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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Homemade Liquid Soap



I noticed that the kids have almost used all the liquid soap in their bathroom, so I had to make more over the weekend. The process took most of the day on Saturday, although it doesn't require too much "hovering" once it reaches the solid soap stage. And, I was able to make it right in my oven! I've tried to make it in my crock pot, but I ended up burning that batch and almost ruining my crock pot... that's another story.

**For those soap makers out there who have never tried making liquid soap, here is a tutorial that goes step by step: Hot Process Liquid Soap**




Here are my ingredients. I used a recipe I found on the Instructables website (as linked above).
The soap is mostly coconut oil (for lather) and olive oil (for moisture) with a little cocoa butter thrown in. I diluted mine a little more than the woman who made the Instructable because my kids tend to overuse soap, and it lathers nicely even when runny! We also use a "bubble maker" soap dispenser in one bathroom, and it works nicely with well-diluted soap.


After weighing ingredients and mixing the lye and fats to trace, I threw the soap pot into a 250F oven. This is what the soap looked like after 20 minutes. You can't see it, but the soap actually separated and I had to stir it back together.



After about an hour, my soap looks a lot like runny mashed potatoes... it keeps getting thicker until it becomes solid and very hard to stir!



 



When it gets to this point, I just stir the best I can. The soap will start to turn translucent- the more translucent, the clearer your final product will be!







This is where I stopped. It wasn't fully translucent, but it was very late in the evening and it was done enough for me! I diluted it with a gallon of filtered water and neutralized the remaining lye with a solution of borax and hot water. As you can see from my first photo, I am stocked up on soap for months! I even use this soap to wash my dishes, as it leaves no chemical residue-as some store bought soaps do.

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