Making Liquid Soaps [crossposted from "Introductions" by Administrator]

Hi LaNita!

Please pardon it's length and complexity, but here's a detailed dissertation on how to understand and successfully make liquid soaps. Please do take the time to read it carefully and understand it before you get too deep into liquid soapmaking and feel free to ask any questions you might have. There has been a lot of confusion over making this stuff and understanding it up front can be very helpful.

"Neutralizing" liquid soaps is a tricky subject, since it's such a fuzzy-definition term.

Most liquid soapmakers have relied largely on C. Failor's "Making Liquid Soaps" book for the foundation of their basic LS procedural knowledge, me included.

That said, a lot of the confusion about making liquid soaps also originates with C. Failor's book... That's NOT a 'put-down', but some points were left not fully explained...

First, "neutralizing" doesn't really mean neutralizing. Superfatting liquid soaps is not the answer either, as extra oils can separate out and create cloudiness in your soap.

Say what?  "Neutral" is defined as having a "pH" value* measured at 7.0, while liquid soaps have inherent natural pH values from about 9.2 to close to 10.0, depending on what oils they are made from. Liquid soaps cannot ever actually have a neutral measured pH level.
(*technically a measurement of the abundance of 'positive hydrogen' ions to 'negative hydroxide' ions in a solution 1.0 equals maximum 'acidity', 7.0 is 'neutral' and 14.0 is maximum 'alkalinity')

If one tries to force a LS to actual neutrality by adding too much acid to the solution, it will break back down to a partially undissolved mix of uncombined oils and appear cloudy, with 'stuff' (oils) floating to the top.

To avoid this, C. Failor biases the measurements stated in her book to result in slightly alkaline solutions.

In itself, this would be no problem when following C. Failor's formulas amd directions, but when people entered Failor's liquid soap formula amounts into the then-newly available and popular soapmaking calculators online, the resulting recommended weights of potassium hydroxide (KOH) to be used were as much as 13% lower than the KOH amounts specified by Failor's book for the same oils amounts.

When these newly figured KOH amounts were used, oily and cloudy liquid soaps resulted and much confusion and often contradictory advice of what to do to correct or avoid this ensued.

HERE'S THE REASON FOR MOST PROBLEMS IN LIQUID SOAP MAKING...

The little-known fact that underlies this confusing and frustrating situation os this:  The Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) that we all use to make liquid soap has a very specific physical difference from the sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) we use to make solid soaps - While NaOH is in the form of little beads, KOH is in the form of flakes and the crystals within KOH flakes have a naturally inherent water content, along with their pure KOH content. Roughly 12% water content!

This, along with about 1% other impurities (and a slight biase toward excess alkalinity to keep the resulting soap clear), explains the offset in the Failor vs. online calculators discrepancy!

The popular online calculators assumed 100% purity of NaOH or KOH used in their soapmaking calculations. Actual Sodium Hydroxide beads have about 1% non-NaOH content and this creates no discernable problems when using the available online calculators to make solid soaps. BUT, adding another 12% by weight of water to the 1% of other impurities in KOH flakes made for real problems with liquid soaps made with these calculators.

HERE'S THE ANSWER TO EASIER LIQUID SOAPMAKING:

Our Summer bee Meadow online soap calculator was adjusted years ago to take into account the water content inherent in all potassium hydroxide (KOH) flakes.

When you enter your chosen oils amounts into our SBM online calculator and SET THE SUPERFATTING TO ZERO PERCENT, it figures out how much weight of KOH flakes is needed to provide the actual pure KOH content necessary to properly saponify your oils into liquid soap base. It automatically corrects its calculations to resolve the water-in-the-flakes problem!

When 0% superfatting is selected and oils supplied by SBM are used, the resulting liquid soap will have a pH level of just about 10.2 pH, which is generally acceptable for use without irritation while just a bit slanted toward minor excess alkalinity to ensure clearness of the resulting soap. In other words, you can make it and use it without ading borax or boric acid to help "neutralize" it. I know this because I made single-oil test batches of liquid soaps withg each of the various types of oils that we sell here at Summer Bee Meadow.*
(*Note that pH results may differ a bit with oils from other sources as I only tested with our own) 

You can achieve a bit more mildness in your soap results by "neutralizing" it with added borax or boric acid. Note that there is a difference between using boric acid or using borax to "neutralize" LS... I won't go into the details right here, but let it be said that using borax is more "foregiving" and 'nudges' the soap solution toward a 9.4 pH level and no lower, making it far less likely to be 'over-neutralized' and thereby inducing cloudiness.

When "neutralizing" your soap with borax, you can use phenolpthalein (SBM sells it as "PhenolP") to check your results: Pour about 1 ounce of your diluted liquid soap into a small glass and add a drop of Phenol P to it. Stir it gently and let it settle, then hold the glass against a white sheet of paper under a fairly strong light. If the solution is clear or just very, very slightly pinkish, it's as "neutralized" as it will get. If it's pink or reddish, add some warm borax-in-water solution to your diluted soap batch and try again with a new sample. Repeat additions a small amount at a time until it tests clear or just very, very slightly pinkish and you're done!

If you want a more guided liquid soapmaking experience with more oprtions, including a precisely pre-figured borax neutraliztion addition for repeatable results (good for production-for-sale), check out our Summer Bee Meadow Advanced Soap Calculator! It's recommended process does involve measuring the weights of your whole batches, etc, but the predictable and duplicatable results do make this worth it. The Advanced calculator also allows one to experiment with using mixed potassium and sodium hydroxide3s to create thickened liquid soaps or cream soaps and allows for alternate process choices in which alcohol is used in the process or not. The options selections are many, but each are self-explained and have auto=selected or overrideable recommended ingredient quantities in their calculations. Our Advanced calculator is not for the faint-of-heart, but it's very useful for the experienced or adventurous liquid soapmaker!

[NOTE: As it can be of use to others in making liquid soaps, I will copy your initial question and my answering post in the "Making Liquid Soaps" section of these Forums]