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My liquid soaping adventure began when my parents ran out of
their special linseed floor soap. They have a special unglazed tile floor that needs to be
cleaned with liquid soap made from linseed oil. The store where
they got it closed so now they would have to go to France to get the
darn stuff. Much easier if I can make it for them. Anyway, the
pictures in this tutorial are from making that linseed floor soap. With
a different recipe very nice liquid soap for use under the shower can
be made though; procedure is the same! First lets start with what
actually is the difference between bar and liquid soap.
In contrast with bar soap, liquid soap is made by using kalium
hydroxide (KOH) instead of sodium hydroxide or lye (NaOH). The method
is very much like double boiler or crockpot HP but differs on a few
points. First of which is that a 0% lye discount is used. This to make
it possible to get clear soap as a result. This however also depends on
the oils used, linseed oil clearly doesn't give a transparant liquid
soap. Because you work with a 0% lye discount, any excess lye has to be
neutralized. For this there are two methods: one uses alcohol and the other
one uses borax to neutralize the soap. The method described here uses
the borax method.
Ingredients
The ingredients you will need to make yourself some liquid soap consist
of the following:
- Oils
- Potassium hydroxide (KOH)
according to lye calculator at 0% lye discount. The calculator found here gives values for
KOH next to those for NaOH.
- Water according to lye calculator
- Dilution water at 2 - 3 x the
amount of oils
- Neutralization fluid consisting of
1 part borax for every 48 parts of resulting total soap weight, for this check lye calculator.
Dissolve the borax in boiling water at a ratio of 1 : 3
- Coloring according wish
- Fragrance
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Method
First you measure your oils and melt them together.
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Then measure the KOH and dissolve this by
stirring it into the determined amount of COLD water. Dissolving the
KOH should be with a soft sizzling sound. Watch
the fumes, as those seem to be more aggressive then with NaOH. The
mixture shouldn’t heat up as much though. To be on the safe side, mix
it in the sink, spilled lye is nothing to joke about. Don't forget to
take the normal soaping safety measures like glasses and gloves. |
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Pour the KOH solution into the oils....
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.....and start blending. This takes much longer then is the
case with NaOH count on at least 25 minutes and perhaps longer. Use
your stickblender at intervals to prevent the motor from overheating.
Switch to a whisk if the stickblender can't keep up.
Trace when making liquid soap
looks different from making soap with NaOH, it will be a hard to stir
solid mass. Before it reaches trace it might go through a couple of
stages. At some point it might look grainy and it is also possible that
the mass will try to climb out of the pot. If it does, cool the outside
of the pot, and stir down.
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This may look like trace but isn't yet, just keep on
blending.
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This is how it looks when the mixture goes grainy.
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At this point the soap isn't grainy anymore, it resembles
thick trace when making bar soap. We're slowly getting there, just keep
on mixing!
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This is more like it! It's not a very solid mass, more like
very thick HP after cook. No it is time to put on the lid
and cook the soap for about 3 hours in
the double boiler. Check the first hour a couple of times for
separation and stir the mass well. Make sure the double boiler has
enough water. |
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After
about 2 hours the soap will start
looking a bit translucent, boil for another hour when it has reached
this stage. After that you have soap. On to the next step: dilution.
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For
dilution break the soap in chunks when
necessary and add the boiling dilution water, then let it rest
overnight. If not all the soap
dissolved, heat it back up slowly. Keep the lid on the pot and heat
until the soap paste is completely
dissolved.
Now it is time to prepare the neutralization fluid by boiling the
calculated amount of water and dissolving 1 part borax for every 48
parts of resulting total soap weight in
it. Add this to the diluted soap before
it cools down or the borax will precipitate out again. Let the soap cool down. |
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Because
the soap is made with 0% lye discount it
won’t be very mild to the skin. Sulfated castor oil is the only oil
that can superfat liquid soap without making
it opaque. If you don't care about the soap
being transparent, any oil you fancy can be used. I have read though
that any “excess” oil will eventually float on top of the soap. To
prevent this polysorbate 20 can be added to the oils to make them water
soluble. Add fragrance and colouring according to wish.
And there it is: your homemade liquid soap! As said before the pictures
of the soap in this tutorial are from making a liquid linseed floor
soap. Using other oils will probably give a more appealing and
transparant result, method is the same though.
And with special thanks to Blackbird from the Handcraftedsoap forum:
recipes!
Recipe # 1
coconut
oil 35%
olive oil 35%
castor oil 25%
sweet almond or apricot kernel or any "soft" oil 5%
Recipe # 2
23 oz coconut
25 oz soft oils
12 oz KOH
33 oz distilled water
2oz borax dissolved in 6oz distilled water (for neutralization)
2 - 3 tablespoons sulfonated castor oil (turkey red) to "superfat"
122 oz distilled water (for dilution)
3 - 4 oz fragrance |
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