Dish soap??

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Good idea! Why didn't I think of that? šŸ¤”. 90% coconut and 10% castor oil, with citric acid. What properties would the castor oil have, oh you infinitely knowledgeable lovely people?
Castor oil in soap doesn't create lather, but it will stabilize lather created by other oils. That can be a good combo with CO, which lathers quickly but also dissipates quickly.
 
I got a message from my realtor friend who comes through a few times a year to buy up all my soap bars for new homeowner gifts. Her sister in law is looking to buy soap from xmas gifts, so my friend gave me her info. I got pretty excited actually, because I haven't been making soap, so I needed this to kick me in the butt to get in the groove again.

I got back to her today and she went on about buying homemade "supporting local sellers".... wants dish soap. She sent me this picture of what she was looking for, and said she would buy the ramekins and brushes. I tell her that this is more like shaving soap. She's like "I know that's what it looks like, but I saw a video and it is dish soap."

She is determined that is what she wants and and wants plenty to give refills. I'm at a loss. So I told her that I would consult my soaping group and see what we can come up with.

Anybody??
View attachment 68988
This is dish soap. I know this because I made it.

I got a message from my realtor friend who comes through a few times a year to buy up all my soap bars for new homeowner gifts. Her sister in law is looking to buy soap from xmas gifts, so my friend gave me her info. I got pretty excited actually, because I haven't been making soap, so I needed this to kick me in the butt to get in the groove again.

I got back to her today and she went on about buying homemade "supporting local sellers".... wants dish soap. She sent me this picture of what she was looking for, and said she would buy the ramekins and brushes. I tell her that this is more like shaving soap. She's like "I know that's what it looks like, but I saw a video and it is dish soap."

She is determined that is what she wants and and wants plenty to give refills. I'm at a loss. So I told her that I would consult my soaping group and see what we can come up with.

Anybody??
View attachment 68988
refills fit in the dish and I use a PVC pipe to make them. This is a dish that I purchased at a restaurant supply store

Can you find the Etsy listing or the label with the list of ingredients?
I can tell you the ingredients (the picture is from my Etsy listing) - I make mine with 95% coconut 5% castor oil - I use citric acid at 2% of the oils. 0% superfat. Beware if you hot process this soap - it can volcano like you have never seen before, so you will need a pot that can accommodate a very tall rise of hot lava soap.
I do have a Realtor gift set - includes the dish soap with brushes and also a body soap - my Realtor friend loves to give it as house warming gifts.
 
@bigwoodssoap that's awesome! I have made the CO version (both CP and HP), and my recipe is very similar to yours. I like adding d-limonene for extra grease-cutting power, and because some family members and friends like their dish soap to smell like something. I don't sell, but I gift a lot. :) EDITED TO ADD: I've also started making it as a dual lye soap, 80/20 NaOH/KOH because it makes loading the brush a bit easier, and there are more bubbles (not needed for cleaning, but people expect bubbles so...)

For my own use, I really do prefer the syndet version because it's easier on my skin and cuts the grease better. There's definitely a place for both types of solid dish soap, and I LOVE that you are promoting this and doing well with it. :)
 
@bigwoodssoap that's awesome! I have made the CO version (both CP and HP), and my recipe is very similar to yours. I like adding d-limonene for extra grease-cutting power, and because some family members and friends like their dish soap to smell like something. I don't sell, but I gift a lot. :) EDITED TO ADD: I've also started making it as a dual lye soap, 80/20 NaOH/KOH because it makes loading the brush a bit easier, and there are more bubbles (not needed for cleaning, but people expect bubbles so...)

For my own use, I really do prefer the syndet version because it's easier on my skin and cuts the grease better. There's definitely a place for both types of solid dish soap, and I LOVE that you are promoting this and doing well with it. :)
What % do you use of the d-limonene? I haven't tried that - I do make a citrus scented option, so this might work well for that. Thanks! Amy
 
It's very strong-smelling, and I'm pretty sensitive to smells; at .5% to 1%, it's more than strong enough for me. The scent sticks way better than EOs, too.

Some folks dilute it at 50% with distilled water for use as a spray cleaner, but it's become pretty expensive (like $65/gallon). So I stick with the lower usage rate, and find that it works just fine. Let me know if you try it!
 
I can tell you the ingredients (the picture is from my Etsy listing) - I make mine with 95% coconut 5% castor oil - I use citric acid at 2% of the oils. 0% superfat. Beware if you hot process this soap - it can volcano like you have never seen before, so you will need a pot that can accommodate a very tall rise of hot lava soap.
I do have a Realtor gift set - includes the dish soap with brushes and also a body soap - my Realtor friend loves to give it as house warming gifts.
Thank you for sharing!
 
