Liquid Soap 101?

[Lil Chickie Mama]

I scanned through the Soap 101 thread and I may have missed it but I didn't see anything about making liquid soap. Does anyone know a good way to do this? I have lots of olive oil and coconut oil as well as KOH which is the right lye. I just don't know the steps. I found something online, but wanted to check with people who've done it. Thank you! FWIW, I love making cold process hard soaps!!! My favorites are castile, goat milk, and current fav is pine tar soap (antibacterial!) I just want to try something new so I can use it as a base for shampoos and things.

 

[freemotion]

 

[me&thegals]

The book I just started talks about shaving down your home-made bar soap and melting it with a certain amount of water to create a liquid soap...

 

[freemotion]

I read somewhere about making the clear soap (like Dr. Bronner's) with a hot method. It talked about the danger of splashing it as it cooked, so I never attempted it. It was veg oil and lye, but over heat.

 

[Lil Chickie Mama]

The book I just started talks about shaving down your home-made bar soap and melting it with a certain amount of water to create a liquid soap...

The problem with this method is the original lye is NaOH which binds differently and creates a more solidified product where the KOH gives you the right texture. Trust me, I make castile soap and use the flakes to make laundry soap. It takes longer but it will make a gel like cake on the top, not good for hand soap but fine for laundry soap.

I read somewhere about making the clear soap (like Dr. Bronner's) with a hot method. It talked about the danger of splashing it as it cooked, so I never attempted it. It was veg oil and lye, but over heat.

The method that I found was a hot process too, I guess that's necessary to cook out all the lye since it wouldn't cure the same in liquid form? I think I'll end up trying it, it was done in a crock pot! It's very involved though, you cook it for a long time and it goes through various stages of solidification then you reintroduce water to liquify it, add borax to neutralize any unbound lye, and then add your additives. I hope it will work well for me. If you hear about a crazy California woman that blew up her house while trying to make soap...

 

[me&thegals]

If you hear about a crazy California woman that blew up her house while trying to make soap...

Seriously, though, be careful! And keep us posted. I would love to be able to make bulk shampoo, as I always seem to run out at inopportune times.

 

[Bettacreek]

There was a thread on another forum that said about making it with sodium lye, melting, adding water and pectin and letting set. It actually worked...