Liquid Soap Love!!

I've been wanting to try my hand at liquid soap for quite some time. I decided to ease myself into it, and I bought a ready-made liquid soap paste from BrambleBerry.com. Anyone who got a goody bag of toiletries from Mr. Fabulous and I for Christmas will know that liquid soap experiment, while producing a working soap, was not a complete success, as the soap was suuuuuuuper thin. What did I do wrong? I followed the thickening directions to a T, using a 20% salt solution. I think I ran astray by not putting in enough of the salt solution.

I had some of the paste left, so I tried again about a month later, wanting to create a soap and lotion set for a friend, and hoping for enough left over so I could have some too :o) This time it worked! THICK SOAP!! I was happy, but yet I craved more . . . .

Liquid Soap Paste, mid-cook

I decided that I would not be happy, I would not be satisfied until I made my own liquid soap from start to finish! And I did just that. With my $4 thrift store crock pot, I set out on Saturday night at 10 o'clock, vowing not to rest until I made liquid soap! And I did!!

Liquid soap is made out of water, potassium hydroxide, and oils. It gets cooked into a paste, and then that paste is diluted into liquid soap. If you would like to learn how to make liquid soap, BrambleBerry.com has a liquid soap making video that only costs a few dollars. That's what I've watched basically every day this past week. Also, there is the TeachSoap.com forum with literally tons of posts on the topic for perusal. Lastly, people actually still publish books made out of paper. Catherine Failor's Making Natural Liquid Soaps is a great one to start out with.

Liquid Soap with New Labels. Graphics courtesy of The Crafty Clip, www.thecraftyclip.com

With my paste made, I set out to dilute it Sunday morning. It turned into a day-long event, and it produced little success. Well, I did revamp my labels, and that's progress, but not liquid soap success.

I could not get the bloody stuff to get thick! It was thick like glycerin, but not thick like gel-like liquid soap. I was disappointed, though I did bottle some to keep, just in case.

Today was better. To bolster my spirits after yesterday's fails, I made a batch of cold-process, solid soap to instill some confidence and to inspire me to make awesome, THICK, beautiful liquid soap.  

Lemon Verbena with a Peacock Swirl

So, now re-confident in my mad skills, and with Pandora's Hip-Hop BBQ to cheer me on, I portioned out some of my soap paste and water dilution. I added 3ml of my salt solution. Nothing. I did this about 7 times over the course of an hour, each addition making my soap ever so slightly thicker. Finally, thinking “what have I got to loose? I've got more diluted paste in the crock pot, more paste that I can dilute, and more oils and KOH if none of this stuff turns out. GO FOR IT!” I dumped the last half or so of my salt solution into my dilution. Cue singing angels!! THICK SOAP!! Suuuuuuuuper thick soap! Yay!! I did get to experiment with fragrance oils yesterday, so I knew what to expect when I added them in today. I made up SIX bottles of thick, wonderful liquid soap today, and I couldn't be prouder of my accomplishment.

Today's Successes And Yesterday's Learning Opportunities

You can find me and like me on Facebook as Doobs Soap & Toiletries :o)

Seasonal Flu Season & My Mad Skills!!

  I’ve been recovering from what I suspect to be the flu. It hit me harder than a cold and knocked me right over, and it takes a lot to knock me down. It hit me Thursday morning, and of course I had to work Thursday night through Sunday night. As I stood at work in a foggy daze of congestion and throat irritation, I thought to myself, “Self, there has to be something in that small stash of essential oils that can help ease this congestion and hacking cough.”

  When I got home I did a bit of research, and sometime around the point Thursday changed to Friday I threw together some things I call “tub fizzies.” I know I did not mastermind this idea, but I was pretty impressed that I came up with it given the fact that I barely made it through a night of work at a job I’ve done since I was 19 and could do blindfolded and on one foot. I couldn’t do it with my hands tied behind my back, because then I couldn’t cut pizza. But anyway . . . .

  The basic things that make any bath fizzy fizz are baking soda and citric acid. I intended to put this fizzy in the shower and have it release the essential oils while I stood under the warm water and tried to fight off the chills this flu gave me, so I didn’t add anything extra that I would have had this been intended for use in a bath.

  I have no pictures of these fizzies as I went through them pretty quick. I used two NOW brand essential oil blends that I had on hand, Lavender and Tea Tree and Lemon and Eucalyptus. In order to maximize the effects of the essential oils, I used them two at a time, one fizzy with each blend.

 
  I found these fizzies to be incredible, and I was happy that I could use my mad skills to find some relief, because these fizzies were far more enjoyable than the feeling I got from the cough syrup I bought Saturday morning. Yech!

  Coming up I’ve got super fun times and several projects to talk about. I can’t wait to share them =D

A Student No More. Officially, Anyway . . . .

Alright, here I am again. Unfortunately, soaping took a back seat while I finished up internship and my very last class. I am proud to say that I got the official email today:  I am, for all intents and purposes, graduated. YayYayYayYayYay!!!!! Just one more national exam, licensure application, and I can work in the field I've studied about since 2008. Wicked!

Now that I'm just working at my pizza slaving job, I've had tons more time for all things soapy. I made Christmas presents for my friends and family, and I am really looking forward to jumping back into my favorite hobby. Stay tuned for more projects!