Thread: Home-made soap update

Made a soap that was about 1/3 coconut oil, 1/3 palm oil, the balance was sunflower, castor, and olive (just a bit). 1/2 NaOH, 1/2 KOH.

First, it's too soft and too hard. Too soft to be a hard soap, too hard to be a 'cream'.

Lesson learned: middle of the road ain't it.

Lathers well, cleans really well, conditions fine. However, it very quickly goes "flat". DR Harris is my reference soap, so further comments should be indexed against that fact.

With DR Harris, I can soap up my face, shave the right side and there is still enough white and foamy sitting on my left to finish that half. With my soap, the "second half" of the face has gone flat and soapless by the time I get to it. Need to do more research on which quality that it from the soapmaker's perspective.

Cushions well enough. If I did not have dedicated shaving soaps laying around, I'd be tickled pink with this stuff. As it is, I will use it gladly while working up Rev-B.

By the way, I also have a disc of untried Mitchell's wool fat soap laying about. I was reading ingredients and noted that it has no "wool fat" in it.

Sounds like Razor Rock Classic it is like a putty not a hard soap or cream
Nice work

Why add KOH? That along with the NaOH leached all your H2O from the lather. Try it without the KOH.

Originally Posted by ChopperDave

Why add KOH? That along with the NaOH leached all your H2O from the lather. Try it without the KOH.

Because I never have sense to follow a recipe! My wife's the baker. I'm the chef.

My behavior disorder http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ml#post1441988 is going to suffer quite a lot here... ;-)

Let's see:
1- This "make your own soap" issue catches my attention.
2- I start fiddling in my mind on how to get into this without spending much money or getting divorced (another way of spending much money).
3- I start thinking that if no one prepares an easy recipe then it is probably falling into d) step...

Originally Posted by ChopperDave

Why add KOH? That along with the NaOH leached all your H2O from the lather. Try it without the KOH.

KOH makes for a softer soap. changing to proportions of NaOH and KOH can change the hardness of your soap. I personally like the softer soaps. Cella is a good example of such a soap. As far as the OPs soap, you may try loading the brush up more but may be not Your recipe list looks alright (not sure on the olive oil, but just a bit shouldn't hurt.

Let us know how it goes.

The beauty of it is that it's...

1. cheap to get into. Very, very cheap.
2. Fast....
3. Your first couple of batches can be lavender this or that--thus you can cheaply and easily make a batch of seashell crapper soap which immediately becomes feminine swag suitable for her friends.

Got a table saw @ Christmas. First thing I did was make a jewelry box.

Subscribed!

Originally Posted by jgjgjg

By the way, I also have a disc of untried Mitchell's wool fat soap laying about. I was reading ingredients and noted that it has no "wool fat" in it.

now I'm no soap maker but I think I am correct in this.

look for "Sodium Tallowate" and "lanolin". Tallow when mixed with NaOH produces the Sodium Tallowate, and you get tallow from the mutton fat. Lanolin is an extract from mutton fat.

Oh and by the way, How does one purchase the caustics? I would love to know as a reference if I get the desire to try my hand at soap making

Edit: I just found out that Lanolin is not from the fat but rather a byproduct of washing wool before spinning into thread or yarn

Alkali: KOH, purchase online (goog). NaOH, Lowes has it in the plumbing section as industrial strength drain unclogger. They sell TWO: liquid, which you don't want (H2SO4), and crystals--which you do. But read the label, some crystals are modern eco-crap. Not what you want.

Edit: Lowes has changed their brand. Urg....what they have now is NaOH plus other a lot of other crap.