Liquid soap: Is a preservative necessary?

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Mildreds.naturals

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I'm seeing info that because of the high PH of soap, preservatives are not necessary. I'm also hearing liquid soap can go rancid. I'm not sure what to belive. I know DOS with bar soap is common.

If a preservative is needed for certain liquid soap recipies, what do you suggest? I've heard vitamin E, but then i see info that vitamin e is not REALLY a preservative (but an antioxidant) so again, mixed reviews :/

WHy don't we have a Liquid Soap category instead of mixing bar/liquid soap together?
 
Whether or not you need a preservative depends on how thin you dilute your soap. If you leave it thicker, then you don't need one. But if you dilute it to use in a foamer bottle, then you definitely need to add a preservative because of the higher amount of water in it. And that is correct: GSE, ROE and Vit. E are all antioxidants, not preservatives. The vitamin E is nice for the skin but I wouldn't use it in a wash off product either.
 
i also would like to know the answer to this question.i want to make a 100p/c goats milk shampoo but want a long shelf life.i'm a bit worried that the shampoo may dis-coluor or go rancid...help please.oh a recipe would be great too :)
 
I always use a preservative in my diluted liquid soap.
can you share with me which preservatives you use? i am wanting as natural as possible for 100p/c goat milk shampoo for pets. any recipes would be greatly appreciated :)
 
Phenonip or Liquid Germall Plus. Although it does not use goat's milk, there should be a recipe for glycerin liquid soap on the forum. This is the easiest and best recipe I have found. I got this from a YouTube video. Here is is again:

Castor Oil 3.59 oz
Coconut Oil 11.43 oz
Palm .98 oz
KOH 3.5 oz
Glycerin 10.44 oz


Use glycerin instead of water. Melt the oils in a crock pot. Heat glycerin on direct heat. Use a medium pot to keep the glycerine and lye from boiling over. Add the lye to the hot glycerine. Stir constantly while continuing to heat on low heat. Stir until all the lye is dissolved. Pour lye mixture into melted oils while stick blending. In the video she shows the paste testing neutral after one hour. I cooked my soap paste for several hours and left it set in the crocpot that was turned off and with the lid on for three days before my soap paste tested neutral. I use Phenolphthalein solution to test a sample of my paste. If it shows dark pink it is not ready. When the test show clear, then your soap is read to dilute and use. I used about 19 ounces of distilled water to dilute the paste I added .3% liquid Germall Plus to the cooled and diluted soap. Just scent the soap you put in a container for use, that way, you can try out different scents. This soap turned out fairly clear.

Here is another version of glycerin liquid soap:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VUGV_H7bZU[/ame]
 
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can you share with me which preservatives you use? i am wanting as natural as possible for 100p/c goat milk shampoo for pets. any recipes would be greatly appreciated :)

Annie,

Will the goats milk produce a white shampoo that is not clear?
 
Phenonip or Liquid Germall Plus. Although it does not use goat's milk, there should be a recipe for glycerin liquid soap on the forum. This is the easiest and best recipe I have found. I got this from a YouTube video. Here is is again:

Castor Oil 3.59 oz
Coconut Oil 11.43 oz
Palm .98 oz
KOH 3.5 oz
Glycerin 10.44 oz

It probably was the Palm that made it slightly cloudy. This recipie reflects an added 10% lye, am I correct? While the method used in the video works VERY well, wouldn't that recipe produce a very drying soap? That's a lot of coconut! :). I'm still learning, by the way. The recipe is mostly coconut and also is very concentrated. The amount of paste weight with this recipe will be just shy of 30oz so by adding 19oz water, that would mean a 58% concentration, right?

Also, how did you come up with 10.44 ounces of glycerin? I thought the glycerin was just supposed to be 2:1 for the KOH. Is the extra glycerin for sequestering or something else? Thanks for any info in advance

I made a few coconut recipes that cleaned very well but left my hands so dry. They had had 35% coconut in them and were diluted to about 33-38% or so. Made very clear soap and bubbled a lot. Diluting them to 20% helped on the drying.
 
As I said, I got this recipe from a YouTube video and no it isn't at all drying for me. I don't over-dilute because I don't want to have to use a thickener. I am by no means an expert. I usually run a new recipe through a lye calculator to see that it will work. My Soap Maker 3 Pro gives this a 6% superfat. I add more glycerin because this soap makes a really thick paste and it takes longer to test neutral with less glycerin. You can cut the glycerin back to 9 oz if desired. All I can tell you is that it has worked great for me.
 
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Can I ask a question of lsg or anyone who wants to chime in..?

Having just made my first liquid soap with coconut & olive, can I use
it for the soaping101 video on making milk shampoo?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWkioBbHgYg[/ame]

I mixed it using water instead of glycerin, but could it still work or
should I make a new batch using the glycerin?

p.s. can I make a double batch or more of the glycerin soap and save it undiluted in
the fridge since the shampoo only lasts a week or so according to her vid?
Yegads, there is so much to try here! Why oh why did I ever find SMF?!?!
 
Smee, I don't know why you couldn't use your liquid soap base to do the same thing as she did on the video, but I would add a preservative. I would just experiment with a small amount first.
 
Can I ask a question of lsg or anyone who wants to chime in..?

Having just made my first liquid soap with coconut & olive, can I use
it for the soaping101 video on making milk shampoo?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWkioBbHgYg

I mixed it using water instead of glycerin, but could it still work or
should I make a new batch using the glycerin?

p.s. can I make a double batch or more of the glycerin soap and save it undiluted in
the fridge since the shampoo only lasts a week or so according to her vid?
Yegads, there is so much to try here! Why oh why did I ever find SMF?!?!

I made this last night. I used her "castile" base but I multiplied the ingredients by 5 so I could use most of the can. The shampoo had very few bubbles and I really had to work to get any kind of lather but it felt nice. It didn't smell like coconut at all, so if you expect that, don't. I was disappointed to find the shampoo had separated by morning after showering last night. The coconut milk lists polysorbate on the can as one of the ingredients but I guess it wasn't enough to keep it all emulsified. I would make this and leave it in the refrigerator, refilling your shampoo bottle as needed. It will last longer than a week this way.
 
Smee, I don't know why you couldn't use your liquid soap base to do the same thing as she did on the video, but I would add a preservative. I would just experiment with a small amount first.

I went ahead and tried a small small batch using heavy cream instead of
coconut milk. Used it yesterday and loved it. Today I see it's already
separated a bit, so glad it was a small small batch. Since I hadn't added
any preservative, I'm thinking I'll pitch this. When I make another batch
I'll add some Germaben or something and keep it in the fridge.

Thanks for your help, lgs!
 
Hello lsg,
I want to be sure I understand the .3% of preservative.

I used about 19 ounces of distilled water to dilute the paste I added .3% liquid Germall Plus to the cooled and diluted soap.

So for 49 oz. of diluted soap you add .3% of that amount in liquid Germall Plus?

Is this correct: .3% of 49 oz.= 0.147 oz. of Germall Plus added as a preservative. Or am I getting this all wrong?

Carolyn
 
You would weigh the total amount of diluted soap and take that times .3%
Your calculations look good to me.
 
Hello lsg,
I want to be sure I understand the .3% of preservative.



So for 49 oz. of diluted soap you add .3% of that amount in liquid Germall Plus?

Is this correct: .3% of 49 oz.= 0.147 oz. of Germall Plus added as a preservative. Or am I getting this all wrong?

Carolyn

yes, the math would then be 49 x .003

Germaben, phenonip and germall... do these cloud liquid soap?
 
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