Soaping 101 liquid soapmaking video?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Welcome CookbookChef! :wave: I love your enthusiasm and the passion you have for cooking and chocolate-making. (I just read your intro posts). I myself am just as passionate about soap-making.....and bread-making and making many other things from scratch (sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century). :p

Well, let's see if we can get you started on the right foot.....

First, like Susie so rightly said, research is key. I think I spent a whole year just reading and studying and taking copious notes, then re-reading and re-studying again and again and again on all the different soap-making forums and educational sites before I felt brave/confident enough to try my hand at making my first batch. I'm not saying that you yourself will need to spend a whole year reading and researching, etc.., for afterall, we all learn in different ways and at different paces depending on our particular learning styles and previous experiences, etc..., but becoming familiar with the basic in's and out's of soap-making and its accompanying lingo is crucial and can't be emphasized enough, especially since you'll be working very intimately with something as potentially dangerous as lye.

One of my favorite educational sites to learn from back when I was still cutting my teeth on the subject is David Fisher's site: http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/s...n-And-Concepts-To-Get-Started-Making-Soap.htm As you read, you'll find lots of links that lead to further info. Go ahead and click on them. They each lead to very useful, more in-depth info that will come in handy. Remember to take lots of notes!

I have 8 Pounds of KOH and 16 Pounds of Lye...(now please be patient, I dont know if I even said that right. but I have the LYE that makes HARD BAR SOAP and the LYE that makes LIQUID SOFT SOAP)

No worries- you're not off the mark at all, but to be more specific, the KOH you bought is known as potassium hydroxide and it is for making all kinds of liquid soap, and the lye that you bought for making hard bars of soap is known as sodium hydroxide (i.e., NaOH).

Here is a question to Start With:
My Question is this..what in the world is ZAP? Do you mean you check the liquid with a wooden tongue depressor and see if it ZAPS you? Nope, I am not trying to be funny here, all the CODES people use for terms on this site are enough to make me feel down right stupid. Lol....

LOL Don't get down on yourself too badly- I used to feel the same way as you are feeling right now, but isn't that how it is for all of us when learning anything new? We all learn to crawl before we start walking and running, but have no fear- if you become as passionate about soap-making as you are about cooking and chocolate-making, you'll soon get the hang of things in no time. To me, soap-making is not at all very different from the art/science of baking- both utilize acid and alkaline ingredients that one manipulates to achieve a desired result.

Anyway- to answer your question- ZAP is the term used for that tingly sensation one feels on the tip of their tongue when they stick it (the tip of their tongue) to a bar of soap or a dollop of soap paste that is either lye-heavy or not yet quite fully saponified. I don't know if you've ever played the silly childhood game of daring each other to stick the tip of your tongue to the terminal of a 9-volt battery like my siblings and I used to play when we were young, but if you have, then you'll have a fairly good understanding of what ZAP feels like. It's a slightly uncomfortable, tingly sensation that goes away as soon as you remove the soap from your tongue. Testing your soap this way is called the 'tongue test'. It's the preferred method of many soapers like myself to test for lye-heaviness or to gauge whether or not full saponification has been achieved yet in one's liquid soap paste or hot-processed (HP) soap.

I also bought 7 pounds of Palm Oil, some colors that are liquid from a company named life of the party, I got Yellow, Red and Blue, and a whole bunch of Mica Powders so that I can color using Mica

I'm not familiar with Life of the Party colorants, but I just wanted to give you a heads-up that not all colorants will work well in lye-based soaps because of the higher pH of the soap (they'll either be a total wash-out, fade, or change color). For future reference, when you buy colorants for use in lye-based soaps, you'll want to be sure they are first of all body-safe (which I'm sure you already know from making your other B&B products), and that they are also stable in lye-based soaps such as CP (cold-process lye soap), HP (hot-process lye soap) or LS (liquid lye-based soap). Also, lots of colorants that are stable in MP (melt & pour soap, i.e, comparable to the melt and dip chocolate that you talked about in one of your other posts) usually do not work in lye-based soap. That's just something you'll want to be mindful of.

