Can boric acid be used in body soaps ? I use it only for my laundry soap esp when I need stain removal.. I use baking soda in my soap. My friend insists that she learnt it in college. Is that a possibility - boric acid in body soaps ?
Boric acid
- Thread starter Sunibee
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ResolvableOwl
Notorious Lyear
Yes. Boric acid will eat up some lye (you'll have to compensate for that, like you would with vinegar, lemon juice, citric acid, or yoghurt), to form borax (sodium borates). Borax is not unheard of as a soap ingredient, particularly popular in heavy-duty soaps (like @earlene's blacksmith soap). Feel free to search the web or this forum, for many borax recipes.
Boraxo, or Borax, as it is called here in the US, is a powder used in washing laundry, but also used in forge welding and by Blacksmiths as flux in the process of smelting. Although my father used to use an eye wash made with Boric Acid, I don't know how it was made; he bought it ready to use as a liquid solution.
Anyway, here is a link to the final recipe that I use for my Brother's Blacksmith soap, after some testing of different ingredients (this one includes Borax and pumice) and the one my brother picked as most effective. But if you don't want to make soap for blacksmiths, you can leave out the pumice and use only the Borax. I made plain Borax soap also using a different recipe but the same percentage of Borax, which is about 6% in weight of total oils.
Edit: Because the water to dissolve the Borax has to be deducted from the lye solution water, I use boiling water. It dissolves very quickly and easily in very hot water, and you don't need as much hot water as you would were you to use cold water.
Anyway, here is a link to the final recipe that I use for my Brother's Blacksmith soap, after some testing of different ingredients (this one includes Borax and pumice) and the one my brother picked as most effective. But if you don't want to make soap for blacksmiths, you can leave out the pumice and use only the Borax. I made plain Borax soap also using a different recipe but the same percentage of Borax, which is about 6% in weight of total oils.
Edit: Because the water to dissolve the Borax has to be deducted from the lye solution water, I use boiling water. It dissolves very quickly and easily in very hot water, and you don't need as much hot water as you would were you to use cold water.
For meThank you Earlene .. it's new knowledge. .. cheers
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