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    Hand Sanitizer

    That would be like rubbing glycerin on your hands: a sticky mess. Try instead a teaspoon of glycerin, 3/4 cup everclear, and 1/4 cup water. Add another teaspoon of glycerin if it doesn't feel moisturizing enough. (I don't know why anyone would suggest this recipe. Glycerin basically feels like...
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    Soap Ingredients

    Those sites offer some explanation of the milling process, but not much. There's more in this patent, if you feel like some academic reading: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2133666.html My current understanding of what happens during the milling, plodding, and stamping steps is the...
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    SLS in CP/HP soap

    It's like wine making. People say during aging thef "integrate" or become sweeter or less harsh, even when aged in glass or steel. At first it drove me nuts when people said that—fermentation is finished and the flavors are already in the carboy and sealed, how can they change? It turns out...
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    SLS in CP/HP soap

    That's getting closer but she doesn't say why. I asked her directly in the thread about cure chemistry: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/cure-time.35831/page-5#post-809299
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    Cure time...

    @DeeAnna You wrote on your site that soap becomes milder after a lengthy cure, and everyone is telling me the same thing in another thread, but nobody seems to know why. Is this related to the changes in crystal/liquid phases which you described earlier, or is it another phenomenon?
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    Idea: spoiled milk and fryer oil soap

    The most important think is to not pour the oil down the drain. Beyond that, follow your interests. If I were you, I'd see if I could make the fry oil into good soap. See if you can prevent DOS by using [(BHT or ROE) and EDTA and sodium citrate]. See if you can cover the smell with something...
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    SLS in CP/HP soap

    Thanks for the link. Doesn't explain how soap could become more mild over time, though. That process determines the relative proportions of different fatty acids in the first and subsequent washings within a session. What about liquid soap? That doesn't crystallize, but does it become more mild...
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    SLS in CP/HP soap

    To clarify, I've never made a high coconut oil soap. The soaps I find irritating contain 15-20%. If some soaps become less harsh during cure, that's news to me! Is the physical process understood? My intuition says crystallization shouldn't affect harshness, but hydrolysis of triglycerides might.
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    SLS in CP/HP soap

    Oh, I was unaware the harshness could change during curing. I'll look out for that and see if I can notice it in the future. Though I wonder if that's just because of solubility--a more soluble soap could be more harsh due to more product being applied.
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    SLS in CP/HP soap

    This soap is not harsh. The other soaps I made which contain coconut oil are harsh, except the one that had high SF (due to having used years old improperly stored lye). And soaps don't need weeks to fully saponify unless you did something strange.
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    SLS in CP/HP soap

    In the shower, this soap is ridiculously soluble and feels very cleansing, yet rinses off more easily than my last soap (high lard, some coconut). I'm not sure if the SLS has any effect. Are all bastille soaps like this? I wasn't terribly impressed with the visual appearance of the lather, but...
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    SLS in CP/HP soap

    Okay, my initial observations on this recipe: It is gentle on skin, even though my skin is still a touch irritated from washing hands with a more typical soap in the previous days. It doesn't feel like it's leaving a film on my skin, unlike many of the more traditional soaps I made. The oleic...
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    SLS in CP/HP soap

    I didn't take notes on every batch, but I think I have gone as low as 12% coconut oil and found that irritating. (Almost every batch was low SF, since I didn't realize I had fairly pure lye.) The principles surrounding coconut oil drive me nuts: we depend primarily on one oil to ensure good...
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    SLS in CP/HP soap

    (I've never been one to shy away from controversy.) I hate what sodium cocoate does to my hands. I have a 0-2% superfat bar with at most 20% coconut oil. It doesn't merely dry my hands; it makes them feel like the skin is rough and has been abraded. The bar passes the zap test even when I cut...
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    Antibacterial Soap

    @Water Boy 1 Since my uses are different than yours, the best I can do is help you look up what you need. For bleach based sanitizers, first figure out what you want to do with it. You can't put it in soap, but can you wash down places that pathogens are transmitted? Next, you want to google...
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    Making the best soap I can with quench oil (canola)

    The EDTA is to chelate the metal contamination in the oil. (Metals catalyze oil oxidation, but not all metals have the same effect or are active at the same temperatures.) The antioxidant is to prevent further harm from oxidation that already occurred due to heat and catalysts. I decided to...
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    Antibacterial Soap

    Have you first verified that it makes a difference? My understanding is that the contact time is too short, so all you are doing is dumping an antibacterial agent into the water system. What are the current best practices in solving this problem? You are not the first organization to help with...
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    Making the best soap I can with quench oil (canola)

    I'm going to use a couple liters of canola oil to quench some kitchen knives after heat treatment. That means the oil will be contaminated with metal, and a small percent of the oil will have been heated to vaporization temperature or set aflame. The heat will cause oxidation and...
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    Is this s lye burn?

    Perhaps the key is that eyes and hands are different. A few months ago I got something caustic on my hands, and the slippery feeling seemed like it just wouldn't go away. The nearest acid to hand was a jar of lacto-fermenting vegetables! I splashed a bit of the liquid on my hand and the slippery...
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    Oven Rebatch (CP)

    It would happen, but not in the way you'd like. You are mixing a strong acid with a salt (composed of weaker acids: fatty acids). The sodium will form a salt with the citric acid, leaving free fatty acids. I welcome corrections on the best way to characterize/describe this interaction.
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