Castor Oil (not sure if this is the same as castor bean oil-on the label it states that this is an all natural laxative...so, not sure if its the same as castor BEAN oil)

Yes- that is the same as castor bean oil. You can also find it at many health-food stores in bigger bottles than the pharmacy usually sells.
and something that MAKE bubbles, and its supposed to be all natural? its called: Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate...I got this to make sure I have enough bubble action in my liquid soap, but I did NOT see you mention it.

Now this is where the beauty and creative fun of making your own soap enters in. You actually don't need to use Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (i.e., SLSA) to make bubbly liquid soap (or hard soap either for that matter). Lots of commercial soap companies use it in ther soap, but they formulate and make their 'soap' quite differently than we home soap-makers do. You will find that the coconut oil that you bought will make your soap quite bubbly without a single iota of 'help' from SLSA. Now, I do happen to have some SLSA on hand to experiment with in my soap just for the pure joy of experimentation, but I haven't used any of it yet. I plan to try it out in a 100% olive oil batch one of these days when I get around to it. Or maybe even a 100% tallow batch.

I'll answer the remaing of your questions in the following post (it seems I've exceeded my word quota again :oops:) lol.

IrishLass :)
 
Okay! Here's Part II!

I have coconut oil, grapeseed oil, Hemp Seed Oil, Argan Oil, Borage Oil, Olive Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil, Apricot Kernel Oil, Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter and I will be getting some Jojoba oil and sweet almond oil. So, I have alot to start with
You have a lot of good oils there, but it's best to keep things simple when first starting out making soap. If it were me and I was just starting out, I would focus mainly on utilizing these at first: Palm oil, olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, shea butter and/or, cocoa butter. You can make some pretty awesome soap with a combo of any of those.

I wanted to ask you what (((SL))) IS? You mentioned that you added the same amount of SL to the paste as you did before.
SL = sodium lactate. It's an additive I like to add to my soap (both bar soap and liquid soap), and also my lotions. It's one of those additives that serves many purposes depending what you add it into. For example, in my CP (cold-processed bar soap), it lends a creamy 'feel' to my lather and it makes the soap firmer and easier to unmold. In my HP (hot-processed bar soap), it makes my cooked soap batter more smooth and flowing so that it's easier to pour into my mold. In my liquid soap, it helps to break up/dissolve the paste much more quickly and easily. And in my lotions it acts as a humectant, drawing moisture to the skin.

also, I have decided to make only ALL NATURAL soaps, so, I would say that means only adding in natural preservatives, like I do in sugar scrubs, I use vitamin E. so, instead of the polysorbate 80, can i just do vitamin E??

Polysorbate 80 is not a preservative (it's an emulsifier), and actually, neither is vitamin E (it's an antioxidant). Here is an excellent and very informative atricle on the differences between preservatives and antioxidants by someone I hold in very high esteem: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2009/04/preservatives.html

To be honest, I actually don't add any preservatives to my soap at all, whether liquid or bar soap. If you read very far on any of the forums you will soon run into 2 schools of thought on that subject with some very heated (and some not-so- heated) debates surrounding it by very qualified scientific-minded people on both sides. I've waded through many of the arguments/debates, weighed all the pros and cons, and speaking only for myself, I came to the conclusion that they would be wasteful over-kill in my formulas. Now my lotions are an entirely different matter altogether- in those I 100% insist on using a very good preservative in those, no if's, and's, but's about it- but I really can't justify their use in my soap. The only time I would ever consider using one in my soap, it would be for liquid soap, and only if I decided to super-dilute it in order to package it for use in one of those foamer-type bottles.

and all this talk of 2 percents this, and 3 percent that...wow, please direct me to where I can find MEANING to that please?

You can't find a better explanation than this (he makes things so simple!): http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/coldprocesssoapmaking/a/measvspercent.htm

and a calculator?

I use this one for my hard/bar soap: http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

and this one for my liquid soaps: http://summerbeemeadow.com/content/advanced-calculator-solid-cream-or-liquid-soaps


I bought a stick blender, but its plastic, and has a metal cutter blade....Sounds like this WONT work, and I need an all metal stick blade or use a Large Wire Wisk, right?

