January: Time to experiment!

For several months, I've had it rattling around in my head that I'd like to try a few new types of soaps, but the holiday rush shoved everything to the back burner - until now! I present to you: liquid soap!

In the crock pot, because liquid soap making does well if you heat up

 the emulsion and accelerate the process of turning the lye solution and fats into soap!
Also, yes, that is my wedding picture!

And now, a bunch of probably dull information about the difference between liquid and bar soap. Have you ever shredded down a bar of soap, added water, and came up with something that had a snotty or glob-like consistency? Generally this means that the bar you shredded down was formed by using sodium hydroxide (lye), which tends to turn gelatinous when melted into water (how many of us have had that happen to our bar soaps that a certain *ahem* husband has just left laying in a puddle in the shower?). Liquid soap manages to avoid this issue by using a different type of lye to saponify with: potassium hydroxide.

The difference between potassium and sodium hydroxide isn't terribly obvious at first: both are a white, solid (or powdered/flaked/granulated), extremely corrosive and strongly alkaline substance. The vegetable oils and fats that I use are actually acids which react with these hydroxides to produce what is essentially a salt. Potassium hydroxide differs in that the reaction yields a soap "paste" that is much more water soluble than the solid sodium hydroxide-based bar soaps. The paste can be diluted down to form a liquid soap that's a consistency we're more familiar with: not snotty or globby, but thick, quickly transforming into bubbles and free of synthetic detergents, triclosan, and artificial foamers. As an added bonus, the soapmaker can control any additives (essential oils, fragrance, color, etc).

Whew! I hope that wasn't too much to absorb. I did end up with some lovely, mostly yellow but transparent liquid soap that feels very nice on the hands. I did a lemongrass and ginger root essential oil blend that I've been playing around with for a future summer soap bar. It's currently sitting in mason jars around my kitchen - my husband claims that it looks like we now make moonshine!

I tend to test my formulations for several months, sometimes for over a year, before offering them up for sale. This way I can watch for ingredient separation, compatibility, consistency, and I continue to test for bacteria/mold/yeast growth (because that can be downright dangerous!). I do all this because I take pride in what I make and I want to bring you the best possible products! I am very hopeful that I'll see this become available later this year!