Tips & Techniques for making Liquid Soap

Tips & Techniques for Liquid Soapmaking --Marilyn Everingham, Paw-Made Soap Company --copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Paw-Made Soap Company Read the book(s) by Catherine Failor. 1. Making Natural Liquid Soaps: Herbal Shower Gels / Conditioning Shampoos / Moisturizing Hand Soaps 2. Making Transparent Soap: The Art of Crafting, Molding, Scenting & Coloring 3. Making Cream Soap You'll learn the basics and concepts of this art from her books in a more concise way than you can from anywhere else. Her book about liquid soapmaking covers liquid soap, shampoos and shower gels. The shower gels require a slightly different method after the cook. I have discovered that she has tidbits of pertinent information scattered throughout her books. While making shower gel, I found the information I needed about phenolphthalein in her book about transparent soapmaking! You'll also learn tons from your own experiments. Keep good notes as you go along. As I have worked with making soap the "Failor way", I have often wondered what dimension she works in that she gets the results she reports in her books. I don't seem to work in the same dimension, that's for sure, but I do get good results, eventually. Failor offers two methods for liquid soapmaking: 1-Paste. 2-Alcohol/Lye I use the paste method. It seems simpler and it is cheaper. I have used the alcohol/lye method, and it does work, but it can be a frightening experience. I once had this method "explode", run all over the stove top and produce such acrid fumes that I thought I was going to die before I could get windows and doors open. Certainly, this is not a method for the faint of heart. Note: if you add alcohol to your soap (at the appropriate times according to Failor's instructions), don't use rubbing or isopropyl alcohol. You can never get rid of its distinctive odor. Use 80 proof vodka or Everclear. Making potassium hydroxide (KOH) soaps require more stirring. Lots and lots of stirring or you risk having the lye and oils incompletely combined. You'll end up with lye heavy soap that may "seem" to be ok to use but isn't. You do need to test your KOH soaps using phenolphthalein to be absolutely sure you don't have a lye heavy end result as KOH soaps seem to be able to masquerade as completely saponified when they aren't. Using phenolphthalein is a simple test. Take a tad of soap. Put one drop of phenolphthalein on it. If it turns pink, there's too much lye in the soap. If it remains colorless, your soap has saponified completely. To begin, mix your oils and lye the night before you plan to do the cook. Using a stick blender, stir the oils and lye for 5-10 minutes or until you have a thick, impossible-to-stir paste. Cover your soap pot with towels or blankets and let it sit overnight. The next day, you'll find that your soap paste has already begun to show signs of translucency around the edges. This is a very good thing. You will also be able to check to make sure that the oils and lye are completely combined. If you see any watery substance in the bottom of along the sides of your soap pot, it is most likely uncombined lye and you'll have to stir your soap frequently during cooking to make sure it gets combined and saponified. Failor gives temperatures at which to combine your lye and oils. Do pay attention to the temperatures even if you don't when you make CP soap. Failor recommends using a double boiler system for the cook. If you don't have lids to fit both the water pot and the soap pot, cover the top of your pots with a heavy towel. I use a big, thick bath towel folded in quarters. Just be sure you keep the edges of the towel on top of the pot. Don't let them hang down where they might catch on fire from the burner! After 3 hours of cooking, according to Failor, it is time to test for free fatty acids. Do this. Don't be surprised if your soap paste needs to cook longer. If your soap paste isn't translucent (looks a lot like Vaseline), it hasn't cooked long enough. Diluting your soap: I've never once used a dilution rate from Failor's book and been happy with the result. In my experience, the results are always too thin. The last batch of shampoo I made, I used the dilution rate of 9 ounces of water per pound of soap paste. The result was way too thin. (I'm going to try 4 oz/lb next time.) Thankfully, this soapmaking process is forgiving. I put the pot of too thin soap back in the double boiler and cooked it down by 1-1/2 pounds. The result? Gooey shampoo paste. If you have a situation like this, don't worry. Just add water to the pot (again) in 2 ounce increments. I don't generally cook this anymore. I add the water, stir it in as best I can, and let the covered pot sit. It will eventually absorb the water and the soap will gradually become thinner. If you haven't already figured this out, liquid soapmaking is not a quick process. It is a process. While I don't keep at it continually, it may take me a week or two to finish a batch so that it is just the right consistency and ready to fragrance and package. When you add water to your soap paste to dilute it, it may be difficult to get it to melt and mix with the water. Failor maintains that the more liquid oils you have in your recipe, the harder it will be to get the soap paste melted. Recipes with a higher proportion of coconut oil melt more easily, she says. Take Failor's advice and add a few ounces of alcohol to the pot, making sure you subtract this amount from the total amount of water you plan to add. I generally use 6-8 ounces of CHEAP 80 proof vodka for a 6 pound batch. I add the alcohol first, stir it in as best I can, wait half an hour or so, and then add the water. The addition of alcohol will also add to the clarity of your finished soap. If you don't use any alcohol in the process, you'll likely get a cloudy end product. Do weigh things when Failor suggests it. It helps you keep track of what you have added, what gets cooked out and will help guide you in your next attempt. Still, you may have difficulty getting all of the soap paste to melt. Use your stick blender. Yes, you are going to have a foamy pot of soap on your hands, but it is the only way I've found to get all the soap paste to become "one" with the water! Just let your foamy pot of soap sit after stick blending. The foam will disappear. You can spritz with alcohol to speed it along, but I just stick a lid on the pot or cover it with a towel and walk away. You may need to repeat this step a couple of times before you have all of the soap paste chunks dissipate. Once you have a pot of liquid, you will follow Failor's directions for neutralizing your soap. She offers three options for neutralizing. I use borax as it both neutralizes and thickens, as well as helps to produce a more stable lather. I figure that can't be a bad thing. She gives complete directions for each method. I don't generally sequester. By the time I get to the point of being able to fragrance and package, I'm ready to be done with that particular batch! For the shampoo that is currently in the works, I used this recipe: 37 oz coconut oil 3 oz sunflower oil 2 oz jojoba 2 oz kukui nut oil I do find the liquid soapmaking book oddly organized. You have to flip around while you are working, so just take your time. Sometimes I've had to just stop and re-read sections of the book before I felt confident that I was doing stuff "right"! Just take your time and trust that it will all work out in the end, and you'll have learned bunches along the way so the next time will be simpler and faster! As I mentioned, making shower gels requires different finishing steps, but Failor explains them very well so you just need to follow those directions in the book. If you get through the liquid soapmaking, I highly recommend trying her cream soapmaking methods. This stuff is super great for shaving legs! The best thing is that you are producing natural skin care products that are chemical free, don't contain artificial foaming agents and no preservatives! You can add luxury oils to your recipe to create your own unique products.