A wire whisk is perfectly fine. That's all that I use for the initial stage where I am stirring my hot, molten batter to bring it to the 'flying bubble stage'. If you decide you want to use a stickblender for that stage, then yes- I would invest in a stickblender with a metal shaft, but otherwise, no, it's not necessary. Now, I do use a stickblender later on when I'm diluting, but I've found that my Hamilton Beach stickblender with the plastic shaft works just as fine for that particular stage as my stickblender with a metal shaft (although the batter is quite warm then, it's not as red-hot anymore). A stickblender with a plastic shaft is also perfectly fine for making hard soap, too (that's all I use for my hard bars).

IrishLass :)
 
I just got a couple of foamer bottles a couple of weeks ago, and I did not have to thin my liquid soap at all. Of course, my liquid soap is LIQUID. Not honey consistency or anything. I am going to get some sodium lactate to try that method. I just found some at Lotioncrafters.
 
Okay! Here's Part II!


You have a lot of good oils there, but it's best to keep things simple when first starting out making soap. If it were me and I was just starting out, I would focus mainly on utilizing these at first: Palm oil, olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, shea butter and/or, cocoa butter. You can make some pretty awesome soap with a combo of any of those.


SL = sodium lactate. It's an additive I like to add to my soap (both bar soap and liquid soap), and also my lotions. It's one of those additives that serves many purposes depending what you add it into. For example, in my CP (cold-processed bar soap), it lends a creamy 'feel' to my lather and it makes the soap firmer and easier to unmold. In my HP (hot-processed bar soap), it makes my cooked soap batter more smooth and flowing so that it's easier to pour into my mold. In my liquid soap, it helps to break up/dissolve the paste much more quickly and easily. And in my lotions it acts as a humectant, drawing moisture to the skin.



Polysorbate 80 is not a preservative (it's an emulsifier), and actually, neither is vitamin E (it's an antioxidant). Here is an excellent and very informative atricle on the differences between preservatives and antioxidants by someone I hold in very high esteem: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2009/04/preservatives.html

To be honest, I actually don't add any preservatives to my soap at all, whether liquid or bar soap. If you read very far on any of the forums you will soon run into 2 schools of thought on that subject with some very heated (and some not-so- heated) debates surrounding it by very qualified scientific-minded people on both sides. I've waded through many of the arguments/debates, weighed all the pros and cons, and speaking only for myself, I came to the conclusion that they would be wasteful over-kill in my formulas. Now my lotions are an entirely different matter altogether- in those I 100% insist on using a very good preservative in those, no if's, and's, but's about it- but I really can't justify their use in my soap. The only time I would ever consider using one in my soap, it would be for liquid soap, and only if I decided to super-dilute it in order to package it for use in one of those foamer-type bottles.



You can't find a better explanation than this (he makes things so simple!): http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/coldprocesssoapmaking/a/measvspercent.htm



I use this one for my hard/bar soap: http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

and this one for my liquid soaps: http://summerbeemeadow.com/content/advanced-calculator-solid-cream-or-liquid-soaps




A wire whisk is perfectly fine. That's all that I use for the initial stage where I am stirring my hot, molten batter to bring it to the 'flying bubble stage'. If you decide you want to use a stickblender for that stage, then yes- I would invest in a stickblender with a metal shaft, but otherwise, no, it's not necessary. Now, I do use a stickblender later on when I'm diluting, but I've found that my Hamilton Beach stickblender with the plastic shaft works just as fine for that particular stage as my stickblender with a metal shaft (although the batter is quite warm then, it's not as red-hot anymore). A stickblender with a plastic shaft is also perfectly fine for making hard soap, too (that's all I use for my hard bars).

IrishLass :)

Well, I do NOT know how to answer you except to say THANK YOU, I know you know what i am talking about when I say this. I think you DO understand how NEW I am at this. I humbly thank you. I learned alot, and to answer in simple terms, I think I need to LEARN before I DO. I actually see that. I thank you with all of my heart
 
Wow! Irish Lass, you're simply amazing. I'm soooo thankful for you posting your procedure on the glycerin method. I've been using Catherine Failor's recipe's for over and year. She's a foremost authority but I'm getting tired of the balancing act between excess KOH and boric acid. Then there's the problem with scent separation. I have many mason jars sitting there with ugly separation that I will only use in my bathroom sink dispensers. I was really starting to feel like a liquid soap failure! Not only am I going to try your method, I'm going to try PS80 as well. If it doesn't fix what I've got sitting, maybe I can avoid the issues in future. Irish Lass, you totally rock! :clap:
 
Hi ladies, thank you for this thread! I tried the recipe posted by Irish Lass (thank you! ) and I had a question. I diluted it today per instructions and added the sodium lactate as indicated. I stick blended when the paste was soft enough and let it sit to clarify. A few hours later, I went to check on it and it has a thick, cream colored layer and the liquid below is honey colored and consistency is like honey. I tried stick blending the creamy layer into the honey colored liquid soap, but it just separated again. What is that and what do I do? Any help is greatly appreciated.

