Sulphur In Liquid Soap?

[rpclarke]

Hi,
There are quite a few soap bases that contain sulphur, and it seems relatively easy to make a solid soap bar like this. I was wondering about adding sulphur to a liquid soap base, would this be equally easy? I know it doesn't dissolve very well in water, but what about dispersing it in a suspending base, would that work and still provide the benefits? Or is there a fairly safe way to dissolve it first?
Thanks

 

[DeeAnna]

Sulfur soap (bar soap that is) is not easy to make by the small-scale soap maker, despite what you might be seeing on the market. The likelihood of failure is fairly high.

Sulfur largely does not dissolve; it remains in the soap as mostly solid particles. Commercial soap makers mix sulfur powder into dry, cool finished soap using milling equipment. That method of adding sulfur to soap works tolerably well. (Rebatching is sometimes incorrectly called milling. I'm talking about true milling here, not rebatching.)

Small scale soap makers generally don't have access to milling equipment, so that's a method not accessible to us. The cold process and hot process methods of soap making we normally use don't work nearly as well for incorporating sulfur into soap. And rebatching isn't any better. edit: The reasons why these methods don't work as well as true milling is that HP, CP, and rebatching cause the sulfur to be exposed to heat and water. A small part of the sulfur dissolves and converts to acid, and the acid decomposes the soap.

Because sulfur mostly remains in particle form, it's not likely to remain suspended in a typical home-crafted liquid soap. unless you want to experiment with thickeners. The other issue is the tiny amount of sulfur that does dissolve is acidic. As it does in bar soap, I'd expect the dissolved sulfur to decompose liquid soap, which has an even larger amount of free water than bar soap.

I don't know what you mean by a "suspending base". Enlighten me?

 

[rpclarke]

Hi DeeAnna, thanks for a detailed reply

By a suspending base I mean a thick one that allows particles to suspend evenly through it, for instance I use one made by Stephensons at the moment (Suspending Body Wash) that allows me to suspend ground pumice in it, I was wondering if suspending sulphur without dissolving it would still allow it to have all the benefits I would want from sulphur for the skin?

 

[DeeAnna]

Problem is you're posting this question in the liquid SOAP making forum. The body wash you're using is not based on actual lye-based soap. It's a synthetic detergent (syndet) blend which isn't at all the same chemistry.

My comments apply to true soap not to syndets.

 

[rpclarke]

Oh I see, I'm not sure where else to post the question on the forum as I can't see a more suitable thread. Do you have any suggestions or where else I might be able to get some help on this?

 

[DeeAnna]

The Bath and Body forum here would probably be a better choice for a question about syndet cleansers. But, really, the key point is to be more accurate and detailed about you're doing, so people can provide on-target answers rather than point you down unhelpful blind alleys.

I realize now that you used the word "soap" as it is used by the average consumer to mean any kind of cleanser. Your audience here is a more technically inclined group, however. Here, soap is a specific type of cleanser made by saponifying fat with a strong alkali dissolved in water. If the cleanser isn't made by saponification, it's certainly a cleanser, but it isn't "soap" in the technical sense.

You might ask your question at the Chemists Corner and see if they have some useful thoughts. If you do, you'll want to be accurate and detailed about what you want to do.