars a pound. That’s without shipping, of course. Minimum order quantity of 250 pounds is a bit hefty, but it’s actually quite economical if you are a high-volume soap sales person. Like I said, I prefer cold process soap but try out their shea base, it’s good!
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Very Nice soaps Belassi !
Note that I make soaps out of hobby. As georgetedder said, if we buy in bulk it is actually pretty cheap, good for high volume production. And again, melt and pour cannot compete with the mainstream soap, but they are not bad either.
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Thanks for the kind comments. Liquid soap dominates my market; I can’t compete with synthetic liquid soap that sells for a dollar equivalent, complete with pump bottle. It costs me a dollar for the bottle and label alone.
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I like all types of soaps… I have a crazy collection of all colored and beautiful smelling soaps!especially hand made..they are unique and mostly gentle on the skin.
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