20140709_113029.jpg


20140709_113050.jpg
 
Hi ladies, thank you for this thread! I tried the recipe posted by Irish Lass (thank you! ) and I had a question. I diluted it today per instructions and added the sodium lactate as indicated. I stick blended when the paste was soft enough and let it sit to clarify. A few hours later, I went to check on it and it has a thick, cream colored layer and the liquid below is honey colored and consistency is like honey. I tried stick blending the creamy layer into the honey colored liquid soap, but it just separated again. What is that and what do I do? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum, Sweet_Vivi! :wave:

I completely understand your concern, but there's no need to worry- it actually looks and sounds like things are progressing along in the same way as they normally do for me. Here is a pic of my soap taken at the very same stage as yours is now (I use canning jars to dilute because I don't have a designated soap crockpot):

IMG_0958Cropped10DilutionGLSSettlingSmall.JPG


Anyway, that nice white foamy head on top will go away the longer you let it sit. This is where having lots of patience comes in handy.

Make sure you keep it covered tightly as it sits. Oh, and a little heat helps, too. I leave my jar in my pot of hot water (off the burner) as I'm waiting for the head to dissolve into the main body of soap.

Every once in a while, I'll spray the surface of the foamy head with a spritz or 2 of alcohol that I keep on hand in a small spray bottle (it helps to knock the air out of some the foam). Go easy on the spraying, though, or else your soap may come out too thin. Just a judicial spritz or 2 every once in awhile to knock down a little bit of some of the very top surface of the foam is plenty enough to help things along.

At this point, time is your best friend. Just leave it alone to do it's thing. If the foamy head is still there after a day or 2 and there is a solid blob underneath the lighter foamy stuff, just add more water, apply a little heat, and stickblend it in- but add the water just a little bit at a time- as little as 1/2 to 1 mL at a time. I know that that seems like it would be too small of an amount to have any kind of an effect, but trust me- it's not as small as one might think.

Please keep us posted on the progress!

IrishLass :)
 
Last edited:
Thankyou for putting in the time and effort to share this tutorial.
That is the simplest version of liquid soap i have ever read, and i now have a renewed interest in making some.

You are a great lady :razz:
 
Please keep us posted on the progress!

IrishLass :)

Thank you so much, IrishLass! :wink: I'm sorry it took me so long to update, but for some reason I wasn't able to log on from my phone and had to wait to get to a computer. I had a thick blob sitting on top, as you said, and I diluted with more water and everything turned out perfectly. Since then, I've made two more batches (I get obsessive at times...LOL); one with no superfat and one with 2% superfat. So far, so good. :) PH is testing 8. Thank you so much for all your help! I look forward to continuing to learn and hopefully play around with some recipes. :D
 
Yay! I'm so glad to hear things turned out great! I knew that they would, but it's great to hear it all the same. :) I've found the glycerin method to be so forgiving (as you yourself just found out). It's so simple that I just can't see myself making liquid soap any other way.

I'm not surprised at all to hear that you made 2 more batches. Once you get one successful batch under your belt, it's very hard not to want to make gobs and gobs more (at least for me)! lol


IrishLass :)
 
Hi! I am also new to liquid soapmaking. I use soapcalc for hard bars..but for liquid soap how much water percent should i use while calculating? In the video i saw 1 oz glycerin with 3 oz lye.. is the glycerin amount not very less? As this is my first try,i have entered the total oil weight to be 300 grams. I used 35% as water percent.. the other oils being
castor oil- 10%- 30 g ,
coconut oil- 25%- 75 g,
Olive oil- 65% - 195 g. Which gave water- 105 g and KOH - 66 g.. does that mean i should use 105 g of glycerin in place of water and continue with the same procedure as mentioned? And we need not check temperatures? What would be the temperature of adding lye and oils? Or just add it when oils are melted and glycerin boiling? When do we need to off and on the crockpot? After adding boiled water for neutrality, do we need to leave it overnight? I read it somewhere to leave it overnight and heat the mixture again in the morning and then mix it. Would using stick blender not create foams?
 
