A Watery Question...

[vedwards]

I've been testing some of the soaps I've made, and I've been really happy thus far. BUT, I took a bar to work. It seemed slippery, and hard to get it all off. So I thought maybe an additive I put in the bar (Its CP) was to blame, even though the other half of the batch worked beauitfully at home.

So I threw the bar out. I brought in a different bar from a different CP batch. I LOVE it at home. But I'm having a similiar issue here - it gets slick and won't seem to wash all the way off.

I have the same problem with a dollar store bottle of hand soap I brought in as well, which I just assumed it was because it was really cheap handsoap.

Can hard/soft water make a bar of soap do that?

 

[DeeAnna]

Yes, soft water will do this.

 

[vedwards]

Yes, soft water will do this.

Is there something I should change in my recipes, or is it just a fact of life when you have that kind of water?

 

[DeeAnna]

Pretty much something that happens when you use lye-based soap in very soft water that's been softened with sodium treatment (like a home water softener). I don't know of any particular way of preventing it, short of reducing the amount of softening done to the water.

edit: You did not share your recipe, but I'm guessing perhaps your soap recipe may be one that's high in oleic acid. This can make the soap bar and its lather more slippery even with "normal" water. Just a total guess -- I could be easily wrong. Unless you plan to use your soap at work a lot and this issue really bothers you, I'd not bother with tweaking your recipe if you like it well enough for home use.

another edit: It is also possible that if you normally bathe in harder water, you may have gotten used to a film of soap scum on your skin and consider that "normal". If so, then when you use soap in softened water and little or no scum coats your skin, it just feels weird.

 

[vedwards]

Pretty much something that happens when you use lye-based soap in very soft water. I don't know of any particular way of preventing it, short of reducing the amount of softening done to the water.

edit: You did not share your recipe, but I'm guessing perhaps your soap recipe may be one that's high in oleic acid. This can make the soap bar and its lather more slippery even with "normal" water. Just a total guess -- I could be easily wrong. Unless you plan to use your soap at work a lot and this issue really bothers you, I'd not bother with tweaking your recipe if you like it well enough for home use.

another edit: It is also possible that if you normally bathe in harder water, you may have gotten used to a film of soap scum on your skin and consider that "normal". If so, then when you use soap in softened water and little or no scum coats your skin, it just feels weird.

Ok. Thanks! I've only ever dealt with hard water or in the middle, never soft, so I wasn't sure what to make of it.

 

[DeeAnna]

I'm guessing, then, that your perception of what feels like "clean" might be the main issue.

 

[vedwards]

Makes sense. I just won't worry about it then!

 

[kchaystack]

I found I have REALLY soft water in my new home when I moved to Louisiana. All of the soaps I made in MI and even the soaps from swaps with EDTA made me felt like I still had soap on, or I had applied lotion.

I can use my 80% coconut salt bars (with 20% SF) and not get the feeling that I have not rinsed all the soap off and it does not make my skin feel tight and stripped, like it did in MI, even after a 8 month sure. I tried the salt bars after Susie suggested higher CO. Since she has lived in the same area for a long time she is the expert.

So I would suggest upping the CO in recipes you are going to use in soft water.


I still don't like drinking the tap water. It tastes weirdly sweet to me. Thank goodness for the water cooler!

 

[lenarenee]

I'm guessing, then, that your perception of what feels like "clean" might be the main issue.

I sent soap (minus sodium citrate) to a friend in Florida with very hard water.
Soapcalc states oleic as 40. She was ecstatic over the squeaky clean sound and feeling she got from my soap whereas many think squeaky clean is a bad sign.

With sodium citrate, I love my soap in with our potassium softened water. Most people I give my soap to have hard water and also love it. Go figure.