Amazoniac
Member
I must comment right away that preparing them involve many variables to control that you can almost consider the process an art. The following is an offense for true soap makers because it's just a precarious way of doing it, but the improvisation does work (and unexpectedly well).
It was never on my plans to create this kind of thread and I don't think members from the US and A will relate, but there are many people charging abusive prices, using questionable ingredients or suspicious practices, taking advantage of others' unfamiliarity with the process. It makes no sense to subject ourselves to this if it's quite simple to make it.
Given that preparing it was against my principles, I was thrilled when a kind soul offered to do it for me.
A basic (solid) soap requires just oil, sodium hydroxide and water:
- Calculate amounts
- Mix water with sodium hydroxide
- Mix the above with oil
And that's about it.
No need for any fancy equipment.
It takes less than ein hour to complete the preparation process and you'll have a massive batch of soap.
@Makrosky
It was never on my plans to create this kind of thread and I don't think members from the US and A will relate, but there are many people charging abusive prices, using questionable ingredients or suspicious practices, taking advantage of others' unfamiliarity with the process. It makes no sense to subject ourselves to this if it's quite simple to make it.
Given that preparing it was against my principles, I was thrilled when a kind soul offered to do it for me.
A basic (solid) soap requires just oil, sodium hydroxide and water:
- Calculate amounts
- Mix water with sodium hydroxide
- Mix the above with oil
And that's about it.
No need for any fancy equipment.
It takes less than ein hour to complete the preparation process and you'll have a massive batch of soap.
- A surplus of oil in relation to sodium hydroxide will remain unsaponified and prevent the final product from becoming too harsh, this excess helps to protect the skin after its oils have been removed. 20% ('superfat') appears to be the standard recommendation.
- SoapCalc was used.
- Calculating in a way that minimizes weighing ingredients and dispenses scales will simplify the process. As an example, I calculated the amount of oil required to simply dump a 500 g bag of sodium hydroxide; it required a bucket and a small container of oil, both were sealed; so all it was needed to do during preparation was to open everything and pour. Even for the water, it was removed from a mineral water bottle a given amount using a cup to end up with the correct quantity ready to use.
- The input for calculation is often in grams and sometimes an oil product specify the content in volume in 'ml'. Just search for the density of yours (g/cm³), it's around 0.91-0.93 g/cm³. So if you have 1000 ml of oil, that's about 920 g.
- ☠ Sodium hydroxide is dangerous, so follow precautionary measures. I'll just comment one thing that I learned: in case of accidents, using acids to neutralize will potentiate the damage, more heat will be released and it can be a serious mess; water has to be used in abundance to dilute sodium hydroxide.
- Sodium hydroxide in flakes instead of powder is safer to manipulate.
- When you mix sodium hydroxide with water, there will be an irritating vapor, therefore it's better to mix them in an open place that ventilates away from you. There will also be heat, so it's preferable to let the solution cool for long enough that it's comfortable to touch on the outside of the container before mixing with the oil, it can take more than an (effortless) hour.
- It can be mixed while hot, such temperature will even speed up the reactions, but using it closer to room temperature will be gentler on oils.
- The oil has to liquid, so if you live in a warm climate, it will be easier; otherwise you can compensate by adding the water solution earlier (while warm) or melt the oil. When the water solution is added to the oil, it's just a matter of mixing them until it thickens. I'm not sure if hand blenders or mixers are needed, I think that a spoon can do the job.
@Makrosky
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