1 oz glycerin with 3 oz lye
you mean 1oz lye and 3oz glycerin?

does that mean i should use 105 g of glycerin in place of water and continue with the same procedure as mentioned?
i suggest using 3:1 water:lye ratio when doing the glycerin method. so, for 66 gr of lye, you will need 198 gr of glycerin. KOH needs more water to dissolve than NaOH if i remember correctly.

And we need not check temperatures? What would be the temperature of adding lye and oils? Or just add it when oils are melted and glycerin boiling?
don't worry too much about temp when doing hot process. as per soaping101 video, you heat the glycerin, mix in the lye till everything is dissolved. after that, add the mixture to your oils. i assume you are using a crockpot?

When do we need to off and on the crockpot? After adding boiled water for neutrality, do we need to leave it overnight? I read it somewhere to leave it overnight and heat the mixture again in the morning and then mix it. Would using stick blender not create foams?
after your paste is done and you are ready to dilute, put the water and turn the crockpot on warm/low and leave it overnight. again, follow soaping101 video, she made it very clear on the steps. i personally do not use SB when diluting.

are you using soapcalc? if so, there is a box to tick that accounts for the purity of KOH. afaik, the KOH these days in the market is only 90% purity. make sure to tick that box and let the calc do the calculation for you. this way, you don't need to neutralize anymore.

i also suggest keeping your SF level none-low to ensure a clear soap. if you don't care so much about color, please disregard this.
 
Last edited:
I agree with everything seven said with one exception. I would use 1% superfat just to ensure that your soap is not lye heavy in the case of a slight error on weights. There is just no breathing room with 0% superfat. And I don't want you to have to learn to neutralize.

Also, leave the water amount alone when setting your recipe up in the lye calculator. The 38% is fine. Just use the glycerin in place of the correct amount of water. This does not include dilution water. This is just paste water.

And no, you use a spoon or spatula during dilution, not a stick blender.
 
Thanx seven and susie.. i am almost clear of my doubts..i will try my first attempt today..then tell u the results..thanks a lot.
 
Hey! Tried my first liquid soap today..started with glycerin. it was first cloudy with bubbles and then clear..oils were slightly warm,around 94°f. I added glycerin to oils..it was slightly opaque,little cloudy,then turned dark and transparent ,then thick amber color,then a sticky paste like jaggery mixed in water,then again slightly transparent thin liquid..then honey like liquid with a foamy top..then the bubbles started flying in the air..here i stopped blending and put the lid on with crockpot on low..after an hour nothing changed..again after an hour nothing happened, so i whisked it continuously and it was a creamy and foamy mixture..i though something went wrong so i checked the post again..and turned off the pot
 
Actually i was confused between many pages and videos and was expecting different stages on slow cooking.. so,after turning it off,it became hard and sticky and creamy color after half hour..i did clarity test..water was very clear..then i added water in 3:1 proportion of paste and water..my paste weighed 525 grams,i multiplied it by 3,which gave me 1575 grams of water..then i again went through this thread,and it mentions to take 75% water,that would be around 945 something.. did i add wrong amount of water? Will it be too thin? I have left it in the pot on warm and will check it tomorrow, then will update and send pics.
 
congrats on your first LS! :)

stages can be different b/w soapmakers, so don't stress about it. as for dilution, 3:1 is a bit much me thinks, it's going to make a very thin soap. i suggest 1:1 first and add more water if it seems to thick.
 
:-( yes..looks very very watery at present ..lets see what it turns out tomorrow.. i will post pics..is there no way to thicken it now? I did 3:1 as it was mentioned in the video..it looked very thick and clear..mine is too thin.
 
What if i make another 500 grams paste and add that to the present soap mixture? Would it not balance the amount? it would be 1:1 ratio.
 
Back
Top