I recently found my test kitchen crock pot and I’ve been dying to use it. I thought about making liquid soap, but I haven’t had any experience making liquid soap. I decided that it would be fun to have an Introduction to Liquid Soap Week and you could learn right along with me! I will be following the directions from Making Natural Liquid Soaps by Catherine Failor. Read along with me and we will discuss each chapter as we make soap.
Today I’m going to start with a list of equipment and ingredients needed for making liquid soap. I will give you almost three weeks to collect the supplies for learning about liquid soap. On December 3rd we will begin our week dedicated to learning about liquid soap. If you have questions you would like answered during that week, feel free to e-mail me and I will try to answer every question during the Liquid Soap Week.
Equipment that we will need for the Introduction to Liquid Soap Week:
Making Natural Liquid Soap by Catherine Failor
Safety goggles, anti fog are helpful
Heavy duty gloves
A crock pot or double boiler system that will hold a minimum of 5 quarts.
Work clothes with long sleeves and closed shoes
Microwave for heating oils (If you are using the crock pot)
Containers for the finished soap
pH meter (Fun if you have one, but it is optional)
Collect needed items:
Distilled, reverse osmosis or soft water
Hard fats: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Tallow, Cocoa Butter
Liquid Oils: Olive Oil, Castor Oil, Almond Oil
Waxes: Lanolin, Jojoba
Alcohol: Ethanol or Isopropyl Alcohol
Borax or Sodium Borate
Essential or Fragrance Oils of choice
Each day we will focus on a new batch of Liquid Soap as we progress through the book. Two weeks later, we evaluate our soaps after their two week sequestering period.
Where do I find Potassium Hydroxide?
I would recommend that you try calling a few companies listed in your phone book under Cleaning Supplies or Chemicals. If you can’t find anything there call the local high school or college and talk with a chemistry teacher. They are usually able to direct you to a chemical supply in your area that offers small quantities of Potassium Hydroxide. Potassium Hydroxide is also called Caustic Potash. It make take a few hours of phone work but you will save the Hazardous Materials shipping fees AND support your local economy. You don’t need a lab grade as a technical grade is just fine and less expensive.
A word about scales:
You must have a scale for making soap. You do NOT need an expensive scale or one that measures in 0.1 gram increments. You do need 1 gram readability for scales that have grams and ounces, or 0.1 ounce readability for scales that only offer ounces. My hope is you can get one that has 1 gram readability. If you intend to make lotions and lip balms, in quantities suitable for a family of four, not communities of 40,000, then I suggest you consider a scale that has 0.1 gram readability. The benefit of making your scale dual purpose is to cover the soap making AND personal care products like lip balm, lotions, creams and serums. If the scale is only for soap choose the 1 gram readability.
The price of a scale corresponds to the number of steps each scale offers. A step is readability times capacity. A scale that has a readability of 1 gram and a capacity of 100 grams has 100 steps. A scale that has readability of 0.1 gram and a capacity of 100 grams has 1000 steps. The second scale will cost more than the first. We hope this has helped you consider the scales available to you. If you have questions along the way give us a call or send an email.
Our homework for the next 10 days is to read the first chapter of the book and write down what you think about it. I’ll share my thoughts about the first chapter.