Homemade Soap

[lederstiefel1]

Soap making

I did soap-making for years and just stopped it because of lack of space to dry it at the moment in our small appartement.
Never had any trouble! And never had better soap in my life! Even products like Crabtree & Evelyn aren't better to my skin!

I did also cook soap for washing several years ago which is a different procedure than the "cold soap making process" for bath-soap. For that purpose I took used deep-fryer fat which I cooked with lye and to which I finally added salt to seperate the soap from the under-lye (lye, salt, glycerine & water mixture) which I used for toilet cleaning (quite sharp!!); the bar-soap cake than floats on top of the under-lye and can be taken away next morning when hard and cold.

For deodorant I use a stick of alum with minerals. Perfect - no stains!

Ralf

 

[mrboilwash]

Ralf, I also have some experience with homemade soap. But no matter what I tried, the results left a lot to desire.
The cold process method always had a funny unpleasant smell that would never fade completely and the soap was always too caustic for my skin, no matter how much I superfatted or how long I cured it.
I also tried out the traditional method with boiling and adding salt, but I wasn`t happy with that, either.
I think soapmaking can be fun, but for my skin there is nothing better than a normal store bought Ph neutral shower gel.

 

[lederstiefel1]

I stopped totally using shower-gel! And since then I have no dry skin anymore! Same with my mate.
The soap I made once was triple milled and was absolutely not caustic - pH 8 - and had no unpleasant smell at all and was also full of good things like cocoa-butter, shea-butter, aloe vera gel, vitamin E and lots of stuff - not to mention the superfatting and glycerine in it!
I have several books and combine the recepies!

Ralf

 

[rolltideroll]

I have never made soap but understand the physics behind it. As a child, my Dad used to pour a tablespoon of table sugar and a dab of dishwashing detergent on my hands after we got finished working in car or motorcycle grease. It worked fine. My friends always tried to tell me that the sugar biz was stupid and that cornmeal would do the same thing for thatmatter. But some of you may no that sugar acts as a solvent on grease. Try it and see if you don't think so. Sure, dirt, sand, cornmeal or anything grainy will knock off the grease but will it dissolve it? No. And some here may think I'm crazy but if you are covered hand to elbow with car grease, try pouring a handful of clean motor oil on it and wash it in by hand, no soap used here, and see if it doesn't cut thatblack grease down to nothing. Oil is a solvent just like sugar, gasoline, kerosine, etc.

 

[sudsmaster]

The fact that sugar can dissolve in grease, and vice verse, is probably the reason why buttercream icing works so well.

I've never heard of using it to clean greasy hands, but I'll have to give it a try. At the very least I'll have well-lubricated ants.

;-)