Heidi's Liquid Handsoap...easy as pie!

I spent yesterday morning experimenting with making liquid handsoap...yes, I was distracted by the allure of mixing and whipping and pouring and generally making a mess of things, and didn't complete the editing for my Happy Hexagon Crochet tutorial...so I am sorry dear readers, and will get on that asap in the new week...BUT, I think I have unvented (don't you just LOVE that word? Thank you EZ!), a very easy, all natural method of making liquid handsoap, without having to use lye and long cooking times... As you all know, I am totally smitten by the cold processed soap that I had learned to make from Rhonda's lovely blog, and since that, I have only made soap, never bought commercially available soaps again. My kids and husband love it, and Gerry even uses the soap to wash his hair...so all-round a big hit!

I really like liquid soap next to the basin in the kitchen, because it's so easy to just squeeze out some from a pump dispenser when you want to wash hands, and it stays clean and contained...however, the daunting prospect of making liquid soap in the traditional way with cooking in a crockpot, and watching it, and having to use KOH lye etc led me to trying to make the liquid soap using just my cold processed natural soap that had been "curing" for around 3 months.

I have seen many references on the web to using commercially available soap, grating it up and melting it in water and adding some glycerine to thicken...I went through the whole process of trying this method, but using my cold processed soap instead, and it failed completely! I even tried whipping the liquid with a a hand-held blender and it didn't thicken at all...
This made me wonder what they put in commercially sold soaps that makes it thicken with just water and a bit of glycerine? I guess it may be the same basic process as making the liquid laundry soap...if anyone knows, let me know what the "thickening " ingredient is :)

After much experimenting and some messed up batches, I have come up with the following process, and it really made the most beautiful, moisturizing liquid soap I have used :)

Heidi's Liquid Handsoap Recipe

Requirements:

240g of grated cold processed soap (made with olive oil and coconut oil)
2 Liters of water
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/2 cup of beeswax

Handheld blender
Large stainless steel pot
Glass bowls
Double boiler

Start by grating your cured cold processed soap. I arbitrarily used 240g of soap as my starting amount.
Pour 2L of water into a large stainless steel pot and place on low to medium heat. Add the grated soap flakes and stir until all the flakes have melted.

The mixture will make some foam, so try not to whisk it, just stir gently ...above you can see the clear golden liquid that results.

In a double boiler (or in my case, a Pyrex glass bowl suspended on a steel pot with some boiling water in it), melt the coconut oil and the beeswax pellets. Use low heat...you don't want it to get super-hot...just hot enough to start melting the beeswax.

Above you can see the melted mix...when I see the beeswax pellets beginning to melt, I turn off the heat. The rest will melt in with some gentle stirring.


Let both mixtures (the soapy water and the beeswax/coconut mix) reach around 60 degrees Centigrade (I am not sure if this is critical...I usually make sure that any mixes are at the same temperature...).

Pour your beeswax/coconut mix into your soapy water, slowing adding all of it while blending with a handheld blender (I used the high speed setting on my stick blender). It won't thicken, just mix all of the ingredients very well...

You will now have a milky coloured watery liquid. I poured it into a large glass bowl and put it in the fridge to cool. Over the next couple of hours, I checked in on it and found that the mixture separated out into a clear golden liquid at the bottom, and a white layer on the top.

I gently mixed it back into an all milky colored liquid using a hand whisk. Next time I checked, there was less of a separation, and I again gently swirled the lot with a whisk. I mixed twice in about two hours then left it in the fridge.

When I got up this morning, I found that it had gelled into the most wonderful, thick milky liquid! It is really lovely stuff...it didn't leave my hands dry as I think the coconut oil is probably adding a moisturizing element...

I decanted the liquid soap into a pump dispenser and it works well...no clogging or blocking up...

Please try this out and let me know if it works out well for you?

Next week, the promised Happy Hexagon Tutorial!
Have a lovely Sunday folks :)

♥Heidi

Cold Processed Soap...lessons learned and a Tornado comes to town

Summer is now here in full force, with flowers blooming and bees a-working! The garden is super-green after several days of rain, and a serious thunderstorm that sparked two tornados...yes, you heard right folks!...tornados! Now, many people will be blase' about this, living perhaps in areas that see tornados a-plenty, but I tell you...tornados do NOT happen here where I live in SA! Little dust devils and small whirlwinds maybe...but a full scale tornado...no. So, when the wind started blowing so hard that I thought our roof would bid us farewell, I wondered what the heck was going on. Next morning, I hear about the tornado that devastated a region about 20km from our home, and couldn't imagine what kind of wind speeds they must have experienced! I really feel bad for the poor people who have had their homes destroyed. There was a second tornado in a nearby Province (equivalent to a State in the US), that sadly killed a young child.

The garden has been annexed by large flocks of birds, probably due to the magnetic power of the fruit and vegetables, and despite the presence of a large and ferocious (not) canine, they are unperturbed. I have been forced to put bird netting around the strawberries and fruit trees...have no idea what I am supposed to do when the trees are big... for now the produce is safe :)

The roses are blooming, irises rising up like soldiers and the lavender is truly spectacular at the moment...Spring is just wonderful!


