First try at liquid soap

[LauraHoosier]

I think I handled all the "wth??" moments pretty well. My crockpot went wonky and on low was going up to 180F+. I can't say I saw too many of the phases because of this. I used David's tutorial and recipe except I used citric acid to neutralize since it was all I had. I forgot to pick up the Borax last night. :roll:

It seemed to hit the first few phases fine then hit hard taffy phase and seemed to stay there. That's when I found out the temp was way off from what it had been at for the first hour of cooking. I mashed it as best I could and worked it over every 30 mins for the next 3 hours then turned it off and added my boiling hot water. The chunks went nice and see through in no time so I slapped the lid on it and went to bed.

This morning it still wasn't completely dissolved so I turned the pot back on and hit it with the stick blender and it smoothed out right away but it wasn't clear now. It kept getting this on top and while it would mix right back in, a skin would form again on the soap, turn into this and I'd mix it back in.


I went about neutralizing with 10g citric acid and 40g boiling water. Now from the stick blending it was not clear at all so I'm hoping it clears up but while its not crucial it does but it did make watching the neutralizing in action not possible. I stirred like mad until all the white bits were gone and shut the crockpot off again and got out my fragrance and color.

Well lemme tell ya, Lemon Verbena seizes liquid soap apparently. My fault for not checking up on if it behaved well or not. Shame on me. 2 cups of boiling water fixed it fine and thank goodness my lotion stuff arrived yesterday because in it was glycerin. So I read up on it and added 3 oz to thicken up the soap, added a few drops of green color, stirred well again and then found my jug missing. Had to improvise and used our sun tea jar lol.

The finished product before sequestering. Not sure what to think of that last pic but hoping its just tiny bubble and that it goes away.

 

[adelej]

goodness, the forum keeps glitching out for me... one last try:

Mine did the same thing, pretty much took the same amount of time too.

The citric acid definitely made it go from crystal clear to slightly clouded. No doubt about it. But I added some colour and shimmer mica so it's not an issue for me.

The clear one however, I have to say looks like a jar of pee. Totally gross looking. I thought at first I was ok with the shade, but there's no way I'd put it in a clear bottle and use it. I may try to add some pearl or titanium dioxide and try to get it creamy looking.

 

[LauraHoosier]

I'd read that too much citric acid can cause cloudiness and I didn't need to add more then the first amount mixed. Its now very clear and it was, in fact, bubbles I was seeing in the last photo. Reminds me of lime Koolaid.

The clear one however, I have to say looks like a jar of pee. Totally gross looking.

LOL yeah I'd try adding a blue to see if that color, a greenish color, would be better.

 

[adelej]

Haha, totally will add a tad of blue to it. Green is much more desirable than pee-yellow!

Have to say I do quite like the colour of your green- it's not over the top but still very green. It's more 'natural' looking than my orange I have to say!

I used a little of mine to wash my hands last night- the silk and oat protein are very apparent even though I used only a very small amount. It's a very gentle soap.

I gotta say I have a feeling I'm going to be addicted to making liquid soap now... I'm plotting dish detergent next! I'll leave out the silk and glycerin but I guess I should test the one I made on dishes and see if it leaves any residue first.

 

[LauraHoosier]

Well my liquid soap is back to looking a lot like the last pic I posted. Cloudy. Going to wait it out for around another week and see what I've got. If it stays this way I'll add some super pearly white mica and run with it. About all I can do I think.

Got batch #2 in the crockpot now. Hubby wanted to help so he could see how it was made. Its always interesting to see how common household products are made, especially when you can make them in your own kitchen

 

[adelej]

Nice work!! I'm going to start another batch tonight when I get home from work.

It truly is amazing how easily we can make household cleaners from things most of us already have in the house...

I just ordered some EZ pearl and I'll see how that goes. Apparently it thickens as well as pearlizes...

 

[Moonblossom]

I just made my first batch of LS this morning! Mine is diluting in the pot as we speak. Mine stayed in the cottage cheese phase for quite awhile and then went straight to paste and translucent in 2 hours in my crock pot. Now I'm dying to get it diluted so I can see how it looks in a jar. I'll use citric acid to neutralize I think since I have more of that then borax.

 

[tryanything]

I wonder if the cloudiness could be "discoloration" from the FO. I used a vanilla FO when I made liquid soap and over about a week it got cloudy. Not terrible, but not as clear as it was when I first made it. There is also a really nice dark brown near the top where the soap is exposed to the air. I keep mixing it up to try and get it to evenly discolor.