What kind of water do you soap with?

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Jerry S

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I haven’t made any soap for a few months and have noticed that my supply of rain water has diminished considerably. I still have some but it’s pretty old, over 10 months. I just wondered if I can use regular water or should I go buy some distilled water. Maybe I can run the rain water that I have saved in 2 liter coke bottles through a filter of some kind. Maybe I could just filter it through a cheese cloth. It seems to be pretty clean but I can see little specks of black crude in the bottom. Maybe if I filter it and then put my lye in that water and let it set, it will kill any bacteria…what’s your thoughts?
 
You can strain the rain water and then boil it. I always use distilled water form my soaps. I have used rain water a couple of times.
 
I use distilled water, too. However, I have used water from the tap to top off if I don't have quite enough. I've read tap water isn't recommended because some water systems can have minerals or impurities which might cause problems.
 
Ditto everyone else. I use distilled even when I make tea for my liquid base. I don't always use it when I make milk soaps, but that's the only time.
 
I haven't had any problems using tap water, I have also used aloe juice, tea made with tap water, beer, wine, cows milk, coconut milk, and cucumber puree
 
Wow....thank you all for the nice tips....I have all kinds of options now. As a matter of fact filtering and then boiling my rain water might work as well. I am going to mix 1/2 & 1/2 water with Aloe Vera juice in one of my batches so maybe I'll still utilize that rain water. Lynda I never thought of using sea water....lol....I have an ocean of that not to far away. The salt in that might inhance the property of hardness in my bars which may be a plus, especially with the Castile type soaps. Tim884, your mentioned using wine. What is the plus side of using wine?
thanks...
 
I was hoping the wine would impart a nice red color but it was a deep brown color. The advantages of wine is the color and the sugars increase the lather of the bar. If you use wine make sure you boil it and cool it down possibly even freeze it. Alcohol won't behave nicely with lye and soap. It also has label appeal. Next time I use wine I plan on making a syrup and adding it to one part of soap and swirling it with the untinted soap base.
 
tlm884 said:
I haven't had any problems using tap water, I have also used aloe juice, tea made with tap water, beer, wine, cows milk, coconut milk, and cucumber puree
Click to expand...

A good reminder that you don't have to use just water. I made a HP wine batch this weekend and already it's bubbling like crazy. I love wine and beer in soap and I simmer the alcohol off, too. Wine turns brown because the lye reacts with the tannins.
 
Sometimes I think, my bad, I soap with tap. But so far there haven't been any problems from that. Just recipe and fragrance problems.
 
It's not bad to get water from the tap as long as there isn't any minerals or anything else which could cause a problem. I should mention that we have soft water which isn't as bad as hard water. I could use tap water all the time if I would just remember to buy a new cartridge for the water filter. :roll:
 
Hazel said:
It's not bad to get water from the tap as long as there isn't any minerals or anything else which could cause a problem. I should mention that we have soft water which isn't as bad as hard water. I could use tap water all the time if I would just remember to buy a new cartridge for the water filter. :roll:
Click to expand...

There might be some of those minerals. I heard someone say that the water here was hard, although good aquifer supposedly. I should pick up some distilled. It's easy enough to do and cheap.
 
I use tapwater. If I were having any problems with my bars, one of the first changes I'd make would be to use distilled, but it's fine. For me, making one's own soap is more about saving money, being resourceful, and not creating more post-consumer waste. I know a lot of ppl like to "geek out" on the pursuit of perceived purity, but I think that overspending defeats the purpose of DIY, even if distilled water is pretty cheap.

Shorter answer: if it's good enough for me to drink, then it's good enough for my soap :shock:
=rob
 
So what does aloe vera juice lend to the soap? I also use either distilled or purified water but I recently found some AV juice, but I don't really get what it should/could add to the soap.
 
Newbie more than anything it adds to label appeal. Aloe extract that you buy is 99% water then aloe vera extract powder and hopefully preservative.

Rob I agree with you. It cracks me up because before our yuppy selves got into making soap the only importance that water took on in soap was to have enough to create the lye solution (potash/potassium hydroxide) to create the soap. I am more concerned with what butters/oils/fats I am using as well as what additional ingredients I am using to create an amazing bar of soap.
 
Guess I'll stick with adding coconut milk as part of the liquids rather than aloe. Sounds pretty useless. Well, for soap, anyhow. I heard it's a good leave-on conditioner for your hair.
 

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