My sister came over several times over the last few days, and we made loads and loads of cold processed soap. We are totally smitten with new art! Making cold processed soap is really, really easy, as long as you take a heck of a lot of care with safety and the caustic soda handling. I have spent ages on the net, researching all that I could lay my hands on regarding the difference between what I call "real" soap, and the stuff that you can buy in the supermarket. I must say that I am horrified at what goes into most "soaps" that you get on the shelf...really there isn't much by way of actual soap in many of them. And the additives are generally not things that you want on your skin.... so from here on, we will only be using the real deal soap!

I played around with some recipes, using different oils and have come up with some interesting variations on the olive/coconut theme. Take NOTE folks...if you vary your oil content, YOU MUST run everything through a lye calculator! MUST! It's not optional! The one I used is SoapCalc, very user friendly. You can combine any number of oils, and have the recipe printed and saved.
In my journey of soapy exploration, I have picked up some tricks and learned some things that I didn't have a clue about in the beginning. Perhaps these seem like silly inconsequential things, but I am going to post them anyway...maybe someone will be inspired to make some homegrown soaps :)


1. Not all candy thermometers are created equal. It may seem like nit-picking, but I picked up a difference of between 5 and 7 degrees between readings on thermometers in the same liquid. So I checked which were the closest in temperature, and paired those for the soap making. You need two thermometers...one for the oil pot, and one for the lye glass container. Ok... so you say, "Will such a small difference have any impact on your soap?"...dunno people, but I am too type A to see this and just ignore it...

2. Soap Dust/ Soap Chalk/ Soap Ash/ Funny white residuey stuff stuck on one side of my beautiful soap....what the heck?

Hmmmmm.....so here I made my first batch of soap and was as proud as a new parent, when Lo! and Behold!...I see that as it dries, a film of white, chalky stuff starts to appear on top of the soap. At this point, the soaps were still in their silicone moulds. When I gingerly touched it, it was hard and dry, but friable and easily scraped off with a spoon. What is this? After reading what felt like thousands of web pages, here is what I have come to conclude...

This is called Soap Dust (amongst many other terms), and happens when a saponifying soap is exposed to the cold air. It doesn't seem to happen on the sides of the soap that was still in the mold, only on the bit that you could see . There appear to be two schools of thought: first, this stuff is dangerous and caustic, and you musn't tolerate it on your soap, or secondly, this is exactly the same thing as soap, just a different form, and is safe to touch and use, if a little unsightly. Goodness know! I reckon I am in the second camp: I used the soap for bathing for two days now, and I am still alive and well (and it must be said, feeling pretty smug at how good my skin feels ;) ). So then I though...ok...if it's caused by the air contact, I can stop that by putting some cling wrap over the soap after I poured it into the moulds. And it worked!!! The subsequent batches of soap were duly cling-wrapped and NO soap dust appeared anywhere....so me feeling very smug indeed! Below you can see the pretty, adorable little dust free soapling, after the cling wrap has been removed.


When you see the two soaps next to each other, you can clearly see the difference...

The soap dust is really easy to remove, if you don't want it on your soaps...just rub it off or cut /scrape off with a knife :)

3. Handheld stick blenders rock! Just don't gas the Nitro! My first batch of soap was made using a steel whisk , a strong arm, and the patience of Mother Teresa! I am (ashamedly!), no Mother Teresa, so this became tedious very quickly! Enter the Blender! This thing is superfast :) But be careful...if you use the turbo speed, you will go from water consistency to brick in 10 seconds! Just blitz the blender for 5 seconds or so, then stir, then blitz, then stir, and so on... You really can get to trace in about a minute. If you over blend, you end up with stuff that you have to push into your mould, using a steel instrument! Gently does it...

4. Adding an essential oil at trace, can cause your mixture to seize (or turn into a messy, rock hard, lumpy catastrophe!) So what you should add and in what quantities, seems to be a matter of trial and error. It appears that any alcohol containing additives, will cause your mixture to get to trace faster and /or cause it to seize. I made a batch of soap today, and let it get slowly to trace, and then hand stirred the Chamomile essential oil in...it was all ok, but because I had made a 2kg batch, by the time I was filling the last mould, it was quite thick again (I think this may have been because the temperature dropped), and I had to use a spoon to flatten the mixture a bit.

5. Gelling
This was quite a worry for me, and I spent some time trying to track down what this was and why you should /or shouldn't do this. When soap has just been placed in your moulds, it is still hot and the process of saponification (Lye/Caustic Soda turning the oils into Soap and Glycerin), generates even more heat. Some people like to insulate the soap by covering the moulds with blankets etc, to keep it warm for longer. From what I read, this seems to speed up the process of Saponification. If you take a peek, you'll see the soap become transparent from the middle to the outer edges as the heat and reaction continue. I made one batch gelling it, and another without. The only conclusion I came to was that the gelled soap was darker in colour. Several online sources, stated that your soap has undergone 99% of it's saponification at about 48hrs give or take. Over the subsequent weeks, as it cures, the last little bit happens, and supposedly the soap become "milder"... I was way too impatient and used my first soap batch after about 60 hours. It was absolutely fine and my kids and family have been using it too, with only good things to say about it!

