Goldilocks and the Liquid Soap
Who doesn’t like soap…apart from pre-teen boys, that is?
Preface
Once upon a time, I finally got over the innate fear of handling a compound that could burn away multiple layers of skin, to find that I love the magic…okay, the proper term is saponification…that comes from blending two opposite components to form a wonderfully mild end result…soap. Then, taking the basic soap recipe, adding a bit of essential oil here, a fragrant spice there, creating a sensuous bar of pure bliss, which simply and effectively takes away dirt.
This quest I find myself on to reduce our carbon footprint while pursuing a sustainable lifestyle and saving the planet, inevitably brings me once again to handmade soap. Sure, I’ve been lulled into thinking that lots and lots of suds from synthetic products means better cleaning. But through the millennia, pure soap does the job.
So, here I am faced with the prospect of making soap again, but hmmm….the family doesn’t really like the ‘bar’ form, preferring liquid soap. Okay, liquid soap it is. Even if someone doesn’t make their own soap, pure soap flakes are found at the supermarket. Shouldn’t be hard, eh? Soap shavings and water, right?
Experiment No. 1
Consulting various recipes, all seem to have varying ratios of more or less the same ingredients—soap flakes, boiling water, glycerin, honey, and scent. No glycerin to be found here—chemists haven’t had it in months, so will have to do without.
Shave old rejected bars of handmade soap, add boiling water. Add some honey…not sure why but sounds wholesome. Include some olive oil for soft skin and lemongrass essential oil for a clean scent. Let it cool. Result?
Bleck, this one is too gloopy.
Found out this unfortunate fact after pouring warm soap into pretty bottle, finding it impossible to remove. Had to resort to not-so-pretty-plastic-ketchup-bottle instead. Realise that perhaps not everyone has soap to match wall colours…find it fascinating and rather unintentional.
Experiment No. 2
Realise some recipes call for additional water after it has cooled. Add more water.
Uh oh, this one is too runny.
Experiment No. 3
Maybe it’s my homemade soap, so try it once again with store bought soap flakes. Add boiling water and remaining ingredients. Let it cool. Ick. The mass has separated into whipped sludge on the top with a layer of milky water underneath. Not to be deterred, add a little more water and continue whipping with stick blender. Ah, looks better. Bottle it. Confident enough to give some to Isobel to try.
Next morning, I find that oh no, this one is too phlegmy. Difficult to shower with gelatinous gack and some things just ought not to be photographed.
Experiment No. 4
After three failures, the key seems to be the addition of room temperature water after the initial gloop has cooled. So, going back to Experiment No. 1, take the gloop and carefully add small measures of water.
Ah, this one is just right….a fairly satisfying and passable imitation of liquid soap.
way to persevere! hope the fam likes it!
29 Jan 2008 at 3:30 am
I’m fascinated of course. Who doesn’t love a good science experiment! I imagine it smells wonderful as well.
29 Jan 2008 at 3:51 am
lol, Bea said it, fascinated! Had to see what happened next! You were stubborn and it looks like it paid off! (how is it working days later?) So what did you do with the un-lovely to look at batches? (save for dog washing, etc?)
29 Jan 2008 at 4:23 am
Well done! It looks lovely too, nothing like I imagined it would.
29 Jan 2008 at 8:41 am
Kudos….. the key to success seems to be repeating over and over again: “I Think I Can, I Think I Can!”
29 Jan 2008 at 12:55 pm
I’m with Tanya: I’m anxious to see how it holds up over a few days. The whole bar soap thing wouldn’t fly around here either (deleted perfectly stupid joke because it made even me groan).
Way to persevere!
29 Jan 2008 at 1:27 pm
Neat idea, even if it did take a few trys. Wonder what’s with the lack of glycerin over there?
29 Jan 2008 at 5:14 pm
I love home made soap. We make our own here from scratch. Olive oil is great for dry skin, avocado even better. Adding zest of organic lemon, lime or orange gives it a lovely texture. Honey is a humectant (attracts and retains moisture), it makes soap a bit soft, but adding a bit of bees wax remedies this. I’m lucky enough to have my own bee hives so I use my own ingredients, I also make soap using some of our goats milk. http://sallygardens.typepad.com/sallygardens/2007/05/lathered_up.html
I’ve not tried liquid soap before, a mild version could be used as shampoo
29 Jan 2008 at 6:07 pm
I’m impressed you kept with it. Tres bien fait!
30 Jan 2008 at 5:32 am
without the instructions, just by looking at the pictures, I thought at the beginning that it was a cooking recipe
well, in a way it is…but not eatable !
30 Jan 2008 at 9:27 am
Wow! You made it work! We’ve tried it a couple of times - with just the end nubs of soap which get left over, you know - and it’s never turned out anywhere near a success … always just a bit of strange gelatinous goo along with excess water.
Glad you succeeded! But what happened to the soap in the pretty bottle?
30 Jan 2008 at 11:06 am
Cheryl, you are both brave as well as adventuresome! I would have taken the cop out way by simply googling “how to make liquid soap.” Funny, because I just bookmarked a webpage today, with recipes for making laundry soaps. I used to make my own bar soap, but that’s as far as I ever got with soapmaking. (Because I discovered spinning, and all else was left by the wayside.)
31 Jan 2008 at 5:59 am