Hi all so the recipe I have is for crockpot . I have seen several videos where they added borax is this something I should do? I have The everything soapmaking book and nothing about borax in it, I am not really crazy about adding it if I don't have to. TIA
Question before first liq soap agttempt.
- Thread starter jennikate
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It's probably just as a source of sodium to make the product more viscous. There are other choices for doing that, if it's even something you want to do.
Conceivably borax could be used to make the soap more alkaline to be a better cleaner, as has been done with laundry soaps.
I've seen it mentioned as a pH adjuster for too-alkaline soap, but adding alkali such as borax cannot reduce the alkalinity of a soap solution, even if it does cause the reading on a pH meter to go down a little. The only way it might work to adjust alkalinity is if you saponified lye-heavy (to make the rxn go faster), then neutralized the excess with an acid (such as citric), but used too much acid and needed to restore alkalinity.
100%Natural
Well-Known Member
Exactly what Robert said. The Borax would be added after the cook and it's not something I do for mine and so far so good!
FGOriold
Well-Known Member
Borax is used to neutralize the liquid soap after it is diluted. You can also use citric acid. Some recipes are formulated with a lye excess for purposes of clarity and that excess needs to be neutralized. If you formulate without the lye excess you should not need to neutralize the finished soap as the PH should be within acceptable range but you can still attempt the lower the ph further with borax or citric acid. Best to test your finished soap with a digital ph meter and/or phenolphthalein drops while cooking the paste.
Boric acid could be used to neutralize alkali, but borax has no acidity with which to neutralize alkali. pH alone is an insufficient indicator of the alkalinity (or acidity) of concentrated materials, and pH meters don't even work well in concentrated solutions.