Next, I have got to try making some kind of soap with milk in it...any tips?

♥Heidi

Home Made Cold Processed Soap

Today I made my first home made cold processed olive oil and coconut soap. I was initially a bit nervous, having read about the inherent dangers of Caustic Soda, so I took paranoid precautions. The kids and dog were expelled from the kitchen, I cleared an area and covered everything with newspaper. I used Rhonda's excellent tutorial for this soap, please go and take a look at her blog, it really is fantastic! I used this version for the ingredients, wanting to incorporate some coconut oil (I love the stuff!). I buy all my ingredients from a local organic supplier, but really, you could find olive oil and coconut oil at the supermarket just as easily :) The Caustic Soda I also bought from a local supermarket.

First, I donned latex gloves and apron. Then got all my containers ready. These must be glass or plastic. YOU CANNOT USE ANY ALUMINIUM STUFF! The caustic soda will destroy it!!

You will also need two candy thermometers...one for the Caustic Soda bowl and one for the oil bowl. The two sets of ingredients must be at the same temperature when you mix them.
For my Olive Oil , I used Olive Oil Pomace (which is a lot less expensive than Virgin or Extra Virgin Olive Oil ), which is absolutely fine to use for soap.

Prepare the moulds that you are going to use. I used some silicone moulds that are rose shaped...pretty! I sprayed them very lightly with some Spray and Cook. Put them on a tray covered with newspaper. Right, moving onto the ingredients....

So I measured out the required amounts of the oils and water (you can use rain water , but since it hasn't rained here, I used distilled water).

I took a cast iron pot, placed it on low heat on the stove, and melted the coconut oil and the olive oil pomace together. Then poured it into a glass bowl. Placed the candy thermometer on the side of the bowl.

Measure out the Caustic Soda powder in WEIGHT (not mls!), and carefully pour into the glass container with your water. I also put a candy thermometer into this glass bowl. VERY carefully and gently mix the caustic soda granules until fully dissolved. The mix is initially very cloudy, but as the soda dissolves, it becomes clear. You'll see that the mixture produces fumes and quite a lot of heat. (I made sure before I started the process that all the windows in the kitchen were open, and there was a nice breeze.) It wasn't hot enough to make my hand feel hot, ie you can still continue to mix comfortably, but you can see the temp on the candy thermometer rising quite a lot!


Above you can see the mixed caustic soda, and the heat it produced.


I waited until the temperature on both mixtures was the same, ie 50 degrees Centigrade, then very carefully poured the caustic soda into the oil mixture.


When you start mixing the ingredients, the stuff look pretty awful! Like some kind of glue! I decided to use a stainless steel whisk to mix, and as the minutes passed, the mixture became creamier in colour and thicker. It took about twenty minutes to get to the point where I could see thickening, so I decided to see what would happen if I used a handheld mixer. I didn't use the normal egg beater attachments, because you do NOT want this stuff to splatter everywhere (at this stage the stuff is still caustic!). I attached the dough hooks , and within 5 minutes of mixing , the mixture became thick enough that you could see ripples in the liquid which held their shape.

Above you can see the ripples in the mix. I have never made soap before, so I really didn't know if this was the right consistency, but having mixed for so long, decided that it must be...
I added in a blend of essential oils (I have read on the Web that the essential oil/fragrance oil etc component shouldn't be more that 1-2% of the total , but here again, I haven't tested this myself), including Lavender, Patchouli and Orange , mixing it in well with the whisk.

I then carefully transferred the mix to the moulds, being careful not to drip any on my counter top or hand :)

Above you can see the uneven surface, showing how thick it has become. When you have a mixture that has this consistency, it is referred to as having achieved "Trace" .

I placed an oven wire rack on two upside down bowls over the moulds and covered with a thick towel. Apparently you now leave it be for about a day before you can take the soaps out of the mould and leave on a wire rack to cure for 6 weeks or so.

I must say that this process was a lot easier than I imagined it would be! I really enjoyed making this soap, and will try out some more recipes. I found some great ideas here, and here.

These soaps make really nice gifts. I am going to make up a whole load to give as stocking fillers :) ...and the best part of all? If you are on a budget, these really save you loads of money. Here is my cost breakdown:

Olive Oil Pomace: 800mls = R7.28
Coconut Oil 200mls = R2.00
Caustic Soda 130g = R6.50

Total Cost = R15.78 for 12 soaps....one soap cost R1.30 to make!

For all my international readers, the "R" is for South African Rand. At today's exchange rate, the cost per soap in US Dollars is US$0.16!!! Wow! I haven't costed in the essential oils, as they are not strictly necessary and you may want to add your own blends. Suffice to say that the essential oils don't add a huge amount of extra cost :)

How have your Heartmade lists come along? Have you looked at some of the links I posted before? I am adding a Linky List for any ideas you folks may want to share for ideas for Homemade gifts...just add them below...I would love to see what ideas you've seen and liked :)

♥Heidi