I can tell you the ingredients (the picture is from my Etsy listing) - I make mine with 95% coconut 5% castor oil - I use citric acid at 2% of the oils. 0% superfat. Beware if you hot process this soap - it can volcano like you have never seen before, so you will need a pot that can accommodate a very tall rise of hot lava soap.
I do have a Realtor gift set - includes the dish soap with brushes and also a body soap - my Realtor friend loves to give it as house

I can tell you the ingredients (the picture is from my Etsy listing) - I make mine with 95% coconut 5% castor oil - I use citric acid at 2% of the oils. 0% superfat. Beware if you hot process this soap - it can volcano like you have never seen before, so you will need a pot that can accommodate a very tall rise of hot lava soap.
I do have a Realtor gift set - includes the dish soap with brushes and also a body soap - my Realtor friend loves to give it as house warming gifts.
I think we may be at cross purposes?? I'm in the UK and bought my my dish soap from a UK seller. Are the rest of you in the US? The word "realtor" is the giveaway - we call them estate agents šŸ˜
 
That looks like the shaving soap I made a couple years ago when I didn't want to shave my beard with a Gillette.

I used the soapee.com calc w/ a 5:1 water lye ratio, 40:60 NaOH to KOH lye combination plus beef tallow, kokum butter, cocoa butter, & castor oil for a total stearic value of only 28% @ 5% SF.
Oils w/ a high stearic value are are expensive, but I didn't want to use pure stearic.

I took pics of the shaving soap when I made it n posted em in the wet shaving forum below. I still have a whole bucket of that shaving soap paste, bc later I decided it's easier to shave using bar soap w/ a beeswax-based pre-shave lotion.
soapmaker w a straight razor just lost the beard and got a Feather

To learn how to make a above dual-lye soap i just read the below article by the Nerdy Housewife and ignored everything she said except how to mix the lye and the best oil choices for high stearic values----> DIY Calendula Shave Soap Recipe

I'm unsure if you ladies really use a shaving brush like that for dishes and laundry, or if this is a joke and actually a case of someone mad at their husband.

The pic looks like it could be an authentic silver-haired badger shaving brush, similar to mine below.
It whips up a helluva lather, so imho the 28% stearic value from beef tallow plus kokum & cocoa butters is quite sufficient for making a shaving soap or cream soap imitator, w/o resorting to pure stearic acid. The tallow and butters pretty expensive so i cut it quite alot w/ some castor n maybe olive too n still got that 28% stearic value in soapcalc.

Important to run oils thru soapcalc first to make sure you've got at least a 28% stearic value...
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For dish soap i like 100% coconut oil superfatted @ 0% w/ USP-grade veg glycerin and food-grade potash from Essential Depo.
 
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Just finished my second test batch using dual lye and some castor oil. My first time using a dual lye recipe, but i know it will be good because the recipe came from a very trusted source :nodding:. Aside from calculating the recipe, this was an easy peasy 20 minute project.

I will let you know how it went tomorrowā€¦
 
Hello šŸ‘‹, I have made dish soap high in coconut oil, I found it very very drying on my hands, to be more environmentally friendly I started making soap with used oils like my mom used to make, I also use tallow and lard that I render. A lot of tallow is wasted, tallow makes wonderful soaps.
The best dish soap I made came out from trying to make transparent soap, I had a lot of hand sanitizer(70% ethyl alcohol) so I used it not to go to waste.
So what I did diferente that made the dish soap better, was to add alcohol and sugar to the recipe. So any recipe you use, I'm sure that if you add some ethyl alcohol (15-35% of oils) and sugar about 10-20% of oils, the soap will be a lot better. It cleans stainless steel beautifully, will have an amazing later and it rinses off of your dishes better it will also be nicer on your hands.
The recipe I often make is all lard or tallow, 1-2% castor oil(only if you already have it), if you want use 10% coconut oil, the recipe works really well with only lard and tallow.
I add citric acid 5% of oils in the water before adding the lye.
0% superfat is ideal you can't cut thru greese well if your soap is superfatted, so you may need to add a little extra lye (5% or so)to get 0% as our lye is not usually 99%, or adjust it on the calculator for your lye to be something like 94%
I make it hot process in a low cooker, if you're concerned about the extra lye do this: use PH strips if it's purple after the soap is cooked, add a teaspoon of oil at a time, let it cook 20-30 minutes test again until your test strip is in the green, you can do a zap test after that, but I would not recommend zap test it until you use ph strips.
Don't want to bother(worrying)with getting a true 0% superfat? No worries follow a lye calculator and put 0% superfat.
After the soap is cooked you add the alcohol and the sugar(heated up in in very little water to dissolve it very well)
Add the alcohol slowly, cover the slow cooker wait 10 minutes then add the sugar and cook it for about 30 minutes, the soap should be very liquid, the more it evaporates water the clearer and firmer(after cure) the soap will get, it doesn't need to be clear to be good as a dish soap, pour into molds and cut it in 24 hours.
For cold process you can make your soap and let it cure, if you added extra lye it will turn into soda ash, remove the ash with gloves and a damp cloth, then shred the soap, put it in a slow cooker add the alcohol, wait until it dissolves add the sugar, cook it for at least 30 minutes and put into mold, silicone molds are ideal, this soap will be a little sticky, but you could use any mold freeze the soap and get it out of the mold. I have lined plastic containers with food wrap and it worked well.
I have seen videos of a one step cold process that added the alcohol and sugar in one step after trace, just never tried it myself. I prefer HP.
I believe any oil (even used) with a 0% superfat will made a good dishsoap.
Not sure if the attached video will be good, I added oil to a bow for you to see how well it cuts through greese. The photos are the batch I made 2 days ago, there is a darker piece from an older batch, it came out very transparent this time around. Maybe a little too fancy for a dish soap šŸ¤£, but it works really well!
 

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Thanks for sharing your process. I love the idea of using excess hand sanitizer post-cook, and I think I'll give that a try. :)

The one thing I don't really agree with is the use of pH strips. Those will not tell you whether your soap is lye-heavy or not. Also, the strips are notoriously inaccurate even as to the actual pH of the soap.
 
Your transparent soaps are lovely!
I agree - transparent soaps made that way are great cleaners that rinse clean. Nice on the hands too! Too bad they're expensive to make. (That's why I don't make them any more. :(
The best dish soap I made came out from trying to make transparent soap, I had a lot of hand sanitizer(70% ethyl alcohol) so I used it not to go to waste.
So what I did diferente that made the dish soap better, was to add alcohol and sugar to the recipe.
You're the second member who mentioned using Hand Sanitizer to make them! Good tip!
So any recipe you use, I'm sure that if you add some ethyl alcohol (15-35% of oils) and sugar about 10-20% of oils, the soap will be a lot better.
Quick question: When I make transparent soap I use simple sugar syrup. If I understand you correctly, You add 10-20% dry sugar?
if you're concerned about the extra lye do this: use PH strips if it's purple after the soap is cooked, add a teaspoon of oil at a time, let it cook 20-30 minutes test again until your test strip is in the green, you can do a zap test after that, but I would not recommend zap test it until you use ph strips.
Great tip! Thank you for sharing! :) :thumbs:
 
Thanks for sharing your process. I love the idea of using excess hand sanitizer post-cook, and I think I'll give that a try. :)
Thank you! I imagine some people may have extra hand sanitizer after this pandemic.


The one thing I don't really agree with is the use of pH strips. Those will not tell you whether your soap is lye-heavy or not. Also, the strips are notoriously inaccurate even as to the actual pH of the soap.
I know! I just find that a good dish/laundry soap needs to have all the oils used up. I find once you get used to the test strips that you have you're pretty close, then I do a zap test, I just don't want to get zapped too many times.
If it's a soap for personal use this would not be an issue

Too bad they're expensive to make. (That's why I don't make them any more. :(
Hi Zani! Thank you šŸ˜Š
I was lucky to get a lot hand sanitizer here at work that no one wanted to use. It left a funny smell on our hands. Even the company we ordered from didn't want it back. I got 8-10L šŸ¤£
I'm not sure what I'll do when I use it all up.
I thought 70% alcohol was easy/inexpensive to find. It would still work to improve the dish soap.
I don't add any glycerin. It's too expensive šŸ˜«
After the soap is cooked you add the alcohol and the sugar(heated up in in very little water to dissolve it very well)
Yes its a sugar syrup šŸ‘
 
I know! I just find that a good dish/laundry soap needs to have all the oils used up. I find once you get used to the test strips that you have you're pretty close, then I do a zap test, I just don't want to get zapped too many times.
If it's a soap for personal use this would not be an issue
I agree 100% about using up all the oils and having a 0% SF.

However, pH testing does not tell you whether you have accomplished that. This article from Kenna at Modern Soapmaking explains more about this misconception.
 
Hi Zani! Thank you
You're welcome! And thanks for your helpful response!

The funny thing is, I recently ran into a Bargain -- a severely discounted case of Hand Sanitizers! I thought, "Even at that price, who would even buy those?!" Now that you've got my juices running to try your technique, my answer is, "Me! Me! Me!" šŸ˜…
I thought 70% alcohol was easy/inexpensive to find.
Stick with ethanol (grain alcohol) if you can. 70% rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol is readily available but it makes rubbery bars.
 
I agree 100% about using up all the oils and having a 0% SF.

However, pH testing does not tell you whether you have accomplished that. This article from Kenna at Modern Soapmaking explains more about this misconception.
Thank you! So how do you personally make a HP soap with 0% superfat? Do you test your lye?
I looked at Deanna testing, it's super cool! Actually incredible that she did all of that. But that's a little too much for me šŸ˜, it just proved that our lye being 99% pure it's a lie šŸ¤£
 
So the girl sent me some ramekins to make the dish soap in. She is leaving the scent up to me, so i am going with citrus.

Would you color it? I think the testers i made look kinda meh as far as color goes. I am on the lineā€¦the batter thickens pretty quick as it is with a non accelerating fo. I hate to mess with it any more. I dunno, maybe an itp swirl?

The ramekins. I sent her this picture and told her she might not get them back lolā€¦.(sorry, on my tablet and couldnā€™t figure out how to make the picture smaller)

C3F47372-758E-4890-A367-859CBCB8BF8A.jpeg
 
Those are cute ramekins! It's pretty easy to do a solid color by adding it to your oils before adding the lye solution. I tend to think a solid color would look better for a dish soap than a swirl, but maybe that's just me.
 

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