Search results

@akseattle -- thanks for the kind words, but I don't think I'm the person you're thinking of. I've been known to recommend "taking it slow and keeping it simple" when learning soap making, but I don't teach soap making classes. Maybe you've confused me with someone else?

I make my ingredients list using the "what goes in the pot" method. And lard is ... well ... lard. I've never had anyone complain -- most people are far more interested in the fragrance than the ingredients list. And those who do read the list are usually interested in whether the soap contains...

In the chemistry field, I agree that pH 7 is considered to be a neutral pH. But in the handcrafted / hobby soap making, that's not the universal meaning. Neutral can mean whatever pH the soap has when it's made with "no lye excess and no fat excess" aka soap made using exact stoichometry. In...

There is no commonly agreed definition of "neutral" in the handcrafted soap making community so, no, that's not better. Most people who test the pH of soap are using test strips that only read to whole pH units. Sometimes that's all the precision that's needed -- the user doesn't need pH...

I agree with the others -- your soap should be fine. A tip for future problem solving: When you list the fats in percents and but list other ingredients in units of weight (or volume), there's really no way to evaluate the recipe for problems. For example, you said you used 4 tsp extra oil...

@mflo3812 -- "...Are there certain nut butters that have worked well for you? If someone had an allergy to nuts, would that be a problem for them putting it on their face?..." I can talk about the chemistry of soap and what fatty acids contribute what properties to soap. But I don't have...

If you don't want to use coconut oil, palm oil, shea butter, or mango butter in your soap for whatever reason, it's perfectly fine to not use them. People use a blend of fats to maximize the desirable properties of soap -- gentle cleansing, abundant lather, and reasonable life in the bath...

It's not salvageable. Honest. Don't make matters worse by adding KOH. Just soak it up in kitty litter or other absorbent material and discard in the household trash. Also I'm not quite sure what you're trying to accomplish with the glycerin. As Ali advised, dissolve KOH in water. Then add...

I haven't found that to be true in my experience with soap superfatted in the 2% to 5% range. I haven't played around with soap that's superfatted higher than that, except for a couple of batches of coconut oil soap with high superfat. What I do know is higher superfat reduces lather. And I...

If the only ingredient the manufacturer used to make this product is KOH, then, yes, it's 100% KOH. Nothing else should be listed in the ingredients list. But everything contains impurities. KOH (and NaOH) react easily with carbon dioxide gas in the air. They also absorb water from the air...

I don't make much HP soap, but yes, I know you can reserve some of the water to add later. Two things to keep in mind though -- you HAVE to dissolve the NaOH in no less than an equal weight of water. You cannot use less because the NaOH won't dissolve properly. The other thing is the reserved...

Could be bits of unmelted wax. It's pretty common problem if a person is new to using wax in their soap. Similar bumps also happen when soap is cut with a wire cutter. There are harder and softer regions in most soap loaves, and a wire will slide around the harder bits. The solution to that is...

100% olive oil soap (or soap that is mostly olive oil or other high-oleic fat) is always going to be highly soluble in water. And the water it absorbs is going to make a gelatinous oleic gel. These are basic properties of a high-oleic soap. You can cure this soap until it's as dry and as...

IIRC, no one did. Marah (who I think was Lady of 4 here on SMF) put her musings only on her blog after that, rather than argue her case in public forums or on other people's blogs. Yes, this is an entertaining re-read now, but grew to be exhausting at the time Edit: I stand corrected -- There...

Some types of soap are traditionally made from just one fat -- lard soap, tallow soap, olive oil soap, coconut oil soap are four examples. Some soap makers experiment with a single fat soap to learn more about what each fat does when turned into soap. I think SMF members have done this type of...

I highly doubt it's the cetearyl alcohol. Building up that much pressure is a pretty sure sign of microbial growth. My guess is inadequate sanitation of the work area, containers, or ingredients, and/or the use of additives that provide a food source for microbes. But without detailed...

Yes, you're right -- the fats used to make soap contain fatty acids. But fatty acids can be used in pure form to make soap -- fatty acids don't have to be locked into fats to make soap. So you can make soap with fats. Or you can make soap with just fatty acids. Or you can do a combination of...

If you're worried about the bars sticking together, you don't need to arrange them so they touch. That might be hard if you're using plastic wrap directly on the bars, but I can offer another possibility based on an experiment I've been doing for awhile now. I know this is a controversial...

I personally would be okay using dairy milk to make the soap paste, but I would dilute the paste only with distilled water. I'd expect sediment in this soap due to the milk solids that don't saponify. I don't use a preservative in soap paste, but I do add it to diluted soap, especially if the...

Awhile back, I learned any NaOH solution we'd normally use for soap making (in other words NaOH at 25% lye concentration or higher) will absorb water if left exposed to the open air. The higher the concentration, the faster the rate of absorption at a given % of relative humidity in the air, but...