AN ADVANCED SOAP MAKING TECHNIQUE
Is considered an advanced soap making, technique. When making liquid soap it is helpful to have already mastered the cold process method of making soap.
The process for making liquid soap and cold process soap are the same until the soaps reach trace. At trace, cold process soap goes into the mold, where liquid soap continues on with a hot process.
This Liquid Soap Making Tutorial takes up where Cold Process Soap Making leaves off.
Learning to make cold process soap will prepare you for making this hot process liquid soap. If you have not already, and would like to learn to make cold process soap we have a Cold Process Soap Making Tutorial here.
MUST READ
We have worked very hard at providing an accurate and informative tutorial and have personal success following these steps.
But due to the fact that each user may interpret our words in ways that we did not intend we cannot guarantee that you will have the same success as we have.
Also, each person will add their own twits on every aspect, it is human nature. While we are all human and can only move and work in certain ways, no two people will do everything exactly as anyone else. So there is no guarantee that anyone will get the same results, but we hope you will.
Please be careful and give this the due diligence that it requires, meaning do your own research before you begin to make soap.
Take Safety Precautions seriously. Soap making can be hazardous if you do not use properly handling and employ safety equipment when and where it is needed.
QUESTIONS
If you have any questions please ask them below in our comments section, we check out website at least daily or more often and will answer questions asap.
PATIENCE
Liquid soap making just as in, cold process soap making, requires patience. It can take up to 1 hour to reach trace, then 5-6 hours for the hot process, plus the time it takes for the soap paste to dissolve, which could take a few hours to a few days.
OVEN METHOD
For my first batch of liquid soap I used the double boiler method. Now I use the oven method. In the oven method the soap is made in a stainless steel pot and after it reaches trace the lid is put on it and it is placed in a hot oven to process. I think the oven method is cleaner, because there is no hot water to deal with as in the double boiler method. The hardest part of making liquid soap is being patient and not jumping the gun and adding to much water when you dilute the paste.
FORMULATING LIQUID SOAP RECIPES
Most liquid soap making instructions advise to add more lye than is needed to fully saponify the oils, and fats used in a liquid soap recipe. Then when the soap is finished you have to adjust the ph by neutralizing the excess lye. The reason that they do this is to prevent free fatty acids in the finished soap, the thinking is that free fatty acids cause the finished liquid soap to become cloudy.
Because I am a known super-super fatter, meaning that I super fat my soap recipes far more than most soap makers. I found the idea of adding excess lye in a soap recipe hard to do.
Just so you know, I did not start out a that way but was lead to do so based on my own study of soap making, and because of the comments from more experiences soap makers, I experimented with higher and higher levels of excess fats, and continued to get soap. What I found was my soaps were becoming milder and milder.
So when I began to make liquid soap, it did not make sense to me to add excess lye. But it was not an easy decision to make. When I was new at making liquid soap, I was not sure if super fatting would help or hurt the soap, and did not want to waste any ingredients, or have a cloudy soap. But I just could not get over the notion that not super-fatting would be going backwards.
So I read and re read Catherine Failors Making Natural Liquid Soaps and finally found another reason for cloudy soap, “UNSAPIBLES”. Unsapibles would make a soap cloudy, so what are Unsapibles?
UNSAPIBLES
Unsapibles are the components of oils and butters, that do not fully saponify when used to make soap. These unsabibles usually add a measure of mildness to a soap. Many soap makers like to use them to buffer the harshness of a recipe, they are wonderful used in a bar soap recipe.
On the other hand when making liquid soap adding these butters and oils will make your soap cloudy. For the clearest soap avoid these; Shea Butter, Tallow, Cocoa Butter, Palm, Avocado, & Pomace Olive Oil, because they have high unsapibles.
And add more of these; Safflower, Castor, Olive, and Coconut because they have the least unsapibles, and will give you the clearest soap possible.