New to liquid soap making

[Chris_S]

Hi all im sure most of you will know me already. Iv been making cp soaps for just over 2 years now and have recently dived head first into liquid soap making. As an incredibly kind gesture and trying to help while this terrible virus is still running wild a uk based cosmetic chemist has released a single assessment for both bar and liqquid soap so you are set to his recipe which is absolutly amazing the bars smell amazing and iv given roughly 300 away to various places including care homes chemists and i plan to try build a business around using that as a starter soap and developing my own line as and when i can afford it so iv bought the bar assessment but have yet to go as far as buying the single ls assessment as i am planning to get a full assessment using his base as a recipe then adding fragrances to it. Now in the uk/eu we are kinda restricted to what we can do and once the assessment is passed we cant add or take anything out so i want to make sure iv got everything as i want it before i take the dive and spend 180 quid for the assessment.

So my first question is besides plastic what is peoples preferred metbods of selling LS? Does anyone use plastic pouches to sell refills like some well known companies do? If so how do you go about this im struggling to find sufficient information that would make me happy with buying them! I cant seem to find whats available and readily recyclable. Again i understand that what we have and people in other countries have available will differ but im just looking for ideas that i can further research this also needs to go on the assessment so i need to get myself sorted as to what my prefered bottles and containers are that i will use.

Secondly i would be very appreciative of any advice as to the dilution stages, iv put the recipe through the forum run soap calc and it gives literally no iddication as to how much water you should add as iv got the full recipe written out i know it for those exact measurements and ingredients but if i was to want to change say the amount of coconut oil and put more olive oil in for example obviously it would go through the calc for the lye and water ratio ect but once i get to first dilution i add 150g glycerin and 1kg of water then 2nd dilution is 3.5kg including saline! Would this be the same for any recipe that includes 1kg total of oils? Or does it depend on the %s of each oil so say i want to make a liquid laundry/washing up soap so 100% 0% sf coconut oil does this need more water because its 100% hard oils and will need more dilution to keep it from being a horrible glupy mess? I do actually want to do this i currently use 100% 0% sf coconut soap grated and mixed with borax soda crystals and bicarb to wash my clothes and i love it but people always look at me like iv lost my mind (i do wonder sometimes) when i say to them bubbles arnt nessicary its all in your head the lower cleans awesome thats all you actually NEED but people love bubbles so i was thinking of trying 90% coconut and 10% castor as a small batch iv used 420g of the potash so it would be whatever i can make with the rest till i get more potash sorted.

Im sure ill think of other questions about liquid soap but thats all for the moment. Btw i have no problem with people using this as a thread to ask beginner questions as im sure it will help other out! Sorry if any of these things have been answered before but i have looked about and cant see the answers well at least not dumbed down enough

Thank you in advance for any answers

Edit iv had some avenged sevenfold based brain waves yes thats an actual thing well it is now anyways. So i have struggled finding fo that will stick in cp how do fo and eo stay in hpls? Do citrus oils have the same issues as in cp soaps im guessing not as its an entirely different process and the oils are added at the end of the process

 

[DeeAnna]

I don't sell liquid soap. Of the soap makers who have tried, my recollection is most of them find it does not sell well for them. So the ultimate answer of how to sell liquid soap is to learn whether your market has a potential customer base for LS and plan accordingly.

If I were in your shoes, knowing what others have reported, I would not go "whole hog" into the liquid soap making business. Do a trial run and see what response you get from real customers (not just family and friends who will love your stuff no matter what.)

"...iv put the recipe through the forum run soap calc and it gives literally no iddication as to how much water you should add ..."

That's right -- you won't ever find a calc that will give you dilution information. Dilution is your problem to solve, if for no other reason that your preferred dilution will not be the same as someone else's preference.

"...Would this be the same for any recipe that includes 1kg total of oils?..."

No, it won't. The fatty acids will affect how much dilution is required. Also when you're using various diluents -- water, glycerin, and salt (saline) -- you're not going to get the same results you would get just diluting with water.

"... I do actually want to do this i currently use 100% 0% sf coconut soap grated and mixed with borax soda crystals and bicarb to wash my clothes and i love it but people always look at me like iv lost my mind (i do wonder sometimes) when i say to them bubbles arnt nessicary its all in your head the lower cleans awesome thats all you actually NEED but people love bubbles so i was thinking of trying 90% coconut and 10% castor as a small batch iv used 420g of the potash so it would be whatever i can make with the rest till i get more potash sorted ..."

This is ONE very long run-on sentence. Do you realize how hard it is for another person to comprehend the essential point of what you are saying here?

I'm not sure if your writing style is why you haven't gotten any response to this thread before today, but it's at least part of the problem.

If you want people to give you feedback, please stop using a "stream of consciousness" writing style.

Shorter sentences. Shorter paragraphs. More plain speaking. Simple and direct explanations, short concise questions, and little or no jargon. It's worth a try, hey?

 

[Chris_S]

I don't sell liquid soap. Of the soap makers who have tried, my recollection is most of them find it does not sell well for them. So the ultimate answer of how to sell liquid soap is to learn whether your market has a potential customer base for LS and plan accordingly.

If I were in your shoes, knowing what others have reported, I would not go "whole hog" into the liquid soap making business. Do a trial run and see what response you get from real customers (not just family and friends who will love your stuff no matter what.)

"...iv put the recipe through the forum run soap calc and it gives literally no iddication as to how much water you should add ..."

That's right -- you won't ever find a calc that will give you dilution information. Dilution is your problem to solve, if for no other reason that your preferred dilution will not be the same as someone else's preference.

"...Would this be the same for any recipe that includes 1kg total of oils?..."

No, it won't. The fatty acids will affect how much dilution is required. Also when you're using various diluents -- water, glycerin, and salt (saline) -- you're not going to get the same results you would get just diluting with water.

"... I do actually want to do this i currently use 100% 0% sf coconut soap grated and mixed with borax soda crystals and bicarb to wash my clothes and i love it but people always look at me like iv lost my mind (i do wonder sometimes) when i say to them bubbles arnt nessicary its all in your head the lower cleans awesome thats all you actually NEED but people love bubbles so i was thinking of trying 90% coconut and 10% castor as a small batch iv used 420g of the potash so it would be whatever i can make with the rest till i get more potash sorted ..."

This is ONE very long run-on sentence. Do you realize how hard it is for another person to comprehend the essential point of what you are saying here?

I'm not sure if your writing style is why you haven't gotten any response to this thread before today, but it's at least part of the problem.

If you want people to give you feedback, please stop using a "stream of consciousness" writing style.

Shorter sentences. Shorter paragraphs. More plain speaking. Simple and direct explanations, short concise questions, and little or no jargon. It's worth a try, hey?

Thank you for replying and yes i do have a habit of writing how i think but my problem is it makes perfect sense to me im badly dylexic which really doesnt help things. Also a perfect sentence could look like utter nonesense to me. But now i know where i have probably gone wrong i will retype it and put an edited version of the last bit in another post. Not having such a good week if im honest, i ended up in a&e last night after i got caustic potash dust in my eyes.

Part of my issue is i actually cant put something out there for customers to try without investing our laws mean we cant even donate or gift outside friends and family so im kinda stuck with friends and family testing my efforts.

Since getting a bar soap assessed as a single scent option iv had alot of feedback even from those who arnt friends but its not even my own personal recipe .
My mum said its the best soap of mine she has tried now i dont give her a bar from every batch but i also donated a bunch and have got some great feedback via that too and i asked for honest feedback dont just tell me its good because it was free and because you feel like you have too! Yet not a bad word about it

 

[Susie]

I have dealt with dyslexics since early childhood as my mother and my twin brother were both dyslexic. My son, and both my first and current husbands are dyslexic also. So, I will give this a try.

I do not sell liquid soap either. I also don't make HPLS any longer, and I would recommend you not either. Saves an enormous amount of time and effort.

1. Taking someone else's recipe is OK, but making your own recipe to your liking is better. I live in the US, so I don't have to deal with getting assessments, but I understand the desire to save money by perfecting the recipe first.

2. Check out your market before investing your time and effort into coming up with a "perfect" recipe to sell. Hand made liquid soap does not sell like bar soaps do. There is simply no market here for it. People would rather go to the fancy stores and buy the super over-priced liquid soaps. I don't like it, but that is my reality.

3. Pouches are prone to leaking in shipping. They get jostled too much, and handled badly.

4. As DeeAnna said, you have to figure out your own preferred dilution rates. If you want thicker soap, you need to figure that out, just as if you want foamer soap, you need that amount. Keep good notes, as that recipe will almost always use pretty close to that amount of water.

5. Hand made soap is not going to produce enough bubbles to please customers if used in a washing machine. Same problem with dish soap. Those of us that make the soap and know that you don't need the bubbles happily use our own, but customers are not going to understand. Too many years of using commercial detergents have programmed them to prefer bubbles.

6. Citrus EOs fragrance liquid soaps just fine. Just be sure the soap is cool enough to stick your finger in it comfortably. Some FOs/EOs will cloud your soap, or float on the top. So, you need to test, test, test to know which ones are problems, and how to solve them.

7. Safety gear is not optional. Gloves and goggles are a minimum. Learn it, love it.

8. Read this thread: Soaping 101 liquid soapmaking video?
I know it is a beast, but it contains more good information about how to make liquid soap than any other single thread.

If you could present statements/questions in a format like this post, it would help more people get through to what you are saying and asking.