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Different oils will give different pH when used for soap making, that is sure. However as measuring exact pH is difficult without lab equipment, I wish someone (DeAnna or anyone else with real chemistry knowledge) to tell me if I am right with the hypothesis that higher SAP value will produce a...

Since this answer http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showpost.php?p=409979&postcount=10 I wrote some time ago, I have wanted to create a mathematical model for how cleansing a soap is. As pointed out in the answer I wrote earlier, soapcalc is definitely not good at telling how cleansing a soap is...

Yesterday I made salted out "Aleppo" soap with 20% Laurel Berry oil. I begun like with CP. I poured at trace into silicone molds and let it set for some time. Then I put it into oven and forced gelling. That soap I dissolved into a lot of water. It looked like a slightly green juice...

Today we put a bit of different EOs in plastic cups. The bottoms of the cups got completely dissolved by the oils. All EOs from citrus fruits had very fast reaction. Lavender looks to be the least dangerous.

Even if you superfat a soap, it will be to some degree alkaline. Why is this? Lye + excess of acids should not end up being alkaline. Is it because the NaOH solution gets too weak for breaking the fatty acids away from the oils and the whole process halts? Could this explain why even fully...

Today I washed with the most wonderful soap I have ever tried. It is a salted out Castile. I cut off a piece even though it had not fully dried yet. No other soap has been feeling as good as this one. This soap was washed with a lot of water, three times, and three times salted out from the...

When testing the soap with phenolphthalein I have noticed one strange thing: If you drop it directly on a dry soap you will not see anything red. If you take a few drips of water and let the soap soak a bit and then drip phenolphthalein, it will turn really pink. Why is this happening and why...

I have made several batches of Castile liquid soap and they work great. However some of my potential customers do not like how the soap easily forms a long thread when you get it from the dispencer. Is there anything I could do in order to reduce the threads? I do not want any customer to...

I only know about two ways of making a soap milder, without swapping the oils for milder ones, both having their problem: super-fatting and adding salt. Super-fatting has the problem with leaving a grease film on the hand, which some do not like at all. This might be annoying when making a bar...

I have been making several different shaving soaps. However, apparently I have very sensitive skin as most soaps are more than what my face can handle. So far I have learned that all shaving soaps need at least 40% stearic acid. How much of the rest of the fatty acids do your best shaving soaps...

I made a batch of Castile (lightly scented with a bit of lavender EO) one week before Christmas. Now some strange white spots have been appearing on them. This is not the first time I have been seeing white spots on Castile. I made a 100% Castile last summer (totally unscented). They also...

I have been reading the latest time about benefits of having oatmeal in soap and I have been checking up a few recipes with oatmeal. However, I have a few question I have not managed to find the answers to: 1. Has anyone been experiencing some rottening or mold growth because of oatmeal in the...

I wish to have a really advanced book about soap making. Most books contains the basic of cold processing and then a lot of recipes. I do not care about the recipes as much as I would care about theory. With theory I can formulate infinite amount of recipes. I wish to have a book that have a...

I am washing my wooden floor with a very higly superfatted flax-seed liquid soap. This soap I am making myself and it has a very good lather. Soapcalc is saying it should have no bubbles at all. Now flax-seed oil is having neither Lauric nor Myristic fatty acides, which would normally give...

I have been searching for a good supplier of liquid soap dispenser bottles (for liquid Castile soap). I would prefer opaque bottles with a non-foaming pump. We are located in EU, so to avoid extra taxes and shipping costs we would need a good European supplier. What supplier would you recommend?

I would want to make Aleppo soap. However, it seems to be difficult to find a supplier of Laurel Berry Oil. Could anyone, please, give a link to a good supplier of Laurel Berry Oil? We are located in Europe, so we prefer European suppliers, but we are not against buying from outside of Europe if...

I would need help in formulating a really mild vegetarian shaving soap. I have a such dry skin, that even just washing with Castile soap might be too much sometimes. Would it be possible to make a shaving soap without coconut oil? My latest shaving soap had 30% coconut oil and super-fatted at...

Most shaving soaps are high in stearic acid. Many claims it is impossible to make one without. However I would want to make an organic vegan shaving soap. It is very difficult to find stearic acid fullfilling those requirements. When reading about oil properties it looks like palm oil is...

I have been planning to make some Rooibos colored soap. What is the best way to get the color: Making a "tea" to which you add lye or oil infusion? Also, what amount of Rooibos should I use?

This is how I currently have made my small batches (1.5 litres of "vaseline" concentrate): I mix the water and lye together but not letting it cool down. I pour it into olive oil (the oil is at room temperature). This will become a quite hot mixture that I mix a bit past the trace